Health, News

Gay Activists Fight the Squick Factor in Blood-Donation Ban

Last June, the American Medical Association turned up the heat by voting to oppose the lifetime ban, saying gay men could be treated like other high-risk groups. That development was followed by a nationwide protest last week, as gay men volunteered to visit blood donation centers and go through the humiliating process of being publicly told they couldn’t donate. Continue reading Gay Activists Fight the Squick Factor in Blood-Donation Ban

Health, News, Politics

How Long Until Gay People Can Give Blood?

Blood donation comes with a ticking sound, a count of the roughly 42 days that whole blood can be banked before it’s no longer usable. Blood banks and hospitals are daily involved in a complex dance to move blood to where it’s needed.

If you are gay, of course, you can pay no attention to donating life-saving blood. Currently there’s a lifetime “deferral” for men who have at any time since 1977 had sex with other men. This is an FDA policy, nothing to do with your local blood bank. Continue reading How Long Until Gay People Can Give Blood?

Health, News, Science

Hutchinson Center’s Push for HIV Cure is Legacy of “Berlin Patient”

The National Institutes of Health has awarded a 5-year, $20-million grant to the Fred Hutchinson Cancer Research Center to test ” whether a person’s own stem cells can be engineered to deny HIV entry into the body’s blood cells.” The possibility of a cure for HIV is more than a little mind-boggling after so many years where the best hope was simply to arrest the virus’s progression. Continue reading Hutchinson Center’s Push for HIV Cure is Legacy of “Berlin Patient”