panoptes@iquest.net wrote:
> [TELECOM Digest Editor's Note:
>> But is there any reason Red Cross could not in their newspaper
>> advertisements seeking blood not state that 'homosexuals need not
>> apply', or any reason they could not state that in their posters they
>> put in the windows of every storefront in town? That way, a GLBT
>> person who read their _honest_ notice could simply walk on past,
>> rather than taking a cab to get there (this was before I had my
>> motorized chair), stopping in, getting humiliated by them and being
>> bribed with an offer of a free cookie and juice to keep quiet about it
>> afterward.]
> Probably the same reason their ads don't state "people with high blood
> pressure need not apply", "people with a low hematocrit need not
> apply", "people who have taken aspirin in the last 72 hours need not
> apply", "people who inject insulin for diabetes need not apply",
> "people who currently have a cold need not apply", "people who have
> donated blood recently need not apply", "people who have recently been
> vaccinated for smallpox need not apply", .... How large are those
> ads, anyway?
> When I donate, there are about forty to fifty questions like this, and
> I've actually been turned away for three of them. I keep track of
> this, because one of the questions involves prior deferrals, which
> they then check for the possibility of coming up again.
>> [And if you question my claim of Red Cross' homophobic bigotry, please
>> note they do _NOT_ automatically refuse to accept blood from
>> prostitutes or their patrons, nor from drug users/abusers, but only
>> from gay men, whom they ignorantly claim are 'promiscuous'. PAT]
> They automatically ASK about those. I don't know what their automatic
> deferral policies are (except that a "yes" answer to "have you ever
> been deferred" does not seem to mean an automatic deferral again).
> And I don't know how many of the people working at the blood bank
> actually know the reasons behind all the questions on the list.
They are working towards knowing their regular donors and having
their data on-line (some day).
But your first time you have to answer a lot of embarrasing questions.
they, "how much do you weigh?" me, "Naked!?", us, <laughing>
Rick Merrill (rick0.merrill@NOSPAM.gmail.com)