Blood drive posters: 'No faggots allowed'

[romantico]

Posted: 7/21/08 at 11:13pm

Until this policy is scrapped, I won't give blood.I'd like to, but I refuse to lie about myself. This policy is beyond absurd at this point. One hopes that the FDA in an Obama Administration will repeal this once and for all.


"Radical queer provocateurs" in Portland, Maine, Infoshop News reports, have kicked off a parodical poster campaign to protest the treatment of gay and bisexual men who wish to donate blood.

Any man who has engaged in any sexual activity with another man since 1977 is barred from donating blood in the United States. The policy, adopted by the Food and Drug Administration in 1983, has been upheld despite repeated challenges from the community at large. Gay and bisexual men, regardless of current HIV status, are automatically classified as "high risk" individuals for the purpose of determining blood donation eligibility.

"Instead of using blood drives as an opportunity for free, anonymous, confidential, non-compulsory HIV testing for all people, since all blood entering hospitals, research labs, blood banks, etc must be tested anyways," the article charges, "the American Red Cross has chosen to exclude already marginalized populations under the guise of public health and safety."

The American Red Cross has in the past fought the FDA to ease the blanket restriction. A proposed change in September of 2000 would have modified the policy to allow a gay or bisexual man to donate blood after abstaining 12 months, in line with its policy towards commercial sex workers and intravenous drug users. While the Red Cross' opposition to that change, breaking with the American Association of Blood Banks and America's Blood Centers, prevented the change from taking place, it told the FDA's Blood Products Advisory Committee in March of 2006 that the blanket ban was "no longer medically and scientifically warranted."

http://pageoneq.com/news/2008/Blood_drive_posters_No_faggots_allow_0717.html

[jrb_actor]

Posted: 7/21/08 at 11:31pm

amen. It's bogus that this policy is still in place. Absolutely bogus.

[uncageg]

Posted: 7/21/08 at 11:41pm

Bonfils here in Denver will not allow gay men to donate, however I think they will let gay men volunteer. None of us decided to volunteer at work because we felt that if we aren't good enough to give blood, we aren't good enough to volunteer.

[romantico]

Posted: 7/21/08 at 11:42pm

Here is the ad. It really is disgusting!

Updated On: 7/21/08 at 11:42 PM

[Phyllis Rogers Stone]

Posted: 7/22/08 at 12:19am

If gay people can't give blood, can they be organ donors?

[musicaltheatrefan3]

Posted: 7/22/08 at 12:29am

The Zaks Anti-Discrimination Foundation for Combatting Racism, Hate, Bigotry, and Anti-Semitism would never let this happen. This could be a great organization, but I do need some help. We are committed to protecting the rights of LGBT people.

[orangeskittles]

Posted: 7/22/08 at 1:51am

Every man, woman and child living in Central African since 1977 is considered "high risk" for HIV as well. Yes, even children, even if their parents are uninfected. Is anyone going to make posters for all the discriminated groups?

According to the Red Cross, you are at risk for getting infected if you:

* have ever used needles to take drugs, steroids, or anything not prescribed by your doctor
* are a male who has had sexual contact with another male, even once, since 1977
* have ever taken money, drugs or other payment for sex since 1977
* have had sexual contact in the past 12 months with anyone described above
* received clotting factor concentrates for a bleeding disorder such as hemophilia
* were born in, or lived in, Cameroon, Central African Republic, Chad, Congo, Equatorial Guinea,Gabon, Niger, or Nigeria, since 1977.
* since 1977, received a blood transfusion or medical treatment with a blood product in any of these countries, or
* had sex with anyone who, since 1977, was born in or lived in any of these countries.

Updated On: 7/22/08 at 01:51 AM

[Phyllis Rogers Stone]

Posted: 7/22/08 at 9:36am

Do a lot of Central Africans come to the US to give blood?

