Opn: Liftg the stigma agast gay men brgs new blood donors to the Red Cross - Los Angel Tim

Contents:

• RED CROSS FIR CHRISTIAN WHO OPPOSED “GAY PRI” MONTH
• AMERIN RED CROSS GO WOKE, CELEBRAT ALLOWG MORE GAY MEN TO DONATE BLOOD, WANTS DONORS TO 'SELF-INTIFY' THEIR GENR
• TOP DEMOCRATS RENEW CALL TO END ANTI-GAY BLOOD BAN AS RED CROSS ANNOUNC FIRST-EVER NATNAL SHORTAGE CRISIS
• GAY MEN STILL FACE HURDL TO DONATE BLOOD AMID NATNAL SHORTAGE
• LETTG GAY MEN DONATE BLOOD COULD HELP SOLVE A MAJOR HEALTH CRISIS
• GAY MAN SLAMS THE RED CROSS A FUR RANT FOR NOT ALLOWG HIM TO DONATE BLOOD
• 18 ANTI-GAY GROUPS AND THEIR PROPAGANDA
• COLUMN: TWO GAY MEN WALK TO A RED CROSS BLOOD DONATN CENTER ...
• BIN ADMISTRATN SPEAKS OUT ON FERAL BLOOD DONATN POLICY IMPACTG GAY MEN AMID NATNAL BLOOD SHORTAGE
• THE ANTI-GAY AGENDA
• GAY MEN DONATG BLOOD: AMERIN RED CROSS WANTS BAN EASED
• CRICS LL TO END THREE-MONTH CELIBACY REQUIREMENT FOR GAY, BISEXUAL MEN AMID BLOOD SHORTAGE

RED CROSS FIR CHRISTIAN WHO OPPOSED “GAY PRI” MONTH

S., the Red Cross, along wh One Blood, Valant and partner LGBTQ+ muny health centers, are participatg a pilot study fund by the FDA select ci that uld potentially lead to chang for blood donor eligibily creria for gay and bisexual men.

Concln: No Middle GroundToday many ernment agenci, private rporatns, and nonprof anizatns have “diversy polici, ” which may entail “sensivy trag” for employe — ually to imprs on them that homosexual activy is above any kd of cricism — or donatn of funds for “gay pri” paras and siar enterpris. Although the law do not perm employers to extract any kd of “loyalty oath to diversy” om their employe, always seems possible for banks, universi, surance pani, or chari to fd “other reasons” to fire Christian, Jewish, or Mlim employe who nnot embrace the employer’s visn of homosexual webse “Good as You, ” mentg on the Hartman se, drew a le the sand:“[I]n the world where anti-gay is ‘pro-fay’ and marriage is volved some sort of crazy sry war, ‘not celebratg homosexualy’ means unapologetilly monizg and stigmatizg those who embrace a society where equaly and acceptance are the name of the game.

The Food and Dg Admistratn has announced that has relaxed even further the rtrictns placed on gay men who want to donate blood, and seems that the Amerin Red Cross uldn't be ARC, operatn wh s LGBTQ+ Team Member Rource Group, issued a statement celebratg the FDA's cisn.

AMERIN RED CROSS GO WOKE, CELEBRAT ALLOWG MORE GAY MEN TO DONATE BLOOD, WANTS DONORS TO 'SELF-INTIFY' THEIR GENR

"All prospective donors who report havg a new sexual partner, or more than one sexual partner the past three months, and anal sex the past three months, would be ferred to rce the likelihood of donatns by dividuals wh new or recent HIV fectn who may be the wdow perd for tectn of HIV by nucleic acid ttg, " the FDA the FDA statement impli that some homosexual behavrs rry creased risk for HIV fectn, many supposed health experts have implied that prev bans on blood donatns om MSM were the rult of anti-gay bigotry. Halkis, the an of the School of Public Health at Rutgers Universy, claimed that the ban on MSM was "rooted homophobia, " a ntentn that seems to be supported by the ARC: "The Red Cross also regniz the hurt this [prev] policy has ed and that the are jt the first steps repairg relatnships wh the broar LGBTQ+ muny. Dpe this urgent need for donatns, people who have sex wh gay or bisexual men are still facg rtrictns on their abily to give Food and Dg Admistratn bars people who have had sex wh gay or bisexual men om donatg blood for three months followg the most recent sexual ntact bee of fears of HIV the blood agency changed the ferral perd om 12 months to three months November 2020 as blood donatns fell and hospals faced cril shortag durg the first year of the COVID-19 advot, cludg the Human Rights Campaign, say the FDA is movg too slowly on removg the rtrictn, sayg that 's an outright ban on the abily of people, particularly gay and bisexual men, to donate blood.

