From a Center Changing Blood Donation Protocol to a Pro-LGBT University Church Vandalized, This Week in Across the Country – SouthFloridaGayNews.com
This week read about an LGBT center changing its blood donation protocol in Los Angeles, and vandals taking down a Pride flag and replacing it with a confederate one at a university church in Virginia.
LA LGBT Center Changes Blood Donation Protocol
Recruiters at Los Angeles LGBT Center are on the search for 250–300 gay and bisexual men between 18 to 39 years old for a new study intended to change the way The U.S. Food and Drug Administration screens potential blood donors.
For decades, the administration has resorted to a “time-deferral” policy that prohibits men who have sex with men from giving blood up to a year after their last encounter. The time deferral was relaxed to three months in response to COVID-19, but the LA Center is one of eight centers nationwide that will shift to a questionnaire that assesses each individual’s HIV risk factors.
LA LGBT Center’s Chief Medical Officer Robert Bolan said in a statement, “The decades-old policy was enacted at a time when there was little science on the mechanisms of HIV transmission and the epidemic was concentrated in the gay community. The Center is eager to contribute, through the ADVANCE study, in ending the stigma surrounding HIV and AIDS and the discrimination that targets gay and bisexual men.”
Pro-LGBT Virginia University Church Vandalized
An image of the incident, edited by Wesley Chapel to censor the Confederate flag. Photo via Wesley at Virginia Tech, Facebook.
Each time vandals stole a rainbow pride flag from Virginia Tech’s off-campus Wesley Chapel, Minister Bret Gresham would retrieve another one and hang it up again. This past weekend, he found that unknown vandals left two of their own flags in place of the ones they stole — confederate ones.
The chapel posted to its Facebook page, “This hate crime goes against all that we believe, and we want our LGBTQ+ community to know that we will always love, support, and embrace you with open arms.”
The latest incident makes three in less than two weeks for the small campus ministry, which has flown the pride flag for years. The incident has been reported to the Blacksburg Police Department.
Gresham told NBC News, “This one was just an escalation when the confederate flag was put up in its place. My number one concern is the students and making sure they feel they have a safe environment to come to, to live out their faith and be affirmed in who they are.”