Why can't we give?

The man who has sex with men

For those of you who have ever seen one of the ever-present blood drive trucks, you know that sometimes a good-intentioned Samaritan approaches you and says, “Hi there! Are you interested in donating blood today?”

When this happens to me, my response is always, “I would love to, but according to the regulations of the FDA, I am forbidden to help because my blood is tainted.”

It’s not their fault, really. The American Red Cross is forced to follow the decisions of the Department of Health and Human Services Secretary’s Advisory Committee on Blood Safety, and they continually press for deferral policies that are “fair” and in tandem with “scientific evidence.” Perhaps it’s unwarranted for me to borderline accost a stranger.

However what the Blood Drive for Equality does is exactly what I’ve failed to do: develop awareness to parties that might be unaware. As someone who has worked in canvassing, I understand the importance of knowing every possible detail, positive and negative, about the campaign you work for.

Every time a gay man can’t give his pint, that’s one less life that could be assisted. I imagine that if every MSM who wanted to give blood but couldn’t just spoke up, the head count would be hard to ignore.

The lady of the night

As an escort with no addiction problems, it’s frustrating whenever I see the Red Cross trucks or advertisements asking for blood donations. I would help, but prostitutes are precluded from donating, period.

We are considered so tainted that any of our clients are restricted from donating, too.

Prostitutes in the United States who are non-intravenous drug-users have a relatively low rate of HIV — less than eight percent — which is higher than the national average, but probably not high enough to ban an entire profession from helping to save lives. A whopping 92 percent of us are not infected and probably have just the type of blood a patient needs.

We’re professionals. Having sex on the regular, we might be more familiar with safe sex practices than the general populace and better able to protect ourselves from HIV.

Still, anything above the national average of HIV infections is worrisome. AIDS does not have to be inevitable for sex workers. As prostitution remains illegal, working conditions will continue to be less than ideal. STD testing, safe sex practices and safety in general will continue to be overlooked to avoid any run-ins with the police.

Maybe we do put ourselves at a higher risk, but society and the law aren’t doing us, or themselves, any favors.

The inkhead

So you’re a hood rat, pissing off your parents and inking every inch of your body? Then you better watch it before you try to donate blood.

Sure, we know gays, prostitutes and druggies can’t share their life juice. But what gives for us inked-up hooligans? Or for the poor white girls who just want the infinity sign on their wrists? Or the bros with the Chinese symbol for “warrior” on their biceps? Cut us a break.

Just because we’re tattooed and intimidating doesn’t mean we don’t want to save lives, too. Hear me out, though. The Red Cross is just concerned we’re getting tattoos in sketchy basements and using dirty needles.

Beside the fact that they’re simplifying us down to a stereotype, most people receive tattoos in state-regulated facilities that use fresh ink and clean needles.

Receiving your tattoo in a professional tattoo shop makes blood donation easier in most states, but only 32 currently regulate tattoo facilities. If you get a tattoo in a state that doesn’t regulate tattoo shops, you’re stuck waiting 12 months after your last tattoo until you’re allowed to donate.

With all the testing and screening they put the blood through, you’d think they would ease up. Plus, let’s be honest. Who doesn’t want blood from someone with a tramp stamp of a butterfly?

The expatriate

Having lived overseas for eight years on an Army base in Germany, I am not an eligible blood donor. Ever. Like, ever.

For those would-be willing world-travelers who don’t share my fear or low threshold for pain, the off chance of Creutzfeldt-Jakob (CJD) or any of its strains (vCJD) will still ensure their blood remains, for all intents and purposes, theirs.

Anyone having spent five or more years in Europe is forever ineligible to donate if their time abroad occurred after 1980.

Given that the disease barring these otherwise potential donors is not only rare, but has never been known to be communicable through blood transfusion, this restraint seems a little extraneous.

The possibility of vCJD infecting bloody supply is based on theory, simply due to where the disease has the potential to develop (lymph nodes, spleen and tonsils).

The cause of the disease is actually the consumption of beef contaminated with Bovine Spongiform Encephalopathy (mad cow disease).

Though my limited knowledge of languages often meant many orders of French fries on my part, I don’t recall beef being a major staple in the European diet anyway.

Therefore it seems unnecessarily limiting to exclude military, their families and many other prospective donors who have surpassed the other requirements, purely based on the fact they lived overseas.