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timmy
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Has no life at all |
Location: UK, in Devon
Registered: February 2003
Messages: 13751
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I would like your help, please. But I would like it on my blog, not as answers here. The reason i don;t want answers here is because the person who would like the answers will not see them here. He will only look on my blog.
There you may answer anonymously, or, better, you may choose a pen name. In other words you only need, if you will, to reveal your opinion, not your name.
http://timtrent.blogspot.com/2009/12/gay-men-uk-prohibition-against-donating.html is the blog article. It is written by a guest author.
Non UK folk should also comment, please, ideally noting their nation and the policy in that nation if they know it. They should also note that there is no cash for blood in the UK. The donation is a true act of charity.
Author of Queer Me! Halfway Between Flying and Crying - the true story of life for a gay boy in the Swinging Sixties in a British all male Public School
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Thanks for that, Nigel. I've send the national blood service an email asking them to change the rule.
Love,
Anthony
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Why stop there? Blow-up your MP's Constituency District Office with phone calls & e-mails. What about asking the Editor's of The Guardian, The Times, The Mirror, etc. to publish an investigative piece or two? Start a Facebook campaign! Possibilities are endless.
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Brody Levesque wrote:
> Why stop there? Blow-up your MP's Constituency District Office with phone calls & e-mails. What about asking the Editor's of The Guardian, The Times, The Mirror, etc. to publish an investigative piece or two?
In my case ... because I've already written to my MP on the subject twice, and don't want to be dismissed as one of the green-ink-using nutter brigade (it's counter-productive). And both the Guardian and the Times regularly run pieces on this (as does this forum, where it's discussed at least once a year), and PinkNews and most other gay publications in the UK. And because I've signed a fair number of assorted on-line petitions. and because I discussed it with senior regional members of the National Blood Service (twice) in the days when my buildings regularly hosted blood donor sessions. And so on.
Actually, the very best and most striking demonstration on this subject that I've come across so far is mentioned on this very board - http://forum.iomfats.org/w-agora/index.php?bn=forumiomfatsorg_placeofsafety&key=1162205810&pattern=NUS&action=view - an NUS action asking people to donate in place of all those who cannot.
It is simply not possible for most people living ordinary lives to devote their entire existence to promoting causes, however strongly they believe in them. Most of us have to be pretty selective about the things we are prepared to take time and trouble to actively support (as opposed to signing on-line petitions and stuff) with time and/or money. Furthermore, for most of us, "gay issues" have to take their place in the list of our priorities ... for me, the blood donation one has been important for several years, but it ranks below UK Civil Liberties, withdrawal of UK troops from Afghanistan, amendments to the Equalities Act, but probably above my support for the work of Dr Barnardos, Action for Brazils Children, and the Uganda issue.
"The ultimate weakness of violence is that it is a descending spiral, begetting the very thing it seeks to destroy. ... Returning violence for violence multiplies violence, adding deeper darkness to a night devoid of stars." Martin Luther King
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timmy
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Has no life at all |
Location: UK, in Devon
Registered: February 2003
Messages: 13751
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I agree with you that we need to be careful with our use of green ink - a colour I use as a matter of course in my fountain pen! And I love the NUS campaign.
One technique I use when writing to my elected reps is to ask them to express their opinion on the matter before I explain mine to them. And, as you will all have seen, I use my blog to publicise their answers. This is not a breach of confidence because the UK Freedom of Information Act makes these emails public property anyway.
Author of Queer Me! Halfway Between Flying and Crying - the true story of life for a gay boy in the Swinging Sixties in a British all male Public School
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saben
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On fire! |
Registered: May 2003
Messages: 1537
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You actually get answers from your elected MPs?
We usually get canned, automatically written responses from their staff.
Look at this tree. I cannot make it blossom when it suits me nor make it bear fruit before its time [...] No matter what you do, that seed will grow to be a peach tree. You may wish for an apple or an orange, but you will get a peach.
Master Oogway
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Saben wrote:
> You actually get answers from your elected MPs?
Nope - at least, not all of us do. My reply rate from the execrable David Lammy, my MP, is one reply (which took 14 weeks) from the seven letters I've sent him on assorted subjects in the last five years.
Unfortunately, the local Labour party (of which I am a very reluctant member) does not share my view that he should be de-selected as our candidate ...
