Yesterday The Roommate and I decided to have lunch together. We went to a gay restaurant down the street from us. You may be asking how do you know it's a gay restaurant and not just gay-friendly. Well, aside from the constant thumping techno house music playing, and the presence of every piece of rainbow colored neon in the entire Valley of the Sun, there is a yellow brick road to lead you to the front door.

You heard right. A mutherfucking YELLOW BRICK ROAD leading you to the front door.

This reminds me of a great Margaret Cho joke. If you don't know what joke I'm referring to, run, don't walk to you nearest video store and rent Notorious C.H.O. It's in the first fifteen minutes. And for those of you living in places with less "gay-friendly" video stores, thank your lucky stars for Netflix.

[Nonsequitor Thinking Out Loud Moment: Maybe I should stop referring to myself as The Other Brian on The Internet? and instead use Notorious B.R.I. as my moniker. Hmmmm.]

After our meal I went to the men's room. Above the urinals was one of those poster ad thingies. You know, you are doing your business and when you look forward you see an ad for Crest White Strips behind a Plexiglas frame. Usually I ignore the ads and balk at the shameless marketing ploy. But this ad did catch my eye and made me think. Nothing about the ad itself was particularly memorable, but the fact THIS ad was in THIS restaurant was.

The ad was for some organization that promotes blood donation. Why did this seem odd to me? Because here's a little known and much argued fact about blood donation: gay men can not donate blood.

It's true. See for yourself. It's the very first bullet point.

I, like many people, didn't realize this until after 9/11. After the terrorist attacks, lots of people went to donate blood. All gay men were turned away because of this archaic federal mandate from the Food and Drug Administration. Honestly I felt kind of stupid when I found out about it, because when I volunteered for the GLBT Center, I used to train new AIDS hotline volunteers every month and part of the training included blood donation. I and everyone else at the Center must have never given blood, because we had NO idea this was the case.

I, of course, understand the need to protect the supply from any potential harm to the recipients. Obviously that is the most important thing. But here's my problem.

If I were a straight man and had tons of promiscuous unprotected sex with women, I could donate blood. However let's say I'm a gay man, who has only had protected sex with one partner and know, through regular testing, I don't have HIV, I would still be denied the opportunity to donate blood.

The Red Cross has every right to refuse a donation from anyone for whatever reason. I get that. What I don't get is why this very old rule, one that was created during the Reagan years (and we all remember what he thought of AIDS), is still in effect today. The thinking behind it doesn't seem logical to me. It's discrimination based on fear and it sucks. When people want to help, they are refused and THAT pisses me off.

I never wrote about the election and how I felt about it because everyone else was and I thought who am I to think my views about our country and government are noteworthy or important enough to publish. That's not why people read my blog. (Actually, I don't think anything I write is noteworthy or important and that blogging is a pretty pretentious act. Of course, that doesn't stop me from doing it.)

Since the election, I feel like I'm influx. I live in a country during the year 2004, but it feels a lot like when I was in high school in the Eighties. I remember not knowing who I was, but knowing I didn't belong. I remember hearing AIDS jokes told in class and everyone laughing at the punch line. I remember the homophobia and religious bigotry. Today is not that bad of course, but sometimes I feel exactly as I did then. Like I don't belong. Unsure of the world around me.

And then, I find a little hope in my inbox that renewed my faith about our world and its people.

Many bloggers have posted about a young man living in Australia named Sebastian Sinclair. Sebastian was recently struck down during a hit and run accident. It is suspected this was a hate crime because he is gay and has been receiving threats recently.

Aaron Edwards has created an icon (currently seen at the top of the page to the right) in a show of support for this young many. In Aaron's own words, "If this was indeed a hate crime ? we can fight back with our best weapons ? solidarity and love."

Thank you Aaron for your big heart and for reminding me that together, with love, we all can make SUCH a difference in this world, one person at a time.