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Others walked through the crowds, passing out water, bagels, sunscreen and Gatorade. Chelsea Farrington (ChelsFarrington) JOrlando needs blood donations for the shooting at Pulse yet we, gay men, are prohibited by law from donating to save our own.
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People were parking on the grass and sidewalk to get in line. Gay and bisexual men are legally banned from donating blood in Orlando as dozens of their peers sit wounded in a hospital in need of it. and he estimated that the line was already 1,000 people long. "All the roads are closed off and I was hoping to donate blood, but obviously the hospital is blocked off and they said don't go there anymore," said Rob Rothaug, who lives nearby.īryla arrived at the OneBlood donation facility around 10:45 a.m. The turnout has been so big, traffic is snarled in the area, and OneBlood started turning donors away because it ran out of supplies. "It just means a lot to me and to my community as well." Update, June 12, 2016: Reports have circulated that OneBlood, an Orlando donation center, is accepting gay blood donors today. "The amount of support and love that came from this devastating tragedy is overwhelming,” Bryla says. "While many gay and bisexual men will be eligible to donate their blood and help save lives under this 12-month deferral, countless more will continue to be banned solely on the basis of their sexual orientation and without medical or scientific reasoning,” the group said in a statement.īryla says the turnout at blood drives in Orlando has been enormous.
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An advocacy group called National Gay Blood Drive said it supported the decision, that it was "still discriminatory." In 2015, the policy changed to allow donations as long as men hadn’t had sex with other men in the previous 12 months. Following the mass shooting at a gay nightclub. Gay and bisexual men in the United States were barred from donating blood for more than 30 years, since the early days of the HIV and AIDS epidemic. In December 2015, the FDA revised its guidelines to allow blood donations from gay men, as long as they hadn’t had sex with other men for one year. “It’s going to be frustrating that I can’t do this humanitarian act for my community." "As a homosexual this morning I was irate, I was frustrated that I thought I wouldn’t be able to donate just because I am gay,” Bryla said. The federal Food and Drug Administration’s recommendation is to not accept blood donations from gay men if they've had sex in the past year. Frantically, he started contacting all of his friends, a number of whom he found out had been injured when a heavily armed man opened fire in Pulse Nightclub, killing 50 and injuring 53.Īfter the tragedy, thousands went out to donate blood, something a sexually active gay man can't do.