Gay Montclair University Student Protests Ban on Donating Blood

A 20-year-old sophomore at Montclair State University, Weinstein signed up to donate blood last November at a Red Cross blood drive on campus because, he said, “I thought it would be a nice thing to do.”

But when Weinstein, who is gay, answered “yes” on a questionnaire asking whether or not he had had sexual relations with another man since 1977, American Red Cross volunteers running the drive told him that he was ineligible to be a donor.

“My initial reaction was absolute shock. I thought, there’s no way,” Weinstein, a Randolph native, said last week.

For the past several months, blood supplies around New Jersey have hit critically low levels. Karen Ferriday, a spokeswoman for Community Blood Services in Oradell, said blood stores, which optimally provide three to five days worth of blood, have fallen to half-day supplies for the past several months.

Still, donors like Weinstein have found themselves turned away from donating because a Food and Drug Administration regulation born at the height of the AIDS scare in 1983 still places a lifetime ban on blood donations by gay and bisexual men.

Women who have had sex with a gay or bisexual partner are out, too.

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Gay Montclair University Student Protests Ban on Donating Blood

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Original source : http://gay_blog.blogspot.com/2009/03/gay-montclair…

Pioneers in Splitsville

Hillary and Julie Goodridge of Massachusetts, America’s first same-sex husband and wife — wife and wife, husband and husband, whatever — are divorcing, nearly two years after they announced they were separating.

Recall how advocates for years had claimed same-sex marriage would be good for the institution historically reserved for a man and a woman because so many homosexuals are in committed, loving relationships with their lifetime partners.

Of course, about the time the Massachusetts Supreme Judicial Court was dabbing lemon juice on the back of the state Constitution to reveal the “homosexual marriage OK” message John Adams scribbled there in invisible ink in 1780; and Mr. and Mrs. — Ms. and Ms., Mrs. and Mrs., Mr. and Mr., whatever — Goodridge were tying the knot, the Institute for Marriage And Public Policy was reporting (and the news media were suppressing) research showing the divorce rate among same-sex couples in Sweden was about twice that of heterosexuals. MORE