I just spent about an hour at my local plasma donation center going through the necessary requirements to sign up to be a plasma donor. After signing up, having a blood sample drawn, having my vitals analyzed (where I was deemed healthy enough to donate) and sitting through an extremely long questionnaire, I was told that I could not donate plasma because I “am a man who had sex with another man since 1977.”
I was informed that the plasma I would be donating was going to be used to make medications for “extremely sick people.” That is, people who have little to no immune system, and apparently could die if exposed to homosexuality.
This is not the rule of the plasma donation center, so I do not fault them. This is a Food and Drug Administration regulation that is old and outdated. This regulation is saying that gay men (and probably some straight men out there too…) are inherently unhealthy. This is a regulation that has been in place since 1983. For 30 years we have been turned away from donating blood, even when the need for blood donation is so outstanding.
Think about those 30 years, think about how far we have come in SO MANY other situations. Gay men are allowed to get married in 9 states now, in addition to Washington D.C. (Hell, they are going to start performing same-sex marriage in the National Cathedral later this month!) Gay men can serve openly in the military. We have a President who openly supports same sex marriage. But we are still considered unhealthy by a federal department.
I know there are plenty of gay men who still give blood, and simply lie on the questionnaire. And perhaps I should have done just that. I know I am a healthy man, I do not have any viruses or diseases. But, I just didn’t feel right lying about something like that.
I know I’m not the first person who has tried to do something about this, and I certainly hope I am not the last who will work on this, but I really feel that I should do something, and I hope you will too. Contact the FDA and tell them Gay does not mean Unhealthy. Their address is 10903 New Hampshire Ave. Silver Spring, MD 20993. Send them letters telling to update their way of thinking. Their phone number is 1-888-INFO-FDA. Call them and tell them that gay men deserve to be treated fairly.
I hope you’ll do something. If nothing else, share this post. Reblog it, share it on your Facebook and Twitter. Get the word out there about this archaic regulation. Make our voices heard until people can’t ignore them anymore.
Tell the White House to remove the ban on gay men donating blood.
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