General Discussion
Related: Editorials & Other Articles, Issue Forums, Alliance Forums, Region ForumsJust a friendly reminder... if you can donate blood, please do.
Thanks.
trotsky
(49,533 posts)Blood supplies are almost always right on the edge in every location. Donate regularly!
redqueen
(115,096 posts)randome
(34,845 posts)dembotoz
(16,739 posts)plenty of blood dripping from their hands
dembotoz
(16,739 posts)so I do not want someone to think I am against giving blood
rurallib
(62,346 posts)I have been donating for 45 years now. Just noting yesterday that I seldom get sick.
Wednesdays
(17,249 posts)My sigother is a regular donor.
I'd gladly donate all the time, too, but my blood could possibly kill someone. (My triglycerides numbers are usually in the thousands...heredity thing. Normal plasma is clear amber liquid--it looks similar to urine, but my plasma looks like a banana smoothie.)
redqueen
(115,096 posts)Fantastic Anarchist
(7,309 posts)There's a mobile unit that comes by my office building.
Good time to go get some cookies and juice.
Bluenorthwest
(45,319 posts)gay people the ability to help by donating blood. So 'if you can' means 'if we let you, please do'.
redqueen
(115,096 posts)Some people are unable to due to health reasons.
Bluenorthwest
(45,319 posts)The bans were put in place long ago, and have been lifted in the UK, China, Mexico and other localities. The US continues to discriminate.
"One group that would like to help, but legally can't, may be moving one step closer to eligibility. Since the 1980s, when the AIDS epidemic decimated their community, gay men -- or MSMs (men who have sex with men) as they are called by federal agencies -- have not been allowed to donate blood. In June, a group of 64 U.S. legislators led by Rep. Mike Quigley, D-Illinois, and Sen. John Kerry, D-Massachusetts, sent a letter to the Department of Health and Human Services encouraging it to move forward with a study that may lead to the end of the decades-old ban.
"We remain concerned that a blanket deferral of MSM for any length of time both perpetuates the unwarranted discrimination against the bisexual and gay community and prevents healthy men from donating blood without a definitive finding of added benefit to the safety of the blood supply," the letter said."
http://www.cnn.com/2012/07/06/health/gay-men-blood-ban
This story is from March 16, one month ago:
Gay activists are stepping up their calls for the federal government to change its blood-donation policy and permit gay men give blood under some circumstances.
Currently, a man who has ever had sex with a man since 1977 is indefinitely deferred from donating blood.
Groups like the Gay Mens Health Crisis (GMHC) and Banned4Life.org are supporting petition drives to lift the blood-donor ban for gay men, noting that the American Red Cross, American Association of Blood Banks and Americas Blood Centers support such a reform.
http://www.washingtontimes.com/news/2013/mar/16/gays-renew-calls-change-blood-donor-rules/?page=all
A call from Boston, MU student paper, this week:
According to CNN, blood donations were falling last summer with almost a 10 percent decline nationwide. I cant help but wonder, as the article does too, if lifting the ban on blood donations from gay men would help stall that decline.
The ban on gay men donating blood stems from lack of knowledge about the AIDS epidemic, which can be traced back as early as 1977. The AIDS epidemic was closely correlated with the gay community, and therefore bans were put in place by the Food and Drug Administration to restrict any and all men who have had sex with other men from donating blood. Times have changed and surely almost four decades later we know that correlation is not causation. Yet this ban still exists and its hindering thousands of gay men from selflessly donating their blood to help those who need it."
redqueen
(115,096 posts)Bluenorthwest
(45,319 posts)All gay men are banned, and you said "NOPE" when it is the fact. If Mommy and Daddy let you, you can donate. If not, you can not. This is the heterosexualist culture.
I know what words like yours mean too. You say 'can' which means 'if the discriminatory and ignorant laws made by the heterosexuals allow you to, then do'.
People need to know the facts so that justice can happen. I don't need permission to state those facts. And they are the facts, this is an ongoing and rather major issue. The US lags behind the world, and even straights suffer for it.
Sorry that it is uncomfortable for you to have facts posted. I really did not expect you to freak out over the facts. Freaking out does not change those facts. Learning them might help make change. Repeating falsehoods helps no one.
redqueen
(115,096 posts)I said nothing about gay men, and I have no idea why you are working so hard to try to make it seem like I did.
Regardless, thank you for keeping this kicked.
Bluenorthwest
(45,319 posts)A moment like this one is a good time for folks to meditate on these bans. Most straight folks do not know the bans exist. So pointing out that they do is important.
Bluenorthwest
(45,319 posts)I was not trying to be critical of you or your post, but of the folks who don't let us donate. Your 'nope' was not about the ban, but about what you meant. I took it wrong. Now it all makes sense. The fault is my own.
Just want people to know about that ban.
redqueen
(115,096 posts)I agree it is important that people know about those bans... I did misunderstand you, sorry.
Fla_Democrat
(2,545 posts)Southeastern Community Blood Center, a division of Florida Blood Services, is a not-for-profit blood center serving the N. Florida and S. Georgia region. As our name suggests, community is our top priority.