I am happy for those of you out there enjoying time with a sweetheart. I am, really. But more than I'm happy for you, I'm bitter for the rest of the lonely community of humans who are suffering in the Western world's way of pushing stupid cupid and all the shit they want to sell us all under the guise of LOVE.
Fuck that kind of love. It's not the love I believe in.
I taught a kick-ass lonely-hearts-club spinning class today. "Listen, bitches, we're loving ourselves on this day!" I yelled through the microphone to great cheers.
I also learned, via the Soviet, that gay men can't give blood. No shit. I looked it up. The Red Cross says:
You should not give blood if you have AIDS or have ever had a positive HIV test, or if you have done something that puts you at risk for becoming infected with HIV.
You are at risk for getting infected if you:
- are a male who has had sexual contact with another male, even once, since 1977
I am livid. Just one more way to exclude people from something powerfully good and transformative because of who and how they love. Total. Bullshit.
Now, I'm not saying we don't need serious screening for blood donors. I, for example, cannot ever give blood because I once suffered from a particular form of blood cancer. Fine. But in terms of HIV, targeting an entire group of people is fallacious. Anyone who works in the health care industry is more likely to have been exposed to HIV than whole hoards of gay men. Yet, as a group, they're allowed to give blood.
WTF?
4 comments:
Get mad, but not at the Red Cross. Get mad at the FDA. The Red Cross and all the other blood groups have been trying to get the FDA to change the rules. Write a letter to your congressman.
I used to give blood all the time and lied about the pot smoking, but then they added other rules, so I don't do it anymore.
Even so, I always had to take the extra iron test cuz it seems like my blood floats or something (vampires, ya know).
oognwoog
Figures. It probably was the FDA under Reagan that wrote those rules. Thanks for the tip, anon--now everybody write their congressperson.
oognwoog: the idea of your blood floating delights me!
ain't that some shit? i was all hyped to give blood back in 2002 and learned after i had my sleeve rolled up and the nurse gave me the "read these before you give blood" thing.
sigh.
fun times.
and sometimes (yearly), valentine's sucks for coupled people. :)
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