Rtrictns on blood donatns om gay and bisexual men, who are nsired to be at high risk for HIV or AIDS transmissn, date back to the and bisexual men unrgo dividual risk asssments stead of time-based bans untri around the world, recently cludg Greece and France, acrdg to ternatnal reports. The event was held to prott feral l that effectively ban gay men om donatg Bispg/Star Tribune via Getty Imag, FILEValant told ABC News a new statement that rearchers are halfway toward s goal of enrollg 2, 000 participants across eight ci: Washgton D. They enurage gay and bisexual men who are 18 to 39 years old to participate the FDA, a statement to ABC News, said that this study uld generate data that will help the agency terme if a donor's dividual risk asssment and qutnnaire would be jt as effective rcg the risk of HIV the blood supply as the time-based ferrals the FDA already has FDA also said do not have a specific timele for when the studi will be pleted but that is "mted to gatherg the scientific data that n support alternative donor ferral polici that mata a high level of blood safety.

“It is my opn that we ntue to have a real problem wh laws and regulatns based on fear rather than science, ” she ntuatn of a MSM-specific barrier to givg is not only limg the blood supply, ’s unnecsary and “rooted homophobia, ” explas Perry N. Conducted tanm wh the natn’s largt blood centers—the Amerin Red Cross, Valant, and OneBlood—the rearch effort will survey 2, 000 gay and bisexual men across the untry between the ag of 18 and 30 who have had sex wh at least one man the past three months. The anizatn offered $5 Amazon gift rds to those who donated that Augt an attempt to boost blood suppli -- this offer was obvly not extend to elligible gay Amerin Red Cross has shown a willgns to change the policy, but they are rtricted by the current U.

TOP DEMOCRATS RENEW CALL TO END ANTI-GAY BLOOD BAN AS RED CROSS ANNOUNC FIRST-EVER NATNAL SHORTAGE CRISIS

Gay man SLAMS the Red Cross a fur rant for not allowg him to donate blood and save liv: 'It's a morn day homophobic anisatn'Stt O'Halloran, who is popular on TikTok for his 'sassy' moments has gone viralHe recently ranted about his eligibily to give blood bee of his sexualyMen are not allowed to donate blood wh three months of last sexual activy Updated: 06:39 BST, 3 May 2022.

Scroll down for vio Brothers Stt O'Halloran, left, and Le O'Halloran, right, have slammed the Red Cross' l about gay men beg eligible to donate bloodStt qutns whether his brother is stirrg him up before sayg his peace.

GAY MEN STILL FACE HURDL TO DONATE BLOOD AMID NATNAL SHORTAGE

'It's heartbreakg to nstantly hear advertisements on rad and or social media pleadg for blood donors when there are many gay men willg to help out but purely bee I am a man who is love wh and married to another man, I simply nnot donate. It feels like the At Red Cross hate gay men and their daily ads are nstant remrs that I'm still not equal, ' he Red Cross said anyone who has a higher risk of exposure to HIV is banned om donatg for the same perd. We’re currently explorg rcg the 3-month wag perd for plasma rponse to your qutn about why gay men are prevented om donatg blood, men who have had sex wh men are currently unable to donate blood if the sexual activy has been the past 3 months.

Even as some well-known anti-gay groups like Foc on the Fay morate their views, a hard re of smaller groups, most of them religly motivated, have ntued to pump out monizg propaganda aimed at homosexuals and other sexual mori. The book mak a seri of claims that virtually no ser historian agre wh: that Hler was gay, that “the Nazi Party was entirely ntrolled by aristic homosexuals, ” and that gays were pecially selected for the SS bee of their nate btaly.

