Blood sculpture created in response to 32-year-old blood donation ban

"Blood Mirror" is a sculpture created in response to the FDA's 32-year ban on blood donations from gay and bisexual men.

The project was organized by artist Jordan Eagles, who identifies as homosexual.

“This propitiates a certain type of stigma that HIV is specifically a gay disease and it no longer is that. So it’s propitiating misinformation into the society,” Eagles said.

Nine gay, bisexual, and transgender men each donated a standard pint of blood for "Blood Mirror."

That blood was encased in resin and each donation creates a paper-thin layer of the 7-foot-tall piece, which is only getting started.

In May, the FDA proposed a revision to the policy that would allow gay and bisexual men to donate blood, but only if they are celibate for an entire year.

About 7 percent of U.S. men report that they have ever had sex with another man and 4 percent have done so in the past five years.

The men recognize the progression that the FDA is making but they say it is far cry from equality.

“We have the science, the technology available to test HIV in a way that didn’t exist in 1983. There’s no real risk to the blood supply,” Eagles said.

A UCLA study found that lifting the donor ban completely could save up to a million lives annually by adding at least 170,000 donations per year.

Check out the story here and visit "Blood Mirror" at Trinity Church in Manhattan through Dec. 1, World AIDS Day.