Zmurray
04-10-2008, 07:27 AM
Hello to all,
My name is Zachary Murray. I am a young gay man who is happily with the person I want to spend the rest of my life with. I have always been concerned with the rights of the gay community. Last year I started an Organization called SADBlood (Students Against the Discrimination of Blood). This group is (Was, I have been having trouble finding dedicated people to help keep it running) dedicated to ending the discrimination of the FDA and Red Cross when it comes to blood donations from gay men. The current policy states that "Any man who has had sexual intercourse with a man since 1977" is not allowed to donate. This is regardless of if the person has clean blood or not. I have personally been banned from all Red Cross events for a demonstration that I did last year in Vermont at a Red Cross Event. We distributed information and talked to people going in to give blood to give them a better idea of the policy, which most did not know about. The Red Cross assumed the worst and believed us to be poisoning the blood somehow and ended up almost throwing out all of the blood from that drive. After I wrote that chapter a letter explaining that we were encouraging all of those people who [I]could give blood to give blood. This is a great cause and I would love to really get the ball rolling but I need people to be dedicated to help out. If you are interested let me know. Thank you very much for all your efforts to further LGBT rights.
Zachary Murray
My name is Zachary Murray. I am a young gay man who is happily with the person I want to spend the rest of my life with. I have always been concerned with the rights of the gay community. Last year I started an Organization called SADBlood (Students Against the Discrimination of Blood). This group is (Was, I have been having trouble finding dedicated people to help keep it running) dedicated to ending the discrimination of the FDA and Red Cross when it comes to blood donations from gay men. The current policy states that "Any man who has had sexual intercourse with a man since 1977" is not allowed to donate. This is regardless of if the person has clean blood or not. I have personally been banned from all Red Cross events for a demonstration that I did last year in Vermont at a Red Cross Event. We distributed information and talked to people going in to give blood to give them a better idea of the policy, which most did not know about. The Red Cross assumed the worst and believed us to be poisoning the blood somehow and ended up almost throwing out all of the blood from that drive. After I wrote that chapter a letter explaining that we were encouraging all of those people who [I]could give blood to give blood. This is a great cause and I would love to really get the ball rolling but I need people to be dedicated to help out. If you are interested let me know. Thank you very much for all your efforts to further LGBT rights.
Zachary Murray