From DallasVoice.com
Letters - July 4, 2008
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Jul 2, 2008 - 4:28:13 PM
It’s time to overturn ban on gay blood donors
I am writing about a recent incident that greatly disturbed me.
I am an elementary school teacher. My co-worker’s son is very ill with Millers-Fischer Syndrome. This disease causes his body to lose blood and stop producing blood. Each pint of blood is incredibly expensive.
So I spoke with my principal about having a school blood drive for my co-workers’ son. The principal agreed happily to have the blood drive and contacted Carter Blood Care.
Carter Blood Care agreed to come to my school to have the blood drive. We advertised the blood drive for a few weeks in and outside the school. Many staff members, parents and friends gave blood that day.
During a free moment at school that day, I went to the room where the blood drive was taking place. I completed a questionnaire and went through the standard procedures. Everything seemed to be going as planned.
When they called my name to give blood, they reviewed the questionnaire with me. One question on the forms asked whether I’d ever had sexual intercourse with another man. As an openly gay man, I checked yes.
Then they asked me the question again, this time out loud in front of other people. Again, I said yes. I explained I have been recently tested for every STD under the sun, and I also told them that I have a partner of five years.
Then they proceeded to tell me that I couldn’t give blood at this school-wide blood drive or anywhere else for my entire life.
Because I am gay, no one will accept blood from me.
It took me a few seconds for their words to sink in. I did not argue or draw any more attention to myself. I am openly gay and everyone in my life, including my professional life, knows I am gay. But I was at my place of employment and needed to remain a professional.
Still, I was absolutely devastated. The walk from that chair to the door seemed like it took an hour. When I got back to my classroom, it hit me like a ton of bricks and I began to cry. I have not been able to forget about the incident.
I did not know, and probably many others do not know, that any man who has ever had sex with another man — ever — is banned from ever donating blood. Now I want to know what we can do about it, and I want others to know so they don’t go through what I went through.
Derek Nuckols
Dallas
Project won’t have big impact on Lee Park parking
This is in response to the article “Parking no picnic at Lee Park” (Dallas Voice, June 27).
The Oak Lawn Committee studied the proposal for the Belmont Village, a retirement home on North Hall Street across from Lee Park. The article compares it to another property “where 100 percent of independen t-living residents have cars.” If you had researched the Belmont property, you would have discovered that two-thirds of the building is devoted to “assisted-living" residents; only one-third will be “independent-living” residents.
Assisted-living residents need help in their daily lives. Most are no longer allowed to drive, and probably do not have cars. So one-third of 210 is 70 and, using your own numbers, that equates to 1.89 spaces per independent living unit.
The zoning rules do not make a distinction for “assisted living” in the required number of parking spaces. The best thing about this project is that it changes the previous Sterling condominium proposal of a tower more than 20 stories to a building of only seven stories.
Parking has never been a picnic at Lee Park on event days. This project will not have that great an impact either way on that.
Michael Milliken, president,
The Oak Lawn Committee
Only self-hatred can explain gay Republicans
I have tried for years to understand gay Republicans. Is it just me, or does “gay Republican” just somehow not quite synch up?
I’m at a loss. It just makes me think, “Wow, you must have some real identity crises and self-hatred issues.”
Please don't get me wrong, I fully support many Republican ideals, but would you invite Karl Rove to dinner? I certainly hope not, considering he masterminded the biggest fear and hatred scam on our community America has ever seen.
But hey, if you do, please enjoy your meal.
Americans are obviously gullible and respond readily to fear of the unknown. I choose not to buy into the hate rhetoric of George Bush and his cronies (who, by the way, are the true destructionists of America). I want to live in a society that is tolerant and diverse — a society in which differences are valued and appreciated.
Anyway, I've prattled on too long, but to the gay Republicans, I say, “Ask yourselves — do you really dislike yourselves and your gay brothers and sisters enough to continue this unabated assault on personal choice and freedom?”
Well, not me. I choose to be of independent thought and to back the candidates that support all of our community. Maybe I'm alone, but I'm tired of political hypocrites in this so-called “free” country of ours.
