This of course only applies in areas where blood has not been commodified. But if you live in a place where the medical system hasn't been completely corrupted by capital, you should do it.

And yes do it for others, but do it for yourself too. It lets you, for half an hour every few months, exist in a totally profitless environment where members of the community voluntarily gather to give to other members of the community they will never meet. Do it to remind yourself how many people on your community who don't identify as leftists participate in something like this.

Giving blood is Kropotkin's coast guard ideal.

I'm not saying giving blood is praxis, or that it will bring about the revolution, but it's an opportunity to temporarily escape our neoliberal hellworld.

  • MerryChristmas [any]
    ·
    3 years ago

    I know I shouldn't be surprised that this is still a thing but what the fuck?

    • EthicalHumanMeat [he/him]
      ·
      3 years ago

      Gay sex has historically been an HIV transmission risk, but that's obviously been made redundant by testing. Unwillingness to change the policy is motivated by the obvious reasons.

      But this is just in the US. I think they just reversed a similar policy in Germany? And I know thought Canada got rid of it years ago. So YMMV.

      Also worth noting that the "problem" is anal, not just being gay, in case that's someone concern. And again, be gay do crime. So. :shrug-outta-hecks:

      • hollowmines [he/him]
        ·
        3 years ago

        Still an issue in Canada, though it might eventually get fixed....at some point.

        https://www.cbc.ca/news/politics/blood-ban-canada-changes-1.6250434

        • hexaflexagonbear [he/him]
          ·
          3 years ago

          I swear we've been on the brink of repealing that ban since like 2006, so I wouldn't hold my breath.

      • TheCaconym [any]
        ·
        3 years ago

        But this is just in the US. I think they just reversed a similar policy in Germany?

        In France the shitheads only started to reverse it in 2018, and only if said gay people promised they had had no sexual activity in the last four months (which, what the fuck). And only a few months ago - this past summer - did they finally reverse it completely.

      • steve5487 [none/use name]
        ·
        3 years ago

        it's stigma from the aids crisis and in the past due to the stigma against being gay, gay men were forced to engage in risky sexual practices like sex with near strangers in order to have sex at all. That's a big part of why the gay community was hit worse by aids than the straight community