[Borstalboy]

Posted: 7/22/08 at 9:40am

The same applies to organ donors. A friend of mine who was very active in the Tucson community passed a couple of years ago and there was a bit of a brouhaha in the local media because his family was furious he couldn't be an organ donor.

[Phyllis Rogers Stone]

Posted: 7/22/08 at 9:43am

What I don't understand is that if you're a man who has slept with a man you're banned forever, but it you're a woman who slept with a man who slept with a man you're only banned for a year.

[NYadgal]

Posted: 7/22/08 at 9:44am

Is that poster for REAL?

I can't imagine that the Red Cross would allow that wording...

The policy is out dated and wrong. Absolutely.

But, I can't believe that poster is for real.

Updated On: 7/22/08 at 09:44 AM

[romantico]

Posted: 7/22/08 at 9:47am

I thought the same thing you did. Disgusting! Read the article.

[PalJoey]

Posted: 7/22/08 at 9:51am

No, Addy. Romantico said the poster was "parodical."

Every time the blood drive happens at my office, I once again feel stigmatized, demonized, belittled and discriminated against, by a wrongheaded system that doesn't know how to battle the disease.

This is what gay men felt like every day for the most of the 1980s.

Now we feel like that only on Blood Drive Day. Nice, huh?

[Phyllis Rogers Stone]

Posted: 7/22/08 at 9:54am

Don't forget how the Central Africans feel!

[NYadgal]

Posted: 7/22/08 at 9:54am

...I missed the 'parodical'. Thanks for the clarification.

The rules are archaic and wrong. I am disgusted that the American Red Cross has not yet changed them. I stand alongside all of you in your efforts to get this changed. OUR efforts to get this changed.

Updated On: 7/22/08 at 09:54 AM

[StageManager2]

Posted: 7/22/08 at 10:00am

I'm listed as a donor on my license, but how will they know I'm gay? Will they start marking every gay person's license with a pink triangle instead of a red heart?

Updated On: 7/22/08 at 10:00 AM

[tazber]

Posted: 7/22/08 at 10:04am

Ridiculous and harmful. That's a lot of blood that they need that they won't get.
I don't want to hear them whine about shortages anymore.

[Unknown User]

Posted: 7/22/08 at 10:06am

I can't believe those rules are still in place. It's wrong. Just plain wrong.

[SonofMammaMiaSam]

Posted: 7/22/08 at 10:11am

I started giving blood in high school and from 1974 until 1983 gave 26 pints of blood. Their idiotic policy is their loss.
Our HR department called me last month during our office blood drive to ask me to donate and I gave them a few words to think about. I'm curious,like Stagey, about how my organ donation pledge would be handled.

[PalJoey]

Posted: 7/22/08 at 10:19am

As far as I understand it, organs are not covered by these rules. They actually have far more stringent tests that are performed on the actual organs. There is a BWW poster with a great deal of experience in this field, but that particular is currently under the weather.

[doodlenyc]

Posted: 7/22/08 at 10:32am

I make a big stink when the "floor drive volunteer" comes around every year to harrass us into donating here at work and then complain to HR (about the policy and the harrassment.)

[doodlenyc]

Posted: 7/22/08 at 10:32am

I make a big stink when the "floor drive volunteer" comes around every year to harrass us into donating here at work and then complain to HR (about the policy and the harrassment.)

[Raspberry]

Posted: 7/22/08 at 11:34am

But if they get rid of this policy, then what's my excuse for never donating? I feel like a fear of needles and blood isn't reason enough to make me not look like an asshole, especially during times of crisis when so many people so desperately need blood. Much easier to be banned and helpless about it.

[CyCoSpAz2]

Posted: 7/22/08 at 7:33pm

"But if they get rid of this policy, then what's my excuse for never donating?"

You can use my excuse: being underweight.

[Taryn]

Posted: 7/22/08 at 8:53pm

A gay male friend of mine once tried to lie on his form in high school so he could donate. He soon got a phone call warning that he needed to come clean then or else face some serious consequences.