David Gregory
Dallas
Log Cabin should be commended for outreach
I recognize the need for change and plan to vote for Sen. Barack Obama and all other Democrats on my ballot in November. However, I do not understand why the president of Stonewall Democrats of Dallas is “livid” because gay Republicans are meeting with an anti-gay legislator that represents most of Oak Lawn. Isn’t that a bit intolerant?
Make no mistake about it, State Rep. Dan Branch is an enemy of our community’s struggle for civil rights. His actions in the Texas House have shown how he feels about fairness for gay men, lesbians and transgendered Texans. His ignorance about who we are and what we need is profound.
But who is better prepared to educate him and begin the work to help him understand our needs than members of a gay Republican organization?
While I often find it difficult to understand or relate to gay Republicans, I respect their efforts to create change in their ultra-conservative party. As Independents and Democrats, we should encourage them when they work to change the hearts and minds of conservative politicians in their party.
I wish the gay GOP group success in their dialogue with Rep. Branch, and I hope they will join me in working to ensure that he is defeated in his re-election campaign in November if he continues to promote anti-gay policies.
Perhaps our community would be better served if our leaders learned to practice the tolerance and anti-discrimination that we seek.
Lon Thrasher
Dallas
Schlein looking out for his own financial interests
In the recent article regarding state Rep. Dan Branch (“Log Cabin, Stonewall spar over anti-gay lawmaker,” Dallas Voice, June 27), Rob Schlein only confirms what I suspected previously about Log Cabin’s positions on issues.
Dan Branch’s voting record, as confirmed by Equality Texas, is appalling on our issues, and yet Mr. Schlein seems more than willing to overlook this, saying that we need to “reach out” to Republicans who continue to ignore us at best, and are overtly hostile to us at worst, which is the case with Dan Branch and why Stonewall Democrats of Dallas have endorsed Emil Reichstadt for this Texas House seat.
Additionally, Mr. Schlein admits that his focus as president of the Log Cabin Republicans is not “gay-centric.”
He states that economic and tax issues and “other” issues are the things that matter as much or more to him than gay issues.
The president of a gay political group is not primarily focused on gay issues? That sounds incredibly self-serving to me. Obviously, doing what is in the best interests of the LGBT community at large is at best a secondary or even lower concern for Mr. Schlein and the Log Cabin Republicans, as they apparently are more concerned with looking out for their own and their friends’ financial interests first.
Very telling indeed.
He goes on to chide Democrats in Congress for not passing any LGBT legislation. Mr. Schlein is hopefully aware that socially conservative senators would filibuster and kill any such progressive legislation and President Bush has publicly stated that he would veto any attempts to pass ENDA, “Don’t ask, don’t tell” reform, etc.
However, prominent Democrats in the House have recently formed, for the first time, a Congressional LGBT Caucus committed to advancing LGBT civil rights legislation, which Republicans are welcome to join if they so choose.
Bringing forward progressive legislation is futile until Sen. Barack Obama is elected president and we expand the razor-thin Democratic majority in the U.S. Senate by electing Lt. Col. Rick Noriega here in Texas and other progressive senators throughout the U.S. That would allow us to move forward on these issues.
Meanwhile, however, Democrats are very busy in Congress holding hearings and investigating potentially illegal actions taken by the Bush administration on important issues like torture, denying habeas corpus, and whether the White House intentionally and deliberately leaked the identity of CIA Agent Valerie Plame, which is nothing short of treason and an impeachable offense.
Let’s not forget lying about weapons of mass destruction to concoct a reason to invade a country under false pretense.
Mr. Schlein also cites “fiscal conservatism” as the reason for his support of Republicans such as Dan Branch, and yet the Republican Party has been anything but fiscally conservative.
They have instead borrowed vast amounts of money from the Chinese to finance irresponsible tax breaks for the rich here at home, creating record public debt, which in turn has caused the U.S. dollar to fall dramatically in value. And because oil is traded globally in dollars, the dollar’s fall has caused the price of oil to skyrocket.
Wake up, America. How anyone can associate themselves with the irresponsibility and incompetence of the Republican Party after the Bush administration simply boggles the mind.
Jay Narey, secretary,
Stonewall Democrats of Dallas
These letters appeared in the Dallas Voice print edition July 4, 2008.
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