Alan Cumming is coming for the FDA.
If you heard the good news that the FDA has finally lifted its 32-year lifetime ban on gay and bisexual men donating blood, you probably also heard the not-so-good news that the replacement policy is basically just as bad.
Under the new rules, a full year of celibacy is required in order for gay and bi men to qualify as blood donors.
If you’re anything like us, they may as well have said a full lifetime.
How about we take this to the next level?
Our newsletter is like a refreshing cocktail (or mocktail) of LGBTQ+ entertainment and pop culture, served up with a side of eye-candy.
In a new campaign cheekily described as “America’s hardest challenge,” Alan Cumming seeks to raise awareness of the still-backwards policy by challenging the gay and bi men of America to complete the (satirical) “Celibacy Challenge.”
Watch below:
Cumming, who’s teamed up with GLAAD and GMHC, then encourages everyone to sign a petition, which in part reads:
“So straight guys can have safe sex with woman after woman and still donate blood. But gay and bi men who have had safe sex for an entire year—even with a monogamous partner—would still be banned. Sounds like discrimination to us.”
More info, including the opportunity to add your name to the petition, here.
alphacentauri
I still can’t donate blood since I lived in the UK for more than 3 months in the mid 90s as did Alan Cumming.
Tobi
I’ve given up on GLAAD, ever since they decided that the word “homosexual” is offensive and derogatory.
Glücklich
Alan Cumming is delicious. What a hottie!
http://i.dailymail.co.uk/i/pix/2015/01/29/2526F92300000578-0-image-m-48_1422493935508.jpg
Nathan Lunn
Meet the new policy, same as the old policy.
trell
Will be adding my name.
Nothing has stopped me from giving blood in the past. I just didn’t tell anyone at the time that I was gay, and nobody asked. (This was in the UK BTW, but they have similar policies about gay guys donating blood)
No laws were broken, no surprises. No nothing. I gave blood & got a cup of tea afterwards.
What are the FDA going to do if you turn up to a blood bank? It’s none of their business what sexuality you are. What is their business is if your blood is healthy, and they test all blood anyway.
This is not the 1980s when HIV & AIDS was “The Gay virus”. Nowadays Hep B is more of a challenge to treat than HIV, and more of a danger of spreading.
Brian
It’s great that Alan Cumming is challenging the homophobic, misandrist and discriminatory policy of the FDA. The FDA is under the auspices of the Obama administration. Why hasn’t Obama stepped in to overturn the prejudicial policy of the FDA?
Tell your friends and family not to donate blood until the FDA completely removes any hint of homophobia, misandry and discrimination in its donation guidelines.
Masc Pride
The blood banks shouldn’t be turned into a gay rights argument. The policies are not homophobic if lesbians are allowed to donate. I definitely would not want some random queen’s blood infused into my system. No f—–g way! I would take my chances on whatever the other options are.
Brian
@Masc Pride: Nobody is turning the blood banks into a gay rights argument. I’m simply saying that the blood banks should treat everybody equally. At the moment, they aren’t. They are giving preferential treatment to sleazy, promiscuous women and men who don’t fall into the “male-male” category.
If you don’t understand that, I pity you.
Masc Pride
@Brian: It’s not a matter of inequality, and I pity you if you can’t understand that. The only people they are discouraging are demographics that are disproportionately affected by HIV/AIDS, which is a very reasonable concern for a blood bank. How about we get the new infection rates down in this community and then move to request changes to existing policies? No wants to do that because that would require US to take some personal accountability and make some changes. Like I said, if lesbians are allowed to donate and they are part of the LGBT community, it’s obviously not an issue of homophobia. It’s such a dishonest and manipulative argument. The policies also help to protect gay people who may need blood transfusions. They’re not taking any risks on a having a possible repeat of the contamination that happened in the past.
Will you feel safe receiving blood when the randoms on Grindr, who think PrEP is a free pass to bareback, are in the blood banks?
Brian
@Masc Pride: You don’t understand homophobia. Just because highly promiscuous homosexual women are allowed to give blood, it doesn’t ameliorate the notion that the blood banks are homophobic. They are male-homophobic – ie their homophobia is directed towards MALE homosexuality. It’s the same type of prejudice which underpinned laws that banned male homosexuality but not female homosexuality in many countries, such as England.
And of course I don’t want to receive blood from an infected gay guy…but I also don’t want to receive blood from an infected sleazy straight guy or sleazy lesbian or sleazy straight woman.
The blood banks are ALREADY taking risks by accepting blood from sleazy lesbians and sleazy straight guys and sleazy straight women. Yep, already.
Apply the celibacy-for-one-year rule ACROSS THE BOARD and I will have no trouble with the blood banks’ current policy. At the moment, they are playing politics with identity politics, and deserve to be called out on it.
Masc Pride
@Brian: Yes, I’m quite proud to say that I don’t understand using accusations of homophobia to manipulate arguments and get my way. Lesbians aren’t getting preferential treatment because they’re women; that doesn’t make any sense. This is America, and if any gender was to get preferential treatment, it would be men. Lesbians can donate because they’re not a high-risk demographic. In fact, if I ever need a transfusion, I’ll totally demand some lesbo blood. The politics involved are about high-risk groups, not their sexual identities.
I didn’t ask you if you’d be okay with receiving from a person known to be infected. Look at the question again. Also, keep in mind that lots of those guys are becoming more and more pro-bareback despite the CDC reporting “alarming” new infection rates among gay/bi men.