By Ethan August (Palo Alto, California) June 11 | The article today on MSNBC.com entitled “Ban on gay blood donors revisited” really got my blood boiling, no pun intended. The article should really be titled “Citizens of the United States continue to die of ignorance” But it doesn’t. Again, Gays are being discriminated against even though the science, as the Red Cross points out, supports otherwise. The ignorance of our own government kills people. I suppose that isn’t anything new.
With Don’t ask, Don’t Tell I asked myself the question “Why do we want to die for a country that doesn’t provide us with equal rights?” With this situation I have asked myself the question “Why do we want to donate blood to a system that discriminates against us?” This is different though. If I need a blood transfusion, or anyone else does for that matter, and there isn’t enough blood – I’ll die too. That’s not an acceptable answer for me when literally millions of more people could be donating blood.
The reality is that this rule doesn’t work, it’s one of those lies straights tell themselves and their constituents to feel better. Here is a true story. A company I used to work for decided to invite the Red Cross on campus for a blood drive during a time when the blood supply was dangerously short. A really neat Red Cross motor home pulled up and basically everyone on the entire campus signed up to donate. I asked a few people to go with me for moral support and overcame my SERIOUS fear of needles and blood in order to do something for the greater good. I signed up completely unaware of the ban on blood from males who’ve had sex with males.
So a nice lady takes me into a barely private little space in this motor home and drills me on my sex life and sexuality. I’ve never declared my sexuality at work. Not because I care if anyone knows that I’m Gay, I just don’t feel the need to declare it. It’s my personal life – a piece of me that does not equal the whole me. If people ask me questions, I answer and I don’t hide anything. I just don’t feel it’s necessary to take the podium at the annual Christmas party and tell everyone I’m Gay. Believe me, people make up their minds anyway, despite facts! What they think is basically irrelevant to me. I’m sure that even if I did that, some idiot would say “He’s not really Gay, he’s just playing the Gay card.”
I was asked the questions “have you ever had sex with a male?” and “Are you a homosexual?” Wait a minute lady! I'm here to help not get into my sex life. Meanwhile, the entire workforce of my company waiting outside I did the sensible thing – I lied. I was younger at the time and I would have been humiliated if I had to walk out of there and have everyone ask me “What happened?” How would I have responded? “I’m a big fag everyone! They won’t take my blood, even though I’ve never had an STD in my life! To be safe you should all wash your hands after having contact with me!” I guess I could have come up with a lie to my coworkers, but then that would have been followed by another, and another. I knew I was clean, I gave my blood and I saved a life or several.
Now let’s talk about all the straight guys who have had a same sex experience in their life. These guys, under the current policy would also be excluded from donating blood. Some researchers have put their number as high as 76% of men. Do you think they are going to admit to that one same sex experience they had in college? Or in high school? Or with their Catholic Priest? No, they lie too. Then you have that miniscule number of sick people that do have blood born diseases and actually want to give it to everyone else. Do you think they’re honest? Please. If we are relying on people’s capability to be honest - we’re screwed. It’s never going to happen and it hasn’t happened.
We’re safe because we test our blood. The article said this “The risk of getting HIV from a unit of blood has been lowered to about one per 2 million units transfused under existing policy.” The government’s website on lightening says that your odds of being struck by lightning are 1 in 750,000. I have a better chance of being struck down by lightning, or God probably, than getting HIV from a blood transfusion in the United States.
Now only 10% of people are actually killed by being struck by lightning. Some actually develop super powers like the guy in the movie Powder
. However, if you were dying and someone said “Sir, you’re going to die without blood, but the only blood we have left carries the HIV virus, what would you like to do?” You would probably say the same thing I would… “Give me the HIV blood and a prescription for protease inhibitors, thank you!” I would be thinking “Well I can roll the dice and hope they’re really is a heaven and my acceptance of Christ wasn’t in vain, or I can live out as many days as I can with HIV and find out later.” I wonder how other people would answer faced with the same question?
We should take necessary precautions and test our blood to prevent people from acquiring things they don’t want to. We could end this ridiculous discriminatory ban on Gay blood and save lives. We could also let people choose whether or not they want Gay blood – my family isn’t going to turn it down, I’m not going to turn it down. We could also create a Gay blood bank and donate our own blood and save our own lives. Last but not least, we could save all the blood that tests bad and give people the option to use it if they want to. Extending a life for some time is only second best to saving a life.
I think the best solution for the greater good, and the easiest is just to follow the science and end the ban. This is a great example of how homophobia extends beyond hurting just the GLBT community but actually kills its oppressors. Just like the soldiers who’ve died for our country but didn’t have the Gay soldier there to protect them. Sometimes I just want to let the straight people die.
