twenty-something

Here's a report from the Washington Blade about today's movement surrounding the FDA, Red Cross, and the gay blood ban. I'm too tired to decide what any of this means or to comment tonight -- but it's something I'll post for now.

Red Cross calls for equal treatment of gay blood donors
Current FDA policy 'scientifically unwarranted,' blood banks say
By ANDREW KEEGAN | Mar 9, 1:13 PM

For the first time since a ban prohibiting gay men from donating blood went into effect more than two decades ago, the American Red Cross is petitioning the government to revise the guideline.

A federal Food & Drug Administration advisory panel heard arguments against the policy today in Bethesda, Md., at a conference on "Behavior-Based Blood Donor Deferrals in the Era of Nucleic Acid Testing."

The current FDA policy, passed in 1985, prohibits any man who has had sex with another man since 1977 from donating blood for the rest of his life.

The Red Cross joined the American Association of Blood Banks and America's Blood Centers in asking for guidelines that treat all donors equally.

Today could be historic. Today the FDA may reconsider it's 23-year-old guidelines -- born out of fear and ignorance in 1983 -- that bar gay and bisexual men from donating blood during a workshop called "Behavior-Based Blood Donor Deferrals in the Era of Nucleic Acid Testing." According to the Washington Blade, there may be some support from the Red Cross to change the FDA's policy, and that could get us somewhere.

Will today bring some change? Or, more importantly, the right kind of change? I'm hopeful, but I'm not holding my breath.

I have many fears about this, but my hope is that the ban will be discarded altogether and that I'll be finally allowed to donate blood in 2006.

Cross your fingers with me.