Johanthemonster666 said:
Damien Granz said:
Nope. Despite having absolutely no blood-born STIs or other infections and absolutely nothing that reasonably should bar me from doing so, and despite possessing both a willingness to donate, and an O+ blood type that I'm sure the vampires love, I don't pass the "You must be this heterosexual to join" bar.
Oh, they give some BS about "Oh, well.. diseases", except you can totally have anal sex with a woman, and apparently their insides are filled with candy and gumdrops, but if you do it, once, ever with a guy after like 1979 (and you mathematicians out there will figure out that's before I was born), you're barred for life. A precaution I could see and forgive in 1980 when they didn't know any better, but oh well.
It's messed up I know, and frankly I lied when I donated blood. Of course they screened my blood all the same and found nothing wrong... so that begs the question... why bar gays, bisexuals or even just guys who inadvertently had sexual contact with another man from donating blood? It's all about exclusion and policy from the 1980's that doesn't really make much sense (as I said) because they screen everyone's blood for STIs and most young people have an equal chance of caring STIs regardless of orientation.
See, that's the thing that bothered me too. It's this sort of insulting intellectual dishonesty on their part, like I felt like they were trying to pull a fast one on me. Justifying bigotry with this sort of outdated pseudo-science, and hoping we all blink and don't notice.
Then being like "It's too haaaaard to chaaaange. We're not homophobic, it's just haaaard to chaaaange."
Thing was that, I guess I was too trusting of an organization like the Red Cross (though, the whole 'Cross' in the name should have tipped me off, but I never learn), so I naively didn't think to lie on the thing, and so I'm permanently barred.
What bothers me, also is that I wouldn't be able to donate blood to my own mother, even if she was OK with it. For her own protection. Despite the fact that O+ being an almost universal donor (negatives are pretty rare), O+ is very rare (so I'm told) and can only accept from itself (and I guess O-, but that's even rarer).
And she needs surgery often, so I guess one of these times she could bleed to death, but that would be safer for her than icky Queer blood going to her.
)
