The FDA announced a relaxation of the guidelines for blood donations from men who have sex with men. Men who have abstained from sex with other men for at least three months, down from one year. Homosexual pundits on the left and right celebrated this ‘victory’.
The concern of the gay pundits is ‘stigma’. In their view, the restrictions on blood donation from homosexual men creates a stigma against them. Therefore, the restrictions should be lifted to lift the gay community.
This views the rules governing the safety of the blood supply as an opportunity to ‘educate’ the public at large. If only the FDA allowed gay men to donate, the thinking goes, the rubes would stop feeling disgust for us.
This is not only a doubtful outcome, but incredible selfish as well. You may say it’s even disgusting. The implicit trade-off these pundits advocate is a cultural victory for the rainbow crowd for the health of unseen victims.
And that’s how they get away with it. The ‘benefit’ of changing the FDA guideline is immediate, and the beneficiaries visible: the public gay men and their allies get the rush of a cultural victory. But the victims of their ‘victory’ are unseen: a few extra AIDS and Hepatitis infections in a nation of 300 million. Their lives do not matter because they are invisible. And what do they matter anyway, compared to the feeling of power and pride of getting your way?
