Will and Grace will address blood donation and the fight for gay men to participate.
Eric McCormack, who plays Will Truman on the show, recently shared that the series will address these issue in a future episode, according to the Ottawa Citizen.
“We get into the idea that a gay man giving his blood is still an uphill battle,” McCormack said after filming the episode.
“There is a law in place that a gay man has to be, and state that, he is celibate for a year and a straight person does not have to do that. So that’s an issue that we’re getting into that doesn’t get much airplay.”
McCormack says that the episode will probably air in a few months, and his character will deliver “some tremendous, serious speeches” to address this ongoing issue.
The law in the US currently states that men who have sex with other men (MSM) must wait a full 12 months after their last sexual encounter to donate blood.
Many men have protested this law in the past year. This includes celebrity Lance Bass and activists who used their own blood to print t-shirts and donate the proceeds to health centers that provide services to LGBTQ people in New York.
h/t: Ottawa Citizen
Many, many years ago I tried
Many, many years ago I tried donating blood. I went with a friend. It was my first time. I thought I was doing good. I was informed that as a gay man, my blood would be discarded. I was embarrassed and really disenheartened, but because I was with a friend, I went ahead and donated anyway, knowing full well the product of my good deed would be thrown out like so much old lettuce from a salad bar at the end of the day. I have never forgotten how marginalized that experience made me feel.