this post was submitted on 10 Aug 2023
679 points (96.8% liked)

News

23313 readers
3913 users here now

Welcome to the News community!

Rules:

1. Be civil


Attack the argument, not the person. No racism/sexism/bigotry. Good faith argumentation only. This includes accusing another user of being a bot or paid actor. Trolling is uncivil and is grounds for removal and/or a community ban. Do not respond to rule-breaking content; report it and move on.


2. All posts should contain a source (url) that is as reliable and unbiased as possible and must only contain one link.


Obvious right or left wing sources will be removed at the mods discretion. We have an actively updated blocklist, which you can see here: https://lemmy.world/post/2246130 if you feel like any website is missing, contact the mods. Supporting links can be added in comments or posted seperately but not to the post body.


3. No bots, spam or self-promotion.


Only approved bots, which follow the guidelines for bots set by the instance, are allowed.


4. Post titles should be the same as the article used as source.


Posts which titles don’t match the source won’t be removed, but the autoMod will notify you, and if your title misrepresents the original article, the post will be deleted. If the site changed their headline, the bot might still contact you, just ignore it, we won’t delete your post.


5. Only recent news is allowed.


Posts must be news from the most recent 30 days.


6. All posts must be news articles.


No opinion pieces, Listicles, editorials or celebrity gossip is allowed. All posts will be judged on a case-by-case basis.


7. No duplicate posts.


If a source you used was already posted by someone else, the autoMod will leave a message. Please remove your post if the autoMod is correct. If the post that matches your post is very old, we refer you to rule 5.


8. Misinformation is prohibited.


Misinformation / propaganda is strictly prohibited. Any comment or post containing or linking to misinformation will be removed. If you feel that your post has been removed in error, credible sources must be provided.


9. No link shorteners.


The auto mod will contact you if a link shortener is detected, please delete your post if they are right.


10. Don't copy entire article in your post body


For copyright reasons, you are not allowed to copy an entire article into your post body. This is an instance wide rule, that is strictly enforced in this community.

founded 1 year ago
MODERATORS
 

The American Red Cross is now allowing gay and bisexual men to donate blood without restrictions that specifically single out a person’s sexual orientation or gender, the nonprofit group said Monday.

top 50 comments
sorted by: hot top controversial new old
[–] FlyingSquid 101 points 1 year ago (29 children)

And it only took... *checks notes* 40 years!

load more comments (29 replies)
[–] [email protected] 72 points 1 year ago* (last edited 1 year ago) (11 children)

Goddammit! I have o- blood and the red cross called me LITERALLY everyday after I donated the first time. I asked them to only call every quarter because I still did want to donate, but that just made them call every other day. Finally out of frustration I looked for anything that would make me ineligible to donate and the next time they called, I told them I was gay. All calls stopped after that.

[–] DV8 3 points 1 year ago

I found that making an appointment, no matter how far in the future makes them stop calling.

I donate plasma (AB+) as often as I can, usually 2 weekly as that is the limit here. But if you're single the 4 month halt for having sex with a new partner is annoying because they will keep calling while they say you can't donate.

load more comments (10 replies)
[–] [email protected] 70 points 1 year ago (4 children)

Great, now I can move forward with my plan of turning everyone gay by donating blood

[–] [email protected] 19 points 1 year ago

Convert 10 or more and you get a new toaster oven!

[–] Treatyoself 12 points 1 year ago

God speed 🫡

[–] Blumpkinhead 8 points 1 year ago (1 children)

Can I just get a little blood? I don't want to go full gay, I just want to be able to tell which sneakers I should wear with this outfit.

load more comments (1 replies)
[–] [email protected] 44 points 1 year ago (1 children)

Cue right wingers refusing transfusions. Actually, that's fine.

[–] [email protected] 9 points 1 year ago* (last edited 1 year ago) (3 children)

Blood is blood is blood. I'm sure that people who need it don't care if an absolute bigoted moron gave it to them, they wouldn't know anyways.