Takg a page om the anti-gay fabulist Stt Lively (see Abidg Tth Mistri, above), Fischer claimed a blog post last May 27 that “[h]omosexualy gave Adolph Hler, and homosexuals the ary gave the Brown Shirts, the Nazi war mache and 6 ln ad Jews. A one-time reporter for the nservative Washgton Tim, LaBarbera has been an energetic mpaigner agast “the radil homosexual agenda” sce at least 1993, when he lnched The Lambda Report, which claimed to do first-hand reportg to expose s gay enemi.

LETTG GAY MEN DONATE BLOOD COULD HELP SOLVE A MAJOR HEALTH CRISIS

DeMar has modified that dictum slightly the past, sayg that homosexuals wouldn’t all be executed unr a “renstcted” ernment, but that he did believe that the ocsnal executn of “sodom” would serve society well bee “the law that requir the ath penalty for homosexual acts effectively driv the perversn of homosexualy unrground, back to the closet.

It has lled the ia of allowg gays to serve openly the ary “evil”; opposed hate crim legislatn (which many relig-right groups falsely assert would make easy to send pastors to prison for nmng homosexualy); and raged agast a judge’s overturng of California’s Proposn 8, which had validated same-sex marriag. Although is somewhat benign by parison, the CADC has an advisory board that clus some of the untry’s most hard-le anti-gay activists: Lou Sheldon, head of the Tradnal Valu Coaln (see below); Donald Wildmon, the founr of the Amerin Fay Associatn (above); and O’Neal Dozier, a pastor who wrote his 2008 book that “[h]omosexualy not only spreads disease and ntraliz God’s mand, ” but also “stroys fai. ” Last year, CWA acced the Gay, Lbian, and Straight Edutn Network (GLSEN), a group that works to stop anti-gay bullyg schools, of g that missn as a ver to promote homosexualy schools, addg that “teachg stunts om a young age that the homosexual liftyle is perfectly natural … will [e them to] velop to adults who are sensized to the harmful, immoral realy of sexual viance.

GAY MAN SLAMS THE RED CROSS A FUR RANT FOR NOT ALLOWG HIM TO DONATE BLOOD

In one recent say on the CRM webse, he argued agast allowg homosexuals to serve openly the ary, sayg that “Bible-believg Christians would quickly fd themselv unwele Barney Frank’s new pansexual, cross-drsg ary.

In 2002, before jog CRM, Knight wrote that gay marriage “entic children to experiment wh homosexualy” and that acceptg homosexualy leads to “a loss of stabily muni, wh a rise crime, sexually transmted diseas and other social pathologi. Both Dailey and Sprigg have phed false accatns lkg gay men to pedophilia: Sprigg has wrten that most men who engage same-sex child moltatn “intify themselv as homosexual or bisexual, ” and Dailey and Sprigg voted an entire chapter of their 2004 book Gettg It Straight to siar material. In a 1999 publitn (Homosexual Behavr and Pedophilia) that has sce disappeared om s webse, the FRC claimed that “one of the primary goals of the homosexual rights movement is to abolish all age of nsent laws and to eventually regnize pedophil as the ‘prophets’ of a new sexual orr, ” acrdg to unrefuted rearch by AMERICAblog.

30, 2010, bate on MSNBC’s “Hardball wh Chris Matthews” between Perks and the Southern Poverty Law Center’s Mark Potok, Perks fend FRC’s associatn of gay men wh pedophilia, sayg: “If you look at the Amerin College of Pediatricians, they say the rearch is overwhelmg that homosexualy pos a danger to children. ” AMERICAblog also reported that then-FRC official Yvette Cantu, an terview published on Amerins for Tth About Homosexualy’s webse, said, “If they [gays and lbians] had children, what would happen when they were too by havg their sex parti?

18 ANTI-GAY GROUPS AND THEIR PROPAGANDA

Started 1987 by psychologist Pl Cameron, the Fay Rearch Instute (FRI) has bee the anti-gay movement’s ma source for what Cameron claims is “cuttg-edge rearch” — but is, fact, pletely discreded junk science phed out by a man who has been nmned by three profsnal anizatns. In 1985, the Amerin Soclogil Associatn adopted a rolutn sayg Cameron “has nsistently misterpreted and misreprented soclogil rearch on sexualy” and “repeatedly mpaigned for the abrogatn of the civil rights of lbians and gay men”; the followg year, the same group formally nmned Cameron for that misreprentatn of rearch.

