To the Editor:

We are told over and over again how important it is to donate blood. How one pint of blood can save six lives, that it is not only a kind gesture, but also our civic duty. Yet a huge portion of the population is not allowed to contribute. Last Wednesday I attempted to donate blood at the blood drive and I was refused. The reason you may ask? I have had sex with a man who in his lifetime has had sex with another man. When I asked the woman why that should prevent me from donating, I was told that it was because HIV/AIDS was a huge problem in the gay community and they could not risk taking my blood because it could be infected. Call me naïve, but I thought we had gotten over this.

I thought we had moved past looking at HIV/AIDS as a ‘homosexual’ disease, and come to realize that this virus has no sexual orientation, but has the potential to infect anyone. In fact it is currently African American women that have the highest rate of infection. This policy is full of homophobic/heterosexist ideas about members of the sexual minority (a label which I am hesitant to use).

There seems to be this notion that if someone is not having monogamous heterosexual sex that they are some kind of sex crazed pervert that has no concept of sexual responsibility. That is simply not the case. I would urge everybody to step back and look at the subtle and not so subtle ways that our society discriminates against its citizens.

Sincerely,

Blyth BarnowStudent