my 2 cents: Gays and the Red Cross

i'm a little offended that the american red cross would not let gay employees donate blood at work today....

i've been whirling this around in my head....

don't gay people need blood???....

if you prick a gay person, do they not bleed???....

why can't gays donate blood???....

i'm sure there are a millions reasons why....none of which i cannot fathom.....

are people worried about disease???....

well, i'm pretty sure they test blood.....

are people worried about "turning gay" by getting a blood transfusion from a gay donor???.....

um, well i'm sure gays have received blood from straight donors and i think they are still gay....i might have to do more research into this but i haven't heard of a medical break through where a gay person received blood from a straight donor and is all of a sudden straight.....

though i have heard of cases where recipients of organs from donors have had slight changes happened in their diet or something kinda like an "impression" of the original host.....but never with blood.....

all this is just my mumbo jumbo opinion....it just bugged me when i found out a couple of co-workers could not donate blood because they are gay....

quite honestly.....if i was dying.....i don't care who donated the blood....straight, lesbian or gay.....just as long as it is disease free....i'd be fine with it.....

maybe some people aren't....

or maybe i'm just not well informed in regards to the difference between "straight" blood and "gay" blood....

*shrugs*

stephanie had this to say:

"The reason why is one of the questions on there is whether or not the person has had anal sex. If a person has had sex for money, unprotected sex, or anal sex in the last six months to a year prior to volunteering to give blood a lot of places (red cross especially) will not allow them to give blood. This is because they are a higher risk for having a blood disease (like AIDS) that could not be detected in the blood for that period of time.

I think this is the one reason why they are so low when it comes to blood donations. Too many people sleep around so casually that they aren't canidates for blood drives.

my response:

"steph.....that's a good point in regards to the anal sex or what not.....so what the red cross should say, "if you have an unprotected sex in the past year, you cannot donate blood".....because lets face it.....some straight people....like it in the ass.....i don't know why.....i've never gone that route.....i'm an "exit only" type of girl.....but yeah.....

what i'm bitching about is the part where the american red cross said "so-and-so cannot donate blood because they are gay".....did not ask if they were sexually active.....did not even attempt to test their blood for disease....did not exclude them for any other reason, except for their sexuality....

AIDS and other blood related diseases does not know if the person is gay or straight.....it attacks both sides.....the risk is the same for straight and gay individuals.....

just my 2 cents ;)