At a time when much of the nation is facing unbearable weather patterns and crippling natural disasters, blood donations are way down. The Red Cross reports that due to power outages, storms, and sheer apathy, many hospitals are unable to give patients adequate quantities of life-saving transfusions. Yet despite this need, willing, monogamous gay men are still not allowed to donate.
The law prohibiting gay men from giving blood dates back to the AIDS scare of the 1980s. It is a bigoted law that has not kept up with the tremendous strides made in AIDS awareness or the screens that detect HIV in donor blood long before it ever reaches a hospital. The law clearly targets gay men for discrimination.
Heterosexuals who engage in highly dangerous behaviors--like sex with strangers and multiple partners--are still allowed to donate.
Tell the Department of Health and Human Services that it's time to get with the current century and allow gay men to do their part to donate blood!
We the undersigned think it is time to revisit and revise the rule which prohibits gay men from donating blood.
There are many gay men who engage only in safe sex or monogamous relationships and who are, therefore, not at risk of contracting the HIV virus. These men are, however, the targets of discrimination. Laws concerning blood donation do not prevent heterosexuals who engage in dangerous lifestyles--multiple partners, sex with strangers, for instance--from donating blood. The current dire shortage of blood donations, in particular, makes it important to revise the rules.
You can save lives AND be fair to everyone by allowing gay men to donate blood. The world is watching.
