Blood donors to win airline tickets

[WhiteTara]

The American Red Cross is starting the new year with a giving spirit.

The organization has revived its “Live Life, Give Life” promotion, which will reward three donors with a pair of round-trip airline tickets on Delta Airlines.

The promotion is one way to thank donors for their time, said April Phillips, a spokeswoman for the southern blood services region of the Red Cross.

Through March 31, each person who attempts to donate blood or platelets may enter for a chance to win the tickets, she said.

According to the Red Cross Web site, the southern blood services region falls into the organization’s Southeast Division. The division is headquartered in Douglasville, collects and distributes more than 994,062 units of blood and 116,220 units of platelets each year and serves more than 387 hospitals in Georgia, Alabama, Mississippi, the Carolinas, Florida and Puerto Rico.

The southern blood services region serves more than 120 hospitals in Georgia, and approximately half of the blood collected in the state comes from the metro Atlanta area, Phillips said.

http://www.ajc.com/metro/content/metro/stories/2009/01/02/blood_drive_airline_tickets.html

[TechBear_Seattle]

1. Excellent! A chance to sue the Red Cross and the FDA

I am gay, and am prohibited by federal regulations from giving blood. Therefore, I am ineligible to participate in this contest on the grounds of my sexual orientation. I assert that this is a direct violation of my civil rights, just as it would be to say that a lottery was not open to blacks or Jews.

[cabluedem]

2. You are but one person in a class of people not allowed to donate. It isnt about being Gay, its

about being in a high risk group. Check on the Red Cross website for all prohibited persons who cannot donate. They are not all Gay, by any means. It's nice that you want to help people but the rules are there for very good reasons.

[TechBear_Seattle]

3. It is about bigotry, pure and simple

Men who have sex with men are no higher risk than any other group. Even the CDC has declared this policy discriminatory.

[cabluedem]

4. Are you telling me that a Gay man does not have a higher risk of having AIDS, then a heterosexual..

man who only has sex with women? That goes against everything we know about the HIV virus here in the USA.

If you feel so strongly about it, perhaps you can contact your representative in Congress and change the laws.

[TechBear_Seattle]

5. Women, especially black women, are contracting HIV far faster than are MSM

(MSM = men who have sex with men. Many MSM do not self-identify as gay or bisexual.)

Over the last decade, HIV has become a predominantly heterosexual disease. Applying the FDA's "logic," black women should be banned for life from ever donating blood lest the nation's blood supply become contaminated by a high risk group. When this fact was presented to the FDA earlier this year, the official response was a letter claiming that modern testing and screening procedures were sufficient so that donations from this high risk group did not pose a threat. And a few months latter, the FDA reiterated its ban on blood from MSM, claiming the very lie that you are spouting.

If black women can donate, why can't MSM? If men who have sex with men are a "high risk" group that can and should be banned from donating blood, why is the statistically higher risk group of black women allowed to continue donating?

As I said, it comes down to bigotry.

[cabluedem]

7. You are asked on the donation form if you have ever had sex with a man. It doesnt specify Gay......

men at all.

If you answer "YES" they don't ask your sexual preference; you are declined and put on the banned list.

For instance, if a heterosexual man had even one sexual encounter with another man, he is banned from donating. Paying for sex, male or female, bans one for life as well, if it makes you feel better.

Like I said, if you honestly think you should be given a chance to donate, you can try and change the laws and regulations.

[TechBear_Seattle]

9. Which is why I mentioned men who have sex with men

However, by definition, gay men are men who have sex with men. And it is orientation, not preference. Gay people do not "prefer" people of the same gender; it is not like ice cream flavors.

People have been trying to get this changed for a quarter of a century, ever since it was first put into place. But so far, the hatemongers-- aided by the "who the fuck cares" crowd -- keep winning. That does not make it any less bigoted.

[cabluedem]

10. I am a blood donor. I wouldn't have a problem with Gay men donating blood, but I don't have a say in...

it at all.

The fact is that fewer people donate blood each year that goes by, so they could use more donors.
They hound us regulars like mad to donate the 6 times per year the law allows as it is.

And I stand corrected about the orientation issue vs. preference, as well.

[salvorhardin]

6. The risk is minimal assuming honest replies in screening questionaires

Assuming that all donors answer the screening questionaires honestly such that only gay men who practice safe sex actually donate blood, then the risk is exceedingly minimal. In fact, there's a much higher chance of someone dieing from being infused with old blood than contracting HIV.

The US epidemiologist and bio-ethicist Dr Scott Halpern crunched the figures for the court. Some 1 in 100 people who are infused with blood older than 14 days will die – and 13 per cent of infused blood offered by the Red Cross is older than that. This, he explained, poses a risk "thousands of times greater" than "the very worst predictions of HIV infection" if you let latex-loving gay men donate. Why? Because if the ban is lifted and gay men who practice safe sex are allowed to donate, a single HIV-positive blood donation will slip through clinical screening once every 5,769 years. That's one time between now and the year 7777 – or equivalent to it happening once since 3761 BC, when cities had not yet been invented.
More: http://www.independent.co.uk/opinion/commentators/johann-hari/johann-hari-people-are-dying-because-gay-men-cant-give-blood-959316.html

One might raise the objection that we can't be guaranteed that only gay men who practice safe sex will donate. That's true. Some people will lie. However, that's probably true of the general population as well. I'm sure there are people donating blood right now that probably shouldn't be.

[cabluedem]

8. Your points are well made, but you need to prove that to the people who decide who can donate. nt