xequar
12th Jun 2007, 05:12 PM
As I'm sure we all know, the blood supply here in the U.S. is critically low, or so the Red Cross keeps telling us. I've given blood a number of times, so every few months, the Red Cross calls me to set up an appointment to donate, and usually I will (mostly to get them to stop calling for a few months). Today, I had an appointment, since it has been a few months since my last donation.
For those who haven't donated blood before, there's a number of steps before actually giving the blood. First, you have to read a packet of information that contains a number of lists and definitions that come up later in the process. The next thing is a questionnaire asking about various health history and donor behaviors. From there, they check your vital signs to make sure you're healthy enough to donate, then you finally give the blood.
One of the definitions in the first packet defines sexual contact essentially as vaginal sex, anal sex, and mouth touching sex organs. It seems reasonably thorough and complete, and becomes useful during the questionnaire, where there are a number of questions involving sexual contact. One of them is something to the order of, "Have you ever had sexual contact with another male, even once, since 1977?" Since this is the first time I've given blood since I came out, and the first time it's come up, and given that I'm an honest person, I answered honestly-yes.
I had been thinking about it beforehand, since I knew the question was coming, and I decided to answer honestly. Really, I actually hate donating blood, but I do it because it's a good thing to do, so I figured that, at the worst, I'd be deferred for a few months or something and I wouldn't get the phone calls for awhile. Well, the nurse runs the info through the computer (the questionnaire is done via computer), and then she asks me when the last time I had sexual contact with another male was. I told her. She inputs the data into the computer, and then tells me that she's going to have to defer me.
As she was preparing the letter (you get a letter with a deferral, as it turns out), she was telling me how much she appreciated that I tried to donate, and she was genuinely bothered that I couldn't donate. Honestly, I could hear the pride for her job in her voice, and so I could tell that she was genuinely distraught that she was turning away a long-time donor. She hands me the letter, and as I look at it, I realize that it's an Indefinite Deferral, meaning that I can never again donate blood.
On some levels, I'm actually ok with this, mostly because like I said before, I hate the actual donation process, and I've had a number of bad donation experiences (including one where I passed out afterward...). But, it also made me rather sad that, although I'm healthy and want to do a good thing, I was turned away. In truth, on some levels, it made me rather angry that the reasoning was, in essence, because I'm gay.
Once I got home, I did some searching on the interweb, just to see if my disenchantment was founded. As it turns out, yep, it's founded. I think it's pretty damn shady that a straight person can essentially have unprotected sex with a prostitute and only get a year deferral. A person can snort cocaine and only get a year deferral. But, if a guy goes down on another guy, that's it, you're done, period, end of story.
I don't really know what the point of this thread is... I mean, I was expecting something to come out of this, and I am fully aware of the prejudices and discriminatory practices in our society. Yet, this little thing...hurts... Ya know? :icon_sad: :tears:
For those who haven't donated blood before, there's a number of steps before actually giving the blood. First, you have to read a packet of information that contains a number of lists and definitions that come up later in the process. The next thing is a questionnaire asking about various health history and donor behaviors. From there, they check your vital signs to make sure you're healthy enough to donate, then you finally give the blood.
One of the definitions in the first packet defines sexual contact essentially as vaginal sex, anal sex, and mouth touching sex organs. It seems reasonably thorough and complete, and becomes useful during the questionnaire, where there are a number of questions involving sexual contact. One of them is something to the order of, "Have you ever had sexual contact with another male, even once, since 1977?" Since this is the first time I've given blood since I came out, and the first time it's come up, and given that I'm an honest person, I answered honestly-yes.
I had been thinking about it beforehand, since I knew the question was coming, and I decided to answer honestly. Really, I actually hate donating blood, but I do it because it's a good thing to do, so I figured that, at the worst, I'd be deferred for a few months or something and I wouldn't get the phone calls for awhile. Well, the nurse runs the info through the computer (the questionnaire is done via computer), and then she asks me when the last time I had sexual contact with another male was. I told her. She inputs the data into the computer, and then tells me that she's going to have to defer me.
As she was preparing the letter (you get a letter with a deferral, as it turns out), she was telling me how much she appreciated that I tried to donate, and she was genuinely bothered that I couldn't donate. Honestly, I could hear the pride for her job in her voice, and so I could tell that she was genuinely distraught that she was turning away a long-time donor. She hands me the letter, and as I look at it, I realize that it's an Indefinite Deferral, meaning that I can never again donate blood.
On some levels, I'm actually ok with this, mostly because like I said before, I hate the actual donation process, and I've had a number of bad donation experiences (including one where I passed out afterward...). But, it also made me rather sad that, although I'm healthy and want to do a good thing, I was turned away. In truth, on some levels, it made me rather angry that the reasoning was, in essence, because I'm gay.
Once I got home, I did some searching on the interweb, just to see if my disenchantment was founded. As it turns out, yep, it's founded. I think it's pretty damn shady that a straight person can essentially have unprotected sex with a prostitute and only get a year deferral. A person can snort cocaine and only get a year deferral. But, if a guy goes down on another guy, that's it, you're done, period, end of story.
I don't really know what the point of this thread is... I mean, I was expecting something to come out of this, and I am fully aware of the prejudices and discriminatory practices in our society. Yet, this little thing...hurts... Ya know? :icon_sad: :tears: