New Jersey student Dustin Weinstein, who is gay, got a wake up call when, while attempting to be a Good Samaritan, decided he was going to donate blood. Except he didn’t know that despite the Red Cross’ call for an end to the ban on blood donations from gay men, the FDA still bans gay people from donating blood.
A 20-year-old sophomore at Montclair State University, Weinstein signed up to donate blood last November at a Red Cross blood drive on campus because, he said, “I thought it would be a nice thing to do.”
But when Weinstein, who is gay, answered “yes” on a questionnaire asking whether or not he had had sexual relations with another man since 1977, American Red Cross volunteers running the drive told him that he was ineligible to be a donor.
“My initial reaction was absolute shock. I thought, there’s no way,” Weinstein, a Randolph native, said last week.
So, during the Red Cross’ next campus visit, he gathered with some friends and demonstrated against the ban. He stationed himself at a table near the Red Cross outside the student center and asked fellow students to sign a petition decrying the FDA ban. He was careful not to cause a furor, saying it was a “careful dance” keeping his demonstration forceful but respectful.
This has been a long battle, but it keeps getting refreshed every time some wide-eyed boy gets smacked down.
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