Blood will tell, but often it tells too much.

It is easy for those who live in the mainstream heteronormative world to give no thought to the everyday privileges they enjoy.  However, for LGBT Americans, each day brings reminders of how cultural and governmental institutions are structured against them, and how far away true eqaulity remains.  Most of these structures are relics of past ignorance and discrimination, but they persist because sufficient will is lacking to press for needed change.  Today's example is the nation's archaic blood donation policies:

So as it stands, a married homosexual man in a monogamous relationship who practices safe sex and is HIV-negative is considered more of a threat to the blood supply than a straight man who just had sex with a prostitute. To put it mildly, this policy is preposterous; it's a relic from the 1980s that has outlived whatever usefulness it had and now simply formalizes discrimination. 

The American Red Cross has been pushing the FDA to revisit these requirements since 2006, yet in the sixth year of a Democratic administration, the rules remain in place.  With the widespread reports of blood shortage across the country, many in the aftermath of major natural disasters, it seems like it is time to raise the issue again.  As the ARC stated, "It does not appear rational to broadly differentiate sexual transmission via male-to-male sexual activity from that via heterosexual activity on scientific grounds."