Unfortunate ruling by the FDA about gay male donors

[chenaya]

Please note that this is the FDA's decision, NOT the Red Cross, which was trying to get the rule changed

Comments

[obake]

What about us women who've had sex with a guy who's had sex with a guy? I know at one point I was banned.

No change

[obake]

No, as far as I know, there's no change in that unless the FDA says so - and they haven't.

[meandering]

So very annoying. The proposed change isn't even that bad. Waiting one year since sexual contact with a man still discriminates. Hrm.

Not really

[chenaya]

Not really. Women have to wait a year if they've been raped. Tattoos in Washington or other states have to wait a year. Travel to a malarial area has to wait.

It's to make sure that if you're going to test positive, the period during which you might NOT has been exceeded.

Also please note that if you have sex with someone who does something like letting people pay for watching them have sex online, that's a deferral. There is no differentiation in that "money or drugs for sex" thing, according to the RDA.

Re: Not really

[meandering]

Well, what I was trying to say is that gay men still can't donate under the proposed rule change, unless their celibate.

I'm all sorts of familiar with all the deferral rules. I've been doing platelet donation for five+ years. Last time I went they deferred me because I had had my regular bi-annual STD screening done that day. That pissed me off to no end. I just wish they weren't the only game in town for platelet donation. *grumble*

[cat333]

That's okay...the FDA is still convinced that Matthew, JA, and I are going to turn into Mad Longhorns at some point in time...even though it's been 20 years since we've lived in Germany and none of us have sprouted horns, hooves, or started saying "Moo" with any consistency. *chuckle*

And before they decided this...Matthew was something like a 3 or 4 gallon donor...and JA was just turning old enough to donate.

(Sadly, I've never been able to donate: Chronic Anemia)