Edit: I'm the moron, you meant refusing taking blood, not giving it lmao

[–] Rachelhazideas 5 points 1 year ago

We should make it known to these people that it's 'gay blood' though. What they do with their own body is up to them because I support bodily autonomy, including dying of bigotry.

load more comments (2 replies)
[–] DocMcStuffin 33 points 1 year ago (4 children)

Maybe this is a cynical take, but will conservatives refuse a life saving blood transfusion because it may have come from a gasp gay man? I mean a bunch were refusing transfusions because the blood could have come from someone that had a gasp covid vaccine.

[–] zaph 30 points 1 year ago

There are people who refuse blood transfusions because of relious beliefs and will let their children die. Of course there are some that would refuse "gay blood."

load more comments (3 replies)
[–] Tenthrow 30 points 1 year ago (1 children)

Conservatives might be getting some of that gay blood. Does that work the same as eating the heart of a warrior to gain their power?

[–] Blumpkinhead 22 points 1 year ago (1 children)

Yes, but instead of becoming more powerful, you become more fabulous.

[–] RGB3x3 9 points 1 year ago (1 children)

Sign me up! Sound like A-positive to me!

[–] PaintedSnail 4 points 1 year ago

Unless you're someone who tends to B-negative anyway.

[–] brlemworld 20 points 1 year ago* (last edited 1 year ago) (2 children)

Under the new guidelines, anyone who has recently had sex with a new partner or multiple people and has also had anal sex would have to wait three months to donate

Those taking oral medication to prevent HIV infection, called pre-exposure prophylaxis, or PrEP, still have to wait three months from their last dose to donate blood. People taking long-acting PrEP injections have to wait two years before donating.

[–] [email protected] 4 points 1 year ago (1 children)

Also note that the Red Cross is usually quick to say it's actually the FDA that imposes these homophobic restrictions and it's "not their fault"

load more comments (1 replies)
[–] DebraBucket 4 points 1 year ago

Darn, so straight people having anal raw dog gang bangs can no longer donate soon after experiencing a DVDA? How is that fair? /s

[–] [email protected] 19 points 1 year ago (3 children)

Literally can’t even believe that was a thing!

[–] DaCookeyMonsta 68 points 1 year ago (1 children)

I think it was set up when AIDS was spreading amongst the gay community before they had a test for it.

Of course, now they can both test for it and it spread well beyond the gay community for a while so it's ridiculous that it was still a thing.

[–] JustAManOnAToilet 29 points 1 year ago (2 children)

They just removed restrictions for Brits that were in the UK between 1980-1996 too, so I guess they're just getting around to opening things up and this was on the list.

[–] [email protected] 12 points 1 year ago* (last edited 1 year ago)

Is the UK 1980-96 thing being removed too? That's cool.

Not just brits btw, but anyone who spent an extended time in the UK in the 80s/90s. IRC due to fears about CJD/Mad Cow's Disease.

[–] YoBuckStopsHere 8 points 1 year ago

I was stationed in UK and couldn't donate blood as a result. That was only ten years ago. Since they opened it back up I am getting constant calls to donate.

[–] [email protected] 7 points 1 year ago (1 children)

Why? AIDS was a devestating epidemic. The blood banks were slow to act at all, and as a result many haemophiliacs acquired the disease and died. Gay men were the largest risk group for spreading and contracting it, so it makes sense to screen them out.

load more comments (1 replies)
[–] ryannathans 6 points 1 year ago

In my country gay men account for 90% of all HIV infections. It's very hard to ensure blood is free of HIV, as blood is infectious within three months of infection but won't test positive

[–] Oyster_Lust 12 points 1 year ago

I didn't know that was still in place, since they started testing for AIDS decades ago.

[–] [email protected] 6 points 1 year ago
[–] [email protected] 5 points 1 year ago (3 children)

I didn’t even know that was happening!

load more comments (3 replies)
load more comments
view more: next ›