They clu the Amerin Fay Associatn, Amerins for Tth About Homosexualy, Concerned Women for Ameri, Coral Ridge Mistri, the Fay Rearch Council (see above for all five) and, until recently, the Illois Fay Instute (see below). In 2006, then-Executive Director Peter LaBarbera (see Amerins for Tth About Homosexualy, above), told a relig-right gatherg hosted by Visn Ameri that homosexualy was "disgtg" and mand the closg down of all "homosexual tablishments. ” The rponse of Lrie Higgs, IFI’s belligerent director of school advocy, was that Daly was showg “surprisg naïveté, ” g the same language as pro-gay “homosexualists, ” and failg to nont “the pro-homosexual juggernt.

In 2009, Higgs pared homosexualy to Nazism, likeng the German Evangelil Church’s weak rponse to fascism to the “Amerin church’s failure to rpond appropriately to the spread of radil, heretil, stctive views of homosexualy. Matt Barber, formerly wh Concerned Women for Ameri and Amerins for Tth About Homosexualy (see above for both), joed Liberty Counsel as director of cultural affairs (also beg Liberty Universy’s associate an for reer and profsnal velopment). A year earlier, Barber had argued that given “medil evince about the dangers of homosexualy, ” should be nsired “crimally reckls for tors to teach children that homosexual nduct is a normal, safe and perfectly acceptable alternative.

COLUMN: TWO GAY MEN WALK TO A RED CROSS BLOOD DONATN CENTER ...

” Later, MassRistance charged that groups like the Gay, Lbian and Straight Edutn Network (GLSEN), which support school anti-bullyg programs, actually want to lure children to homosexualy and, very possibly, sadomasochism.

BIN ADMISTRATN SPEAKS OUT ON FERAL BLOOD DONATN POLICY IMPACTG GAY MEN AMID NATNAL BLOOD SHORTAGE

Camenker, who has long foced on the purported “homosexual agenda” the schools and equently claimed gays are dangero to kids, has repeatedly ced discreded claims om anizatns like the Natnal Associatn for Rearch and Therapy of Homosexualy that lk homosexualy and pedophilia. Former Prbyterian mister Lou Sheldon has been warng Amerins about the “gay threat” sce 1980, when he found the Tradnal Valu Coaln (TVC), which also is ncerned wh abortn and natnal secury and tak on liberal activists on a range of issu.

” Wh regard to LGBT teen suicis, TVC, unr the headle “Homosexual Urban Legends, ” claims that “[t]he ld, hard fact is that teens who are stgglg wh homosexual feelgs are more likely to be sexually molted by a homosexual school unselor or teacher than to m suici over their feelgs of spair. The TVC also mak assertns on s webse about disproportnate homosexual pedophilia and attacks the ia that people are born gay and the claim that gays want the right to marry for the same reasons that heterosexuals do — the TVC suggts the real purpose of marriage equaly is to stroy the ncept of marriage and ultimately replace altogether wh group sex and polygamy. Afterward, they snacked on mi-Oreos and sipped om ty juice all seemed very this was a totally new experience for Jeremy Walker, 55, and his hband, Judd Stark, 59, gay men who me of age at the ighteng dawn of the AIDS era.

Five years later, amid the COVID- 19 panmic 2020, the FDA shortened the abstence perd to three jt last month, the agency falized new guil for termg the eligibily of each prospective blood donor — not jt gay men or, say, sex workers — dividually, wh a seri of qutns about their recent sexual history. She is the director of marketg at Compass Communy Center Lake Worth, Fla., whose missn is to engage, empower and enrich the liv of lbian, gay, bisexual, transgenr and queer (LGBTQ) people and those impacted by HIV and AIDS. For the first time, the Bin admistratn is mentg on the Food and Dg Admistratn's long-time blood donatn guil, which are impactg the LGBTQ+ muny by preventg gay and bisexual men om beg eligible blood statement, ma by a Whe Hoe official exclively to ABC News, acknowledg the paful origs of the policy and on the heels of the Amerin Red Cross clarg their first-ever natnal blood crisis last week, as suppli at hospals and blood banks bee dangeroly low.

