Most mothers call up their gay sons and ask for advice on trendy places for lunch or recommendations for Broadway plays. My mother called me up recently and wanted to make plans to spend time together – to donate blood.
“It’ll be fun!” she said, “we can catch up and eat twinkies.”
“I prefer a good muscle bear over a twink mom,” I replied. “Anyway I’m not allowed to donate blood. I’m gay.”
That’s all I had to say and it sent her into a tizzy.
When I was 8, our neighbors, the Allen’s, got a new above ground pool and they refused to allow my sister and me to swim in it, despite allowing most of the block to come over and splash around during the mid-August heat. I don’t know why they wouldn’t allow us, but let’s just say they were snobby a**holes. When we confessed to our mother that we had been shunned from joining the fun she immediately got on the phone and in a week arranged a huge backyard party complete with a brand new in- ground swimming pool and matching cabana sans the Allen’s, of course.
“Well that is ridiculous!’ she screamed. “Is that true? Do they really not allow you to donate blood because you’re gay?”
Unfortunately, it is.
According to the California Progress Report, the ban of gay and bisexual men from donating blood was enacted by the FDA in June 1983, two years after AIDS was first identified in the country. Only a month earlier, the lack of understanding about how the disease was transmitted helped fuel a nationwide panic when the country learned of the first reported AIDS transmission through a blood transfusion to a newborn. The news caused widespread cancellations of both elective and medically necessary surgeries while thousands who’d undergone procedures in previous years were left to worry they might have been exposed. Freshman assembly member Tom Ammiano (D-San Francisco) has decided 26 years of discrimination is long enough and is working feverishly to change the law.
The ban on gays donating blood is becoming a global issue. Just last month lesbians in China organized an online petition calling for gay people to be allowed to donate blood. The petition, asking the government to remove a law enacted in 1998 banning the gay community from donating blood, has drawn 540 signatures from lesbians and aims to reach 1,000, the official China Daily reported.
The government responded by saying "It's a practical law because the gay community has much higher rates of sexually transmitted diseases. We must take our precautions wisely. Even if they lie on the form and say they are straight, everyone's blood will go through a final screening test for diseases."
I’m not quite sure how my blood, an HIV negative, safe-sex practicing homo differs from, let’s say a intravenous drug using meth head, looking for money to get her next fix by selling her straight woman blood, but apparently she can donate and I cannot. Sadly I am also CMV negative. CMV or Cytomegalovirus is a non-fatal disease that at least 80% of Americans have. CMV negative blood is used for newborn babies and patients with HIV, two groups I would love to assist but cannot.
My mom has begun a huge campaign with her local congressman to change the current law which still stands firm. Although she hasn’t been able to give her only son the opportunity to donate blood she refuses to donate herself until this matter is solved. Until then we’ll be enjoying our twinkies by the pool.
