Chris (![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png)
faithinchris) wrote2008-06-12 11:20 am
faithinchris) wrote2008-06-12 11:20 am
A completely random thought process.
I was listening to the radio yesterday at work and heard this story about two university campuses in California with varying ways of protesting the rule that men who've ever had gay sex at any point in their lives are barred from being blood donors.
This is one of those things that I don't spend a lot of time thinking about, just because I have a lot going on in my life already and if they don't want my blood, it's their loss. But since it came up, I will go on the record as saying that I think it's VERY STUPID.
I get why they made it. Contaminated blood supplies were one of the boogeymen of the 80s. Plenty of rules are made in overreaction to traumatic events. Then, when they've served their purpose, we get rid of them.
So why hasn't this one been gotten rid of? Because there are apparently still people that think gay = HIV, and they're freaking everywhere. As young gay men of the current century, we have all pretty much figured out what our risk factors are, and that getting tested for things is a necessary part of life--what was that line back in the 90s in Reality Bites? "The free AIDS clinic: the rite of passage for our generation." You know what? Promiscuity is the risk factor here, not homosexuality.
It just frustrates me, even though barring some huge natural disaster (more likely in my part of the world than industrial accident or terrorist attack) the blood supply around here will probably be fine. Because it's STUPID. I've been in a monogamous relationship with the same person for almost ten years, and we've both been thoroughly checked out for everything. And I'm AB negative and not afraid of needles.
And I grumbled about this a bit on the bus ride home from work, and then I got home and got distracted by So You Think You Can Dance, which both awakens my latent Broadway fantasies and turns me into kind of a queen. I probably shouldn't watch, but I just can't resist. It's too early for me to pick a favorite, but I do like looking at them.
This is one of those things that I don't spend a lot of time thinking about, just because I have a lot going on in my life already and if they don't want my blood, it's their loss. But since it came up, I will go on the record as saying that I think it's VERY STUPID.
I get why they made it. Contaminated blood supplies were one of the boogeymen of the 80s. Plenty of rules are made in overreaction to traumatic events. Then, when they've served their purpose, we get rid of them.
So why hasn't this one been gotten rid of? Because there are apparently still people that think gay = HIV, and they're freaking everywhere. As young gay men of the current century, we have all pretty much figured out what our risk factors are, and that getting tested for things is a necessary part of life--what was that line back in the 90s in Reality Bites? "The free AIDS clinic: the rite of passage for our generation." You know what? Promiscuity is the risk factor here, not homosexuality.
It just frustrates me, even though barring some huge natural disaster (more likely in my part of the world than industrial accident or terrorist attack) the blood supply around here will probably be fine. Because it's STUPID. I've been in a monogamous relationship with the same person for almost ten years, and we've both been thoroughly checked out for everything. And I'm AB negative and not afraid of needles.
And I grumbled about this a bit on the bus ride home from work, and then I got home and got distracted by So You Think You Can Dance, which both awakens my latent Broadway fantasies and turns me into kind of a queen. I probably shouldn't watch, but I just can't resist. It's too early for me to pick a favorite, but I do like looking at them.
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On a completely unrelated note, your icon is my absolute most favoritest m/k pic of all time! Hope you don't mind if I borrow it.