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This means that these people were not allowed to help their own community members during a time of extraordinary need. For gay and bisexual men who will remain sexually active throughout their lives, a one-year deferral amounts to a lifetime ban. Although OneBlood, a Florida-based donation center, estimated that over 28,000 people donated the week following the tragedy, MSMs were not among them. Forty-nine people were killed and 53 more were injured after a gunman opened fire on the Orlando gay bar. Last year, the LGBT community was powerfully reminded of that statistic following an attack on Pulse nightclub, the deadliest mass shooting in U.S. A unit of blood is used every two seconds in this country.”
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They either want to give back if they’ve needed blood, they know someone who needs blood, or they might need blood someday. “People give blood because they want to do the right thing. “In the U.S., we have an altruistic donor system,” Franzone says. But as he waited to be seen in the lobby of the Red Cross building, Franzone wore a short-sleeve henley, anxious but prepared to do good. A recent college graduate, he has a collection of bow ties his favorite is pink with blue polka dots on it. Franzone made an appointment with the American Red Cross to give blood on January 10th, and the morning of donation day, Franzone was not thinking about the importance of the act. Now 21, Franzone decided to protest the current policy by remaining abstinent for a year in order to donate under current FDA guidelines, and this week wrote an op-ed for the New York Times about his experience. “You can’t give blood because you’re gay, so there must be something wrong with you,” Franzone says.