With Don’t ask, Don’t Tell I asked myself the question “Why do we want to die for a country that doesn’t provide us with equal rights?” With this situation I have asked myself the question “Why do we want to donate blood to a system that discriminates against us?” This is different though. If I need a blood transfusion, or anyone else does for that matter, and there isn’t enough blood – I’ll die too. That’s not an acceptable answer for me when literally millions of more people could be donating blood.
The reality is that this rule doesn’t work, it’s one of those lies straights tell themselves and their constituents to feel better. Here is a true story. A company I used to work for decided to invite the Red Cross on campus for a blood drive during a time when the blood supply was dangerously short. A really neat Red Cross motor home pulled up and basically everyone on the entire campus signed up to donate. I asked a few people to go with me for moral support and overcame my SERIOUS fear of needles and blood in order to do something for the greater good. I signed up completely unaware of the ban on blood from males who’ve had sex with males.
So a nice lady takes me into a barely private little space in this motor home and drills me on my sex life and sexuality. I’ve never declared my sexuality at work. Not because I care if anyone knows that I’m Gay, I just don’t feel the need to declare it. It’s my personal life – a piece of me that does not equal the whole me. If people ask me questions, I answer and I don’t hide anything. I just don’t feel it’s necessary to take the podium at the annual Christmas party and tell everyone I’m Gay. Believe me, people make up their minds anyway, despite facts! What they think is basically irrelevant to me. I’m sure that even if I did that, some idiot would say “He’s not really Gay, he’s just playing the Gay card.”
I was asked the questions “have you ever had sex with a male?” and “Are you a homosexual?” Wait a minute lady! I'm here to help not get into my sex life. Meanwhile, the entire workforce of my company waiting outside I did the sensible thing – I lied. I was younger at the time and I would have been humiliated if I had to walk out of there and have everyone ask me “What happened?” How would I have responded? “I’m a big fag everyone! They won’t take my blood, even though I’ve never had an STD in my life! To be safe you should all wash your hands after having contact with me!” I guess I could have come up with a lie to my coworkers, but then that would have been followed by another, and another. I knew I was clean, I gave my blood and I saved a life or several.
Now let’s talk about all the straight guys who have had a same sex experience in their life. These guys, under the current policy would also be excluded from donating blood. Some researchers have put their number as high as 76% of men. Do you think they are going to admit to that one same sex experience they had in college? Or in high school? Or with their Catholic Priest? No, they lie too. Then you have that miniscule number of sick people that do have blood born diseases and actually want to give it to everyone else. Do you think they’re honest? Please. If we are relying on people’s capability to be honest - we’re screwed. It’s never going to happen and it hasn’t happened.
We’re safe because we test our blood. The article said this “The risk of getting HIV from a unit of blood has been lowered to about one per 2 million units transfused under existing policy.” The government’s website on lightening says that your odds of being struck by lightning are 1 in 750,000. I have a better chance of being struck down by lightning, or God probably, than getting HIV from a blood transfusion in the United States.
Now only 10% of people are actually killed by being struck by lightning. Some actually develop super powers like the guy in the movie Powder
. However, if you were dying and someone said “Sir, you’re going to die without blood, but the only blood we have left carries the HIV virus, what would you like to do?” You would probably say the same thing I would… “Give me the HIV blood and a prescription for protease inhibitors, thank you!” I would be thinking “Well I can roll the dice and hope they’re really is a heaven and my acceptance of Christ wasn’t in vain, or I can live out as many days as I can with HIV and find out later.” I wonder how other people would answer faced with the same question?We should take necessary precautions and test our blood to prevent people from acquiring things they don’t want to. We could end this ridiculous discriminatory ban on Gay blood and save lives. We could also let people choose whether or not they want Gay blood – my family isn’t going to turn it down, I’m not going to turn it down. We could also create a Gay blood bank and donate our own blood and save our own lives. Last but not least, we could save all the blood that tests bad and give people the option to use it if they want to. Extending a life for some time is only second best to saving a life.
I think the best solution for the greater good, and the easiest is just to follow the science and end the ban. This is a great example of how homophobia extends beyond hurting just the GLBT community but actually kills its oppressors. Just like the soldiers who’ve died for our country but didn’t have the Gay soldier there to protect them. Sometimes I just want to let the straight people die.
Palo Alto, California based Writer & Comedian Ethan August, gives his spin on life, being Gay, politics, & the current political atmosphere surrounding the ongoing debates in Washington. August holds a degree in Psychology and has volunteered for numerous LGBT non-profits. His blog, This-Gay-Life, features his own comedic and politically incorrect commentary on Gay life, politics, movies and other interesting events. He is working on his first book, a collection of comical short stories on some of the most serious and hilarious Gay issues.
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1 comments:
Hear, hear. The official attitudes hearken back to the Dark Ages while the public advances. The same with medical testing of blood; the officials have rules from the Dark Ages while science has given us ways to virtually eliminate those risks.
One wonders if it is really homophobia, or just that institutions and rules just can't change with the times.
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