This just came up @ werk and I’m always surprised by how many people don’t know that this is a real life thing!!!!!! ALSO — “Today’s blood screening technology detects HIV within nine to 14 days of exposure with near-perfect sensitivity. Advances in research on HIV transmission also have provided highly reliable methods for determining if someone is at risk of recent infection based on their behaviors, not sexual orientation. A patient’s chance of getting HIV from a blood transfusion in the United States today is 1 in 1.5 million. In light of these advances, there is little reason to retain a system in which needed donors are excluded based on sexual orientation while heterosexuals with multiple concurrent partners are given the green light. Under the current system, for instance, a straight man with an active chlamydia or herpes infection is not prohibited from donating blood, even though such infections suggest recent high-risk sexual contact. In a country where nearly a fourth of new HIV diagnoses are coming from heterosexual transmission, this double standard makes no sense unless the fundamental goal is discrimination, not safety.”