LGBTQ folks can finally donate blood. I still don’t want to though cuz I’m pretty sure I’ll feel discriminated against by the staff.
Why would you be discriminated? The staff didn’t make the rules and I’m pretty sure most of them were against LGBTQ discrimination in the first place.
At least in Germany a lot of nurses and health technicians are quite progressive and friendly to humans.
In the U.S. years and years and years ago, the FDA prevented any sexually active gay/bisexual males from donating blood, because HIV was more common in that group of people, and there were much less advanced screening methods for it.
Even after we got way better at detecting it, the ruling stayed in place and was only recently undone. This means a lot of staff sort of still have this stigma of “gay males = unhealthy/bad/unfit for blood donation”, which is still gonna be perpetuated by some, even if the rules no longer discriminate against them directly.
Got it. However I doubt that people at the blood bank would do that, as they’re probably aware of what you mentioned.
Always nice to have another mug! Good on you for donating.
Yay, are you a blood donor too?
Oh absolutely, I’ve been donating since I became eligible. Being type O-, I go out of my way to donate as frequently as possible. I see it as a civic responsibility.
Can’t say I’ve ever been given a mug though haha
Thank you for donating!! I am one too. I may want try to donate plasma sometime
I asked about plasma once, and they said it varies place to place what the needs are. For myself, I stayed with whole blood donations, but it could be different for you and your area. It’s worth checking at your next appointment!
I’m way behind on my regular oil change.