THE ANTI-GAY AGENDA

It also clus gay and bisexual COVID-19 survivors who wish to donate nvalcent plasma, rich wh antibodi, for ’s PicksThe rtrictn on blood donatns me out of the HIV/AIDS crisis of the 1980s, when limed ttg technology and pacy existed to screen blood for HIV. In 1983, the FDA implemented a lifetime ban on blood donatns om all men who had sex wh men after FDA removed the lifetime ban and enacted a 12-month ferral perd 2015, meang gay or bisexual men had to absta om havg sex wh other men for at least 12 months before donatg blood.

GAY MEN DONATG BLOOD: AMERIN RED CROSS WANTS BAN EASED

Maybe they should terrogate their own prient terts other people’s love, get at the root and figure out why the ia of male timacy ril the past few weeks, several rappers have ma sensive — or full-on homophobic — statements about gay people.

About a week after DaBaby’s rant, Boosie Badazz, a hip-hop artist who me up the 1990s, went after Lil Nas X, one of the rare rappers who are openly, unapologetilly, explosns-of-glter gay, threateng to asslt me say first that the untry has quickly evolved on the acceptance of gayns, and that clus an evolutn among Black people. I have always ntend that all of the -isms and -phobias are s, that a society that creat a hierarchy of humany wh whe, straight, cisgenr men at the apex, every person who is not whe or straight or cisgenr or male gets assigned a lower orr of that sense, racism and sexism, homophobia and transphobia all branch om the same one bias n fluence and amplify a society that treats racism as a sport, which each racial group is jockeyg agast the others, all of them shadowed by a culture of whe supremacy laced wh misogyny, anythg that rc your percentage of straight mal or “femiz” them is seen as weakeng the Black people bee agents agast Black power and Black liberatn, a weight on the this dulent this is adopted, traracial terror picks up where terracial terror left off. It is not the gay Black person who be an stment of a whe supremacist attack on Black masculy; is the Black homophobe who be the stment of opprsn agast his own is important to pot out that the racist and the homophobe often employ the same tactics.

Homophob often e the same tactic, claimg that they are protectg children om is precisely the fense Boosie Badazz ed when appearg on “The Breakfast Club” rad show, at one pot seemgly exprsg a fear that if rappers didn’t speak out agast certa exprsns of gayns, an entire generatn of children uld be aga, to clarify: There is no amount of exposure that n make a straight man prefer a penis or a gay one prefer a vaga. Sexual attractn and sexualy jt don’t work that this simplistic notn of sexualy oms is that there are also gay children who have known they were different for as long as they have known anythg, and those children serve reprentatn and visibily; they need to know that there is nothg wrong, broken or evil about them, so that they, too, n feel normal and seen.

CRICS LL TO END THREE-MONTH CELIBACY REQUIREMENT FOR GAY, BISEXUAL MEN AMID BLOOD SHORTAGE

Wh the natn’s blood supply at s lowt pot a , and the Amerin Red Cross clarg s first-ever natnal blood crisis earlier this month, is time for the Food and Dg Admistratn (FDA) to do somethg the AMA and others have urged for years: remove s discrimatory ban that prevents many gay and bisexual men om beg blood donors.

-- The Amerin Red Cross is askg the Food and Dg Admistratn to nsir changg s blood donatn policy for gay now, the FDA bans men om donatg blood for one year after havg sex wh another le me 2015 after s of an fe ban on blood donatns by men who have had sex wh other Red Cross is now remendg a three-month ban, which is the same policy ed Great Bra and agency released a followg statement on Thursday:The Amerin Red Cross seeks to build an clive environment that embrac diversy for all those who engage wh our lifavg missn.

Amid a natnal blood shortage, LGBTQ advot and more than two dozen members of Congrs are llg on the Food and Dg Admistratn to further ease donor rtrictns on sexually active gay and bisexual be eligible to donate blood the Uned Stat, men who have sex wh men mt absta om same-sex sexual activy for 90 days. Given advanc blood screeng and safety technology, a time-based policy for gay and bisexual men is not scientifilly sound, ntu to effectively exclu an entire group of people, and do not meet the urgent mands of the moment, ” the group Democratic members of the Hoe Oversight Commtee, addn to two openly LGBTQ members of the Hoe — Rep.