GRID. It’s an acronym we don’t use anymore, but it stands for Gay-related Immune Deficiency. It was the first name used to describe HIV/AIDS for patients affected by this disease. AIDS was the gay man's disease, and as such regulations were passed in an effort to keep this disease from spreading. It was clear, even then, that AIDS could be transmitted through blood, so FDA guidelines stated that you cannot donate blood if you are a man who has had sex with a man in the last year or if you are a woman who has had sex with one of these men.
I don’t want to imply that this regulation was ever okay, but I find it easier to walk through the rationale behind people who were convinced this disease was only transmitted by gay men and this disease could not be screened for when donating blood. Therefore, they found it logical to prohibit queer men or women who slept with queer men from donating. Again, not saying it was okay then, but it is now more than ever not okay to have a rule like this on the books.
Today, we have stopped using the acronym GRID. Today, we can screen for HIV/AIDS. Today, we know that men and women of any sexual orientation or race or age can have HIV/AIDS. Today, we for some unknown reason still have this guideline in place. Today, not even half a month after the Orlando massacre, LGBTQQIAA individuals are being turned away from blood drives because their blood isn’t viable under this FDA guideline. This is a problem.
Put yourself in their shoes. You may have gone to Latinx night with your best friend and watched them get shot. You may have received a terrifying and heart wrenching call or voicemail from your partner who went out to Pulse last night. You may be waiting in the hospital for your loved one to be taken out of the ICU. You may be one of those people and you may want to help out and donate blood, but you can’t.
Rumors began after the shooting that an exception would be made for individuals to donate blood after the Orlando shooting, so the LGBTQQIAA community celebrated and quickly went to give blood only to find out it was a lie. The regulation still stood, and they still couldn’t help with blood - they could still show their support by other means, but that's not enough. Voicing support through sharing an article on your Facebook wall or changing your profile picture to have the LGBTQQIAA flag over it or tweeting about it just isn’t sufficient. How can you expect someone to see their entire community and people they know and love gunned down to be okay when they are told they cannot help because of who they are? They don’t have blood the FDA considers worthy of helping.
Back when GRID isolated the gay community, the FDA stepped in. This “gay disease” is the reason for these blood donation laws. GRID. G. R. I. D. G-RID. G’rid of this backwards rule. There’s no scientific basis for it, no rationale any one of us should back. It’s so easy to change, so why don’t we?
