Open Thread

Rob, you are a total f*cknut! Loveable, but a f*cknut still!

Ya know…speaking of screening…here is my rant.

When you go to the City’s Health Dept. offices to get a free anonymous AIDS test, they ask you if you see any mental health professionals. I told them yes, I see a therapist. They then told me that I can’t do the test anonymously and must register with my name, DOB, therapist’s name, etc. When I asked why seeing a therapist relieves me of my right to do this anonymously, they said it was the City’s policy to not allow people to do AIDS tests anonymously if they see mental health professionals due to the risk that they may become suicidal and hurt themselves if their test comes back positive.

Now call me crazy (no pun intended!) but wouldn’t a person who already has a support system in place (ie a therapist or whatever) be in a better position to take bad news from an AIDS test? WTF? I told them this and also told them that such a policy only encourages people to lie about their mental health background, thereby defeating their ‘safety protocol.’ The director totally agreed with me and said there was nothing she could do. So what did I do? Went to another location for the test and lied about my seeing a therapist. Ninnies.

“or maybe they just think gay blood will turn people gay?”

That must be it Rob.

I am not allowed to donate blood here.
Something to do with British blood being too refined (and by ‘refined’ I mean ‘allegedly having mad cow disease’).

Posted by: etson at August 21, 2009 1:04 PM

Etson, I used to donate blood all the time, twice a year until that whole mad cow scare here. Then they added the questions on the form that if you lived in Eastern Europe from more than 2 years at a time (which I was since I was born there, I can’t donate anymore. No one complained when I donated pints and pints for years before! I really wanted to help but they don’t want my blood, oh well. And I got good blood too god damn it!