The blood bank called today to get me to schedule an appointment, and I told the woman that I wasn’t going to be giving blood for at least a while. She was disappointed, what with me being one donation short of my three-gallon pin (though somewhere in there I got credit for a donation that didn’t happen for reasons I no longer recall), but I was surprised at how sympathetic she sounded to my reasoning: the pointless discrimination against gay men, highlighted by the recent rule change for sperm donors, does not allow me in good conscience to continue to support the system. She said something to the effect of “They’ll just ignore you; it’s like with stem cells.” And I said, “Well, they can ignore me without my blood, then.” She was perhaps the kindest blood center person I’ve dealt with, though they have by and large been caring and competent.
I’m not even really advocating that people stop giving blood, since we need it; but after you’ve given a gallon or two, why not let them know what you think.