The Food and Drug Administration announced Tuesday it will relax a lifetime ban forbidding gay men to donate blood, if they have abstained from gay sex for one year.

The FDA voted to end the 1983 ban on blood donations by gay and bisexual men that was put in place during the genesis of the AIDS crisis. Medical experts say the ban is no longer needed because of the advances in HIV testing, while gay rights organizations have argued it perpetuates stereotypes against gay men.

In a statement, the agency said it "carefully examined and considered the available scientific evidence" and will "take the necessary steps to recommend a change to the blood donor deferral period for men who have sex with men from indefinite deferral to one year since the last sexual contact."

According to the Williams Institute at the University of California, Los Angeles, the rule change could lead to an increase in the nation's annual blood supply by 2-4 percent, reports The New York Times.

Still, some in the LGBT community say the policy shift does not go far enough.

"By implementing this policy, the FDA will continue to fan the flames of the outdated stereotype that HIV is only a 'gay disease,'" said the Gay Men's Health Crisis, NBC News reports.

The group also called the policy "offensive and harmful" and pointed out that there is no requirement for straight donors to practice a year of celibacy.

Others, however, applauded the FDA decision as a progressive step in health and gay rights.

"This is a major victory for gay civil rights," said I. Glenn Cohen, a law professor at Harvard University who specializes in bioethics and health. "We're leaving behind the old view that every gay man is a potential infection source." He also added the policy was "still not rational enough."

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