Ok so lets talk blood. Obviously this is an important step forward, however the decisions and recommendations are still seeped in deep institutional homophobia.

A

Context: The ban on gay men giving blood was brought in in 1980 in the face of the AIDS epidemic, where little was known about HIV and testing was patchy at best. This is understandable- however what should have been a temporary measure has remained in status quo for 4 decades 2/
The 'deferral period' of 3 months, brought in in 2011, allowed a straight woman to have unprotected sex with an HIV positive man and give blood the next day while gay men had to remain abstinent for 3 months regardless of the riskiness of their sex. 3/
The obvious problem was that assumptions were being made about the risk of gay men giving blood that showed an ignorance and lack of understanding on the part of policymakers which was rightly criticised and lobbied against 4/
Over the years, LGBT+ lobbying has largely used the image of beautiful white middle class gay men in a long term committed relationship to sell the idea of equality to conservative Britain - 'We're just like you!' we shout as we show people our fascia of respectability. 5/
The problem here is: we're not just like them. Our lobbyists are like them. Our community is driven by white middle class men. Obviously notable exceptions get raised (the indominable Baroness @ruth_hunt stands out) but largely we present as male and pale AND WE'RE NOT 6/
Our community is a vibrant, multicultural, richly identifying place for people of all sexual identities: queer, polyamoury, BDSM, open relationships, monogamy - a place of sexual liberation made even more so by the introduction of PrEP (thank @Greg0wen for that!). 7/
Our community also has a dark undercurrent where issues of societal rejection, familial dispute, the status quo of 'emigrating' to big cities, shame, loneliness, chemsex and addiction all mix as people try to live as themselves as authentically as they can 8/
And here we have the meat of the issue. Once again, decision making is made with married, monogamous relationships in mind. I'm in a long term relationship. And a long term BDSM D/s situation. And I play around, as do my partner and my sub. Where do we fit? 9/
Poly people who are in multiple stable and committed relationships - where do they fit? And what about bisexual people who are in stable same sex relationships who may also play casually (or less casually) with opposite sex partners? 10/
Looks like the thread has been broken by removing 1 point. Link to point 12: https://t.co/zcQPAjADHj

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🌿𝑻𝒉𝒆 𝒔𝒕𝒐𝒓𝒚 𝒐𝒇 𝒂 𝑺𝒕𝒂𝒓 : 𝑫𝒉𝒓𝒖𝒗𝒂 & 𝑽𝒊𝒔𝒉𝒏𝒖

Once upon a time there was a Raja named Uttānapāda born of Svayambhuva Manu,1st man on earth.He had 2 beautiful wives - Suniti & Suruchi & two sons were born of them Dhruva & Uttama respectively.
#talesofkrishna https://t.co/E85MTPkF9W


Now Suniti was the daughter of a tribal chief while Suruchi was the daughter of a rich king. Hence Suruchi was always favored the most by Raja while Suniti was ignored. But while Suniti was gentle & kind hearted by nature Suruchi was venomous inside.
#KrishnaLeela


The story is of a time when ideally the eldest son of the king becomes the heir to the throne. Hence the sinhasan of the Raja belonged to Dhruva.This is why Suruchi who was the 2nd wife nourished poison in her heart for Dhruva as she knew her son will never get the throne.


One day when Dhruva was just 5 years old he went on to sit on his father's lap. Suruchi, the jealous queen, got enraged and shoved him away from Raja as she never wanted Raja to shower Dhruva with his fatherly affection.


Dhruva protested questioning his step mother "why can't i sit on my own father's lap?" A furious Suruchi berated him saying "only God can allow him that privilege. Go ask him"