I used to tell people the reason I haven't had sex was because I wanted to remain a blood donor and save lives.


nobody bought that, but I donate blood anyways. What they don't know doesn't hurt them. They ask the personal questions through an impersonal computer screen. it's easy to lie to the computer.

Here is Stonewalls response to my emails to them regarding my brother :

Dear Ashley,

Thank you for getting in touch with Stonewall. I was very sorry to hear about your brother, and I hope I can clarify the situation for you.

The British Bone Marrow Registry is run by the National Blood Service. The NBS currently have a blanket ban on all gay men giving blood or donating bone marrow. This is because medical research has shown that if gay men were allowed to give blood or donate bone marrow than the chances of HIV infected blood or blood products being donated would increase. You can find the full reasons for banning gay men from giving blood here: Professional guidelines for transfusion and for the collection, testing, processing of blood

This is indeed a great shame, and something which gay people do feel understandably strongly about. At present, Stonewall does not contest the NBS ban, because we do not have the medical expertise to be able to do so. However, we are currently reviewing our policy on this. The Terrence Higgins Trust, the UK’s leading HIV charity for gay men, also supports the NBS ban at present, see http://www.tht.org.uk/informationres...bloodproducts/ for more information.

In terms of what you could do next to help your brother, perhaps you could get in touch with the Leukaemia Research Foundation, Leukaemia Research, or Leukaemia Care, Leukaemia CARE to find out what they can suggest.

Whilst we do not contest the ban at present, I can assure that this is a matter which we do keep under review, and we understand why people do feel strongly about it. Thank you once again for taking the time to contact us about this very important issue.
Kind regards

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Do they think you're performing the operation yourself or something?

Nice of them to get back to you, but it's kind of a non-answer, isn't it.

I dunno why but i feel cheated and disgusted... they are basically agreeing with these peeps who are against it
nice of them to reply after ages like lol

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Well they're saying they need to make sure they know what they're talking about before they move in for the kill, sort of thing. I can understand that, and I can understand them not wanting to get your hopes up or to say outright that they're in the right until they know they can make good on it. Unfortunately, I don't think it's going to come down to research or knowledge really; it's just a case of what is determined to be an acceptable risk. I guess the logical way to do this would be to compare the percentage of gay people with HIV with the amount of blood donations that are lost as a result of these stringent guidelines. Ultimately no blood transfusion is totally risk-free, and it seems that filtering out a large sector of society who do want to give blood for good reasons might be shooting themselves in the foot. They might well insist that "one infection would be too much", but if more people are dying as a result of them not having enough blood in the bank than would as a result of the HIV risk, it's definitely a case of being over-cautious.

The NHS is damning the gays when they know damn rightly that they are at just a greater risk from a hetero lol.
yeah i understand what your saying dude... but i still dont like it

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FACT
Black people have a higher rate of infection than gays.

But no one would ever think of banning them from giving blood. It's just that much more socially acceptable to hate on the gays.

Yeah. My point was that, even if we do have an elevated risk, I'd want to know if it's so elevated that it represents more of a threat than not having enough blood donors.

Unless those ads are lying and there's no blood shortage at all, and the NHS is just being a big load of homophobic bloodhogs.

But yes, as you say, technically black people are a greater risk, but you could reduce that risk massively by asking a person "have you had unprotected sex?" "have you recently had a blood transfusion?", etc. and you wouldn't be missing out on a fucking ocean of perfectly safe blood while not really reducing the risk of contamination that much.

Actualy the fact black's are at more risk really shock's me! I remember going to donate blood and the nurse telling me I was in a risk group that included "Prostitute's and heroin addidct's" she laughed I laughed but really wanted to smash her face in.. Christian fundamentalist cunt!

But hey their loss... I guess XD

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- Please note irony is wasted on you

I dunno, I think it's both of our losses.

Realistically, drunk college girls should also be on this list, since they're such sluts.

someone should go to donate dressed and acting the total flamer while insisting on their heterosexuality, ticking the box that says yes i'm straight

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they made soup out of my research turtles.

Kesh, I dare you to donate and then come out of the closet immediately afterwards. Cuz, you know, you weren't gay when you gave blood, right? Only shortly afterwards?

but i thought you filthy sodomites were born twisted and wrong

i used to donate blood. it wasn't altruism, i used to think i had too much blood in me

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they made soup out of my research turtles.

To think Kesh's piss piss could be swimming in my blood stream one day... I don't know, does make me kinda sad that I'm English XD

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- Please note irony is wasted on you

Maybe. I'd just be interested to see if they feel the same way once they've got your blood. I mean, if a gay guy who's never been bummed is high risk, a straight guy should be okay if he gives blood and then becomes gay (even if he's been sodomised as many times as you, kesh )

my prolapsed old mancunt is technically virgo intacta, though you wouldn't know it to look

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they made soup out of my research turtles.

Well we won't be sure of that until you post pics pls.

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they made soup out of my research turtles.

XD

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- Please note irony is wasted on you