Donate blood

Mhum.

I had an appointment at Toynbee Hall on Monday to give some dirty homosexual blood by ways of lying: “Have you ever ever had any kind of overly sexual thoughts towards men, whether with a condom or not?” “No Sir. Never ever. And I promise I will never have. Ever.”

Well, even if the idea of helping people with my blood was a very good one to me, I’m not completely happy with the prospect of lying. What if, for instance, I give my blood, saying “No, I’m not gay”, and then I involve myself heavily in the LGBT associative (?) scene? Which I’m likely to do. If they happen to find out, they could prosecute me, and even if the idea of making things change this way, I’m not a fan, really.

So I cancelled for tomorrow ^{(which will also allow me another day in Paris, and to meet the überfantasticable Laweeez)}. But a nifty idea about making things change came to my mind, and I don’t know yet if it’s realistic, if people will follow it, etc., but I’m working this out.

I will try to give my dirty, soiled, toxic homosexual blood on the 27th Feb.

I’ll keep you updated.

I phoned the LLGS, asking them about this issue. A nice listener told me that it would depend on the institution at which I’d go to donate blood.

But I didn’t stop there, I said “Oh well okay, thanks for your answer. I think I’m going to lie.” Of course, he was quite interrogative, and I continued: “Well, if i’m healthy, if I’ve only had healthy sex and if I’m HIV-neg, which they are going to confirm before using the blood, there’s no reason for me not to give blood, is there? And I think morally, it’s the right thing to do: if I want to help saving lives, but the system doesn’t allow this only because of my homosexuality, I think it’s morally unacceptable.”

We kept the conversation going for half a minute, him trying to tell me as politely as possible (people at LLGS have to be supportive and non-judgemental of any decision made, but at the same time they can’t say ‘yeah go on lying’) not to do it, and me trying to tell him that this was crazy.

At the end of the call, I said: “So thanks, and good luck for the rest of the calls.” “Thanks to you, bye—” and then to his colleague: “Oh my G…!”.

Geez. That’s crazy!. Are people stupid? I mean, that was the LLGS, for fuck’s sake, they’re supposed to help gays and transgendereds and lesbians and, and… Hell!

Question A6, applying to men only: “Have you ever had oral or anal sex with another man with or without a condom or other form of protection?” And then they ask the women if they have ever had sex with a man in this situation.

With or without a condom or other form of protection? Now what, even if I’ve only had sane, protected sex with men I would have to check the red “Yes”? Does that infer that there might be some risk?

Calm down, calm down. After all, I don’t know why they’re asking this. So I phoned the helpline, and the gentleman kindly replied that he couldn’t tell me, I had to ask at the donation center.

Mode meangry: If I ever go there, and they tell me that I’m not eligible because of past homosexual sex, I won’t shout, I won’t leave slamming the door-I’m going to fucking lie, because saving lives mustn’t depend on the system -lacking proper approaches homophobia!

Edit: I’m going on the 12th Jan., at the Bishopsgate Institute, 230 Bishopsgate, Central London. If anybody wants to come along in the morning, feel free!