If you prick us, do we not bleed?

I know, I know. I've been a bad, bad blogger. If I had a nickel for everyone who has whined about how shitty my blogging has been over the last few days . . . well, I'd probably have about a quarter. Dang, people! I've got a life, you know. How do you expect me to blog daily and find a job . . . and watch five hours of Scrubs on Comedy Central in one sitting? (Including the episode with one of my single favorite moments on television: JD is frustrated at not being able to communicate with a German-speaking patient and wishes he had a way to just get through to him. Cut to JD and the patient dancing in a room full of red balloons while "99 Luftballons" plays in the background. Brilliant. And the same gag is used to terrific effect later in the episode.) [By the way, I stand by a professor of mine's remark that "Wikipedia is where facts go to die," but it seemed like a good link for the song since I'm too lazy to find a link to a recording.]

But that's not why I'm blogging. I started writing a rather inane post about getting reimmersed in American pop culture, but the only funny bit was about Beyonce's new album title. (I mean, did she really call it B'Day? At least call it B-Day. Or even BDay. But B'Day just begs me to pronounce it "bidet.") I was about to give up blogging altogether when I received the following e-mail on the LAMBDA listserv:

Hi. I am the SBA Community Service Head and have organized a blood drive for the law school that is being held on October 9th from 10am to 4pm in the Stockton Hall Lobby (aka: the leather lounge). I was wondering if you could send an email to your list serve about the blood drive so people at the law school know about the blood drive and if desired can particpate in it. The blood drive is being run by Donors for Life, which is a division of the Red Cross.

People interested in signing up for a time slot can do so on Wednesday, the 27th, from 10am to 2pm at the information desk in the law school or at www.donorsforlife.net.

Thanks. And if anyone has more questions about the blood drive they can email met at [deleted to protected some silly SBA person].

Now, what made this e-mail particularly ironic was the fact that the LAMBDA listserv was recently bumping with news of a career fair organized by the National Security Law Student Association (NSLSA) that included two branches of the U.S. military. As we all know (or I sure hope we do) the U.S. military openly discriminates against gay men and women through a "Don't Ask, Don't Tell" policy that requires the discharge of any LGBT man or woman who is exposed as such. (Learn more here from the Servicemembers Legal Defense Network and -- thanks to Roger -- watch a terrific Daily Show story on it here.) Well, thanks to Congress (ugh, there's so much backstory to this set up . . . learn more about the Solomon Amendment here), the military can recruit on campuses, even when it goes directly against the school's nondiscrimination policy. The school's one recourse is that it can, on all materials and advertising, state that the military discriminates and is allowed on campus against the school's own policies. Since the NSLSA failed to do this, LAMBDA members were rightfully pissed.

So what does this have to do with an e-mail from an SBA member organizing a blood drive? This:

"You should not give blood if you have AIDS or have ever had a positive HIV test, or if you have done something that puts you at risk for becoming infected with HIV. You are at risk for getting infected if you . . . are a male who has had sexual contact with another male, even once, since 1977."

I LOVE the "even once" part. No, that's not a quote from Rick Santorum or a press release from some neocon group. That's an excerpt from the American Red Cross Blood Donation Eligibility Guidelines, available here. Gay men are considered persona non grata by the American Red Cross. Now, I've never given blood: (1) needles scare the living Christmas out of me, and (2) I find this policy terribly offensive, but gay friends of mine have given blood. Some have reported that no one asked when they went to donate. One has told me that he simply lies because he thinks giving blood is the right thing to do. But others have been turned away.

The need for blood, while not dire, is a pressing one (especially considering the impending doom our current administration is setting us up for). And yet my O Negative blood, the universal donor -- and, in a fabulous example of nature's irony, the only blood type that can only receive its own* -- is not welcome by the American Red Cross. How is this ok?

It's not.


[*Since I couldn't find a good link to concisely explain blood type compatibility, I'm including the following chart taken from . . . well, Wikipedia. As you can see from the chart, people with AB+ blood types can accept from anyone, while my O-neg brothers and sisters must depend solely on each other. This has to do with antigens on red blood cells. O-type (+ and -) blood cells have no A or B antigens so everyone can take them, but our blood serum has antibodies against A and B antigens, so we can take neither A nor B blood. As for the negative/positive thing, it's complicated but the short version is that positives can take either while negatives can only take other negative blood. Hence, O-negs, like me, are particularly screwed.]

RBC compatibility table

Recipient blood type	Donor must be
AB+	Any blood type
AB-	O-	A-	B-	AB-
A+	O-	O+	A-	A+
A-	O-	A-
B+	O-	O+	B-	B+
B-	O-	B-
O+	O-	O+
O-	O-