Almost every time I go to give blood

I get rejected. Low iron. I’m not anemic, per se. It just so happens that every time the Red Cross comes by my way, I have a low iron day. Let’s face it, women are more likely to have low iron. I get lucky one out of every five times, generally.

That being said, I hate getting rejected by the Red Cross. I take it quite personally :/. I still remember the first time. You come in there all excited about doing good things for society. And then, boom, you realize you’re just not good enough for them. *Drops head. Then there’s that whole walk of shame past all the robust donors who have their apple juice and graham crackers. (I mean I hate apple juice and graham crackers, but that’s not the point!) And you walk back to your cubicle with two fingers disabled from the stick test (which always hurts more than the actual donation – why is that???)

It’s enough to make a phillygrrl wanna go home and never show her face at a blood drive again. But I do keep trying, but it’s that every fifth time I can give blood that makes it worth it.  Which is why when one of the comments on guest blogger thabooger’s post resounded with me. Let’s take a look at what commenter Garret has to say about giving blood.

I wanted to make one other point about the rights of gays in our country through a personal story. Many years ago I had a cousin with leukemia who required a bone marrow transplant. I had my blood tested to ascertain if I was a bone marrow match for her. Unfortunately I was not, but she did get a transplant from another donor. Ultimately, she lost her battle to leukemia , but the Bone Marrow registry kept my info on file in case I became a match for another individual suffering from this disease. Many years later (out and proud by this point) I received a phone call from the registry telling me I was a match for a little girl who was in need of a bone marrow transplant. The excitement one feels with the prospect of being able to possibly save a persons life (especially a childs) was beyond words. The woman on the phone needed to update the records and began to ask me a myriad of questions regarding my personal life. I answered honestly, not really thinking about the consequences those honest answers would have (again, caught up in the rush of excitement). I told her I was a gay man with a partner of 6 years. At that point she stopped me and told me I could not donate my bone marrow and would have to be taken off the registry list because under the guidelines, gay men are unable to donate. I can’t describe the feeling of disappointment that overwhelmed me. I could have kicked myself (really hard) for being honest about my sexuality. I explained to her that yes, I am a gay man, but have never been promiscuous and had a long term life partner. She aplogized and told me unfortuantely those were the rules. I asked her if she thought that the parents of that little girl who was dying of leukemia would really care if the bone marrow came from a gay person. (ummm they do AIDS testing). She apologized again and our conversation was over. Being a gay man I am also not allowed to give blood if I were to answer the questions honestly. The Red Cross to this day will not change their rules on homosexuals donating blood. If another group of people (such as African Americans or Asians) became the largest group of HIV and AIDS victims, I truely wonder if they would also be denied donation.

Hmm, what do y’all think? I know the rates for HIV/AIDS are higher for the gay population, but as this article pointed out, testing blood, etc for AIDS is virtually foolproof with today’s technology. If that’s the case, these policies definitely need to be updated. Where are all my public health professionals?