"The ultimate weakness of violence is that it is a descending spiral, begetting the very thing it seeks to destroy. ... Returning violence for violence multiplies violence, adding deeper darkness to a night devoid of stars." Martin Luther King
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NW wrote:> "My reply rate from the execrable David Lammy, my MP..." That is so sad. What an arse! What I have difficulty understanding is how those blowholes keep getting themselves reelected to office. Especially in urban areas where the populace tends to be less forgiving and one helluva lot more vocal about the issues.
Amazing.... Since I always interact with them as a member of the press, I honestly haven't had to deal with the levels of frustration that I'll wager you NW and you too Saben along with Tim & company here experience. Of course, they can be very reluctant in dealing with me obviously for that very reason.
Anyway I look at it, its brilliant that you all participate heavily in Civic affairs of any stripe. Well done eh?
Then, sometimes its only too obvious what the problem with elected officials is......
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saben
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On fire! |
Registered: May 2003
Messages: 1537
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Are you paid for donating in Canada?
Look at this tree. I cannot make it blossom when it suits me nor make it bear fruit before its time [...] No matter what you do, that seed will grow to be a peach tree. You may wish for an apple or an orange, but you will get a peach.
Master Oogway
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Like Timmy, I can't condone the donor's behaviour, and have to somewhat grudgingly support the Government's legal action in reprisal.
Given Canada's long-standing support of LGBT rights, commencing with the passage by Parliament the first changes to the Canadian Criminal Code and our nationally decriminalizing homosexual acts in March of 1967 (one month before "expo'67" opened in the City of Montréal, and fully two years before Stonewall happened in New York City, a process which would fully realized and completed with final amendments being made in 1971) it would seem a contradiction of sorts that the Canadian Blood Services would continue to foster this sort of enmity amongst our LGBT population; but, to appreciate why this circumstance continues to prevail, one has to understand the nature of the "Tainted Blood Scandal" of the mid-1980's as it unfolded here, in Toronto, and to a lesser degree elsewhere throughout the Province of Ontario and Central Canada.
I have no hard evidence supporting this; but, I would expect that authorities are likely still paying off settlements reached as a direct result of that tragedy; a tragedy whose impact is still felt in communities throughout much of southern Ontario; and solely because "local" sentiment continues to run very high regarding this situation, any changes to the protocols for, or against, inclusion of LBGT donors is going to be hard slogging indeed.
Warren C. E. Austin
The Gay Deceiver
Toronto, Canada
[Updated on: Tue, 29 June 2010 22:53]
"... comme recherché qu'un délice callipygian"
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saben
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On fire! |
Registered: May 2003
Messages: 1537
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I can understand someone lying if they were paid for their blood. But lying just to be able to donate seems to be pushing altruism a bit far. Why help those uninterested in being helped?
Look at this tree. I cannot make it blossom when it suits me nor make it bear fruit before its time [...] No matter what you do, that seed will grow to be a peach tree. You may wish for an apple or an orange, but you will get a peach.
Master Oogway
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timmy
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Has no life at all |
Location: UK, in Devon
Registered: February 2003
Messages: 13751
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It isn't altruism though. It's "My blood is so good that you can't survive without it." It's narcissism.
Even though I don;t support the rules, I absolutely do not support breaking them like this. He can be used as the poster brat for Gay Men Cannot Be Trusted
[Updated on: Wed, 30 June 2010 12:50]
Author of Queer Me! Halfway Between Flying and Crying - the true story of life for a gay boy in the Swinging Sixties in a British all male Public School
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saben
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On fire! |
Registered: May 2003
Messages: 1537
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It's not so much that HIS blood is so good that people can't survive without it, it's that ANY screened blood is so good that people can't survive without it. There are shortages, and monogamous gay men are being rejected.
I don't think trying to help people when there is a shortage is narcissism.
And I also think that breaking laws is fine if the laws are WRONG. But you do need to weigh up the risks. And I think that donating blood as a gay man is too risky to be worth what you get out of it, especially if you don't get paid for it.
Look at this tree. I cannot make it blossom when it suits me nor make it bear fruit before its time [...] No matter what you do, that seed will grow to be a peach tree. You may wish for an apple or an orange, but you will get a peach.
Master Oogway
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Gay Men, The UK, The Prohibition against Donating Blood 
Re: Gay Men, The UK, The Prohibition against Donating Blood 
