Bleed Me Dry

Originally posted on www.gailymail.co.uk

Apparently many things are changing for people within the gay community, and the biggest change recently is the lifting of the gay blood ban. For years gay men have been unable to donate blood because of the mass fear that that has existed around the gay community’s blood since the AIDS epidemic of the 1980s.

Now however, if you aren’t infected by HIV or have AIDS, you are now able to donate blood. However there are a few rules that still apply, the main one being that you can only donate blood if you haven’t had sex in the last 12 months.

Now I’m sorry but if that is considered a lifting of the ban then everyone must be completely blind, because as far as I am concerned we are still being discriminated against and the fear that we are infected by HIV is still around. The fact of the matter is a huge number of gay men are still unable to give blood because they have had sex and lets be honest not many people go a whole 12 months without sex, but if you are safe and use condoms and have been checked and are showing up as being HIV negative then why do you need to wait 12 months? It’s ridiculous.

I myself, am in a relationship and I know that neither my partner nor myself has HIV as we have both been checked, but we are still unable to donate blood because of the fact we have sex, which is absolutely absurd. Two gay men in a stable monogamous relationship, where neither of them have HIV are unable to donate blood, however single heterosexual men and women are allowed to donate blood, even thought hey may be engaging in promiscuous sex on a regular basis.

These people are at a pretty high risk of contracting the disease themselves, so why don’t they need to have a 12-month ban?

I know that there are men out there who identify as straight but have had sex with men, now if this straight man has contracted HIV and then goes and sleeps with a woman, he could easily pass this on to her without her knowledge, and she could go on to donate blood before it shows up in her system. But because she is straight she is allowed to donate blood even though she may have contracted the virus.

Now I know there is a remote chance of this happening, but there is zero per cent chance that my partner or me have HIV, yet we can’t donate blood.

Yes it may appear to be an achievement to people out there who have no idea about the rules that are still in place, but it looks like there is still a huge fear surrounding the gay community and the HIV virus and it looks like we still have a way to go before people accept the fact that we aren’t riddled with disease.