Being LGBTQ=Being Second Class Citizens in the US of A

On towleroad.com, there was an article on the Russian Health Ministry ending the ban on LGBTQ people giving blood donations (Click here for more). Why would LBTGQ (mixing it up a bit here) be denied the opportunity to give blood? Why, aren't we all HIV+ or have some other STD?

Let's see: Russian Health Ministry ends the ban on LGBTQ people giving blood donations in Russia while we in the USA are denied the opportunity to give blood donations to the Red Cross during blood drives. I mean, you know you are gay in the US when people come begging for donors for blood donations at Red Cross stations in churches, synagogues, schools, YMCAs, and I cannot give because they will ask, "Have you ever had unprotected sex?" along with "Have you been outside the country, on a farm with mad cow disease?" as if the two are synonymous.

Hey, Red Cross: not all LBTQG people are HIV+, or have STDs, or have Hepatitis A, B, or C!

This is but one more place that we who are LGBTQ are treated as second class citizens in this country, along with:

* Not being able to marry or have domestic partnership rights in all 50 states;
* Not being able to adopt children as a gay or lesbian couple;
* Not being able to necessarily bring our partners from overseas over here to live with us like married couples do, with all the rights and privileges of at least Green Card status;
* HIV+ folks from overseas, well...don't get me going;
* Not having same tax benefits as married couples;
* Being denied baptism and communion in churches, though that is a church case, not state case, but what the heck: even in the American church the bias is present;
* Our children being denied baptism and communion in children, even if they aren't LGBTQ;
* Gay hate crimes;
* Not protection against being denied housing or employment because we are LGBTQ;
* Our partners not being on our health plans nationally in places of employment;

The list can go on...really long list, but I have to work on my book DIVINITY about a weird little School of Theology at Earle University in Dunedin, SC.

Just because California's Supremes voted for us to have the right to be married doesn't mean we've won this war: it is only one more battle among many battles facing us all, gay and straight alike.

Pace!

Brett