National Coming Out Day
Posted inbisexuality sexuality

National Coming Out Day

Happy National Coming Out Day everyone! For those who don't know what it is, here's the Human Rights Campaign page.As I said in my last post, I'm bisexual. Even if I wasn't though, LGBT equality is still so so important, as no one should feel in fear o...
‘We need a bisexual haircut!’ : bi activist Amy André’s bitter-sweet take on walking down the street with her spouse

‘We need a bisexual haircut!’ : bi activist Amy André’s bitter-sweet take on walking down the street with her spouse

 

photo-by-Marlo-GayleAmy André is a bi woman married to a lesbian. When walking together one day, near their home in San Francisco, a man in a pick-up truck shouted at them as he drove by: “Lesbians!”

“I’ll take it!” was André‘s reply. “Because even though I'm not a lesbian, it's certainly no insult to be mistaken for one, especially if the mistake is based on my awesome hair style!”

André is the co-author of Bisexual Health, published by the National Gay & Lesbian Task Force, and is an in-demand speaker on bisexual and overall LGBT issues. She holds a masters in Sexuality Studies and an MBA from UC Berkeley.

And she has short hair. Was that the marker then for this truck driver? Short hair marks a woman as lesbian? André and her spouse, Dr. Kami Chisholm, ponder this, both seriously and humorously, as they walk on: “Considering the fact that studies show that twice as many women identify as bisexual than identify as lesbian (yes, bi women outnumber lesbians two to one), the odds were just higher anyway that, if he thinks I'm not straight, then I'm probably bi. So, what could it be that made him assume we were both lesbians?”

What Does a Bisexual Look Like? by Amy Andre, filed at the Bilerico Project, 27.Sep.11.

 

Amy André is also the author of Married, Like as in Married Married for LGBT | POV.

Photo credit: Marlo Gayle

‘We need a bisexual haircut!’ : bi activist Amy André’s bitter-sweet take on walking down the street with her spouse

‘We need a bisexual haircut!’ : bi activist Amy André’s bitter-sweet take on walking down the street with her spouse

 

photo-by-Marlo-GayleAmy André is a bi woman married to a lesbian. When walking together one day, near their home in San Francisco, a man in a pick-up truck shouted at them as he drove by: “Lesbians!”

“I’ll take it!” was André‘s reply. “Because even though I'm not a lesbian, it's certainly no insult to be mistaken for one, especially if the mistake is based on my awesome hair style!”

André is the co-author of Bisexual Health, published by the National Gay & Lesbian Task Force, and is an in-demand speaker on bisexual and overall LGBT issues. She holds a masters in Sexuality Studies and an MBA from UC Berkeley.

And she has short hair. Was that the marker then for this truck driver? Short hair marks a woman as lesbian? André and her spouse, Dr. Kami Chisholm, ponder this, both seriously and humorously, as they walk on: “Considering the fact that studies show that twice as many women identify as bisexual than identify as lesbian (yes, bi women outnumber lesbians two to one), the odds were just higher anyway that, if he thinks I'm not straight, then I'm probably bi. So, what could it be that made him assume we were both lesbians?”

What Does a Bisexual Look Like? by Amy Andre, filed at the Bilerico Project, 27.Sep.11.

 

Amy André is also the author of Married, Like as in Married Married for LGBT | POV.

Photo credit: Marlo Gayle

Coming to terms with my sexuality – twice
Posted inBig Brother (UK) bisexuality Bones buffy the vampire slayer Glee sexuality Warehouse 13

Coming to terms with my sexuality – twice

This post was inspired by a conversation I had last night with a Twitter friend who I started speaking to about Pretty Little Liars and Glee.

For those who don't know me, I'm an out bisexual woman. At least I am now. When I was 14 I knew I was interested in girls because I had the hugest crush on one of my best friends from secondary school. There was also Anna Nolan in the first series of Big Brother who was an inspiration.

I just didn't know if I liked exclusively women. Because there was also Xander in Buffy and Brad Pitt. I inched out of the closet after telling 3 of my friends I thought I was bi.



When I was 16 two things were going in my life:
  1. I ever so slightly illegally started going clubbing in my local gay scene.
  2. I started going to Alpha because quite a few of the members of my family had died recently so I sought out meaning in life.
In the gay scene I came across some quite derogatory remarks about bisexuals: they were greedy, they were confused, they couldn't be faithful or that they were just "in a phase". Suffice to say I didn't want to be seen as any of these things. However, I still had a massive crush on Brad Pitt which I couldn't just shrug off as me clinging to normality. Ironically it was at Alpha that in a conversation with one of my best friends at the time that I decided I was a lesbian with just one exception.

As it happened, the college's Christian Union invited speakers to the cafeteria one day. One question and answer stands out in my mind to this day:
Q: What does Christianity say about gay people?
A: There's only one cure to homosexuality and that's through Jesus Christ.
From this moment I knew I couldn't be a part of a religion who thought that homosexuality was something to be "cured". I was so proud of the fact that whereas most people going through Alpha seem to go from being agnostics to Christians I went from being agnostic to being an atheist. That's not my attitude about religion any more, as I've realised that although there are some stick-in-the-muds, the people who practice it can be as open and welcoming to gay people as atheists can. I am also back to being an agnostic (but that's a whole other story).

So, I started coming out to all my friends and my mother as a lesbian and it all went pretty well for about a year. I then kinda accidentally started making out with guys every now and then. When one of these guys was a friend of mine I ended up terribly confused again about my sexuality for the first time in two years. I really *liked* him but he was man shaped so, er, why would that be true. At that point I could have taken one of two paths, go for it with my friend (who was being terribly understanding considering) or swear off men completely. I chose the latter option. I was a lesbian, I'd decided that when I was 16 and anything else was just unacceptable.

A few months later I went to uni. I made out with a few girls in my first year but was never anything serious. I was quite active within the uni's LGB association [as it was at the time]. I was out as a lesbian but I still didn't make a secret of my attraction to Brad Pitt.

Despite my insistence to both myself and everyone around me that I was a lesbian this didn't stop crushes on a few guys from uni getting through.

Thanks to the relative [in comparison to my home town] acceptance of bisexuals within the LGB I slowly came to accept that it was OK to like both. Over the year, I went to the cinema with my uni friends a lot. One of these films was Troy. All my friends joked beforehand about how I'd stop them talking when Brad Pitt was on the screen (normally I'd be commenting with the rest of them). However, at the end, it wasn't Brad Pitt I was talking about, it was Eric Bana. One of my more observant friends noticed that this was a man who wasn't Brad. It was in May that I finally decided to tell people that I liked the men too. At first it was just my uni friends, who were all very supportive; I couldn't handle my mother getting all excited that I might bear her grandchildren after all. At the age of 19 I'd finally come to terms with my true sexuality.

I know it may seem silly that it was liking men that I seemed to have so much trouble accepting, but the fact was there weren't any positive bisexual role models in media to counteract the image of bisexuality that I got from my home town's scene. The only female characters who I saw on the screen at the time who were interested in men and women were of the depraved bisexual trope. Hardly people to look up to.

It's much better now, there is Angela from Bones, who although is now married to a man has had loving relationships with women in the past. Here, Heather Hogan praises Bones creator's crafting of the character.  There are also Myka and HG from Warehouse 13, although the creative team don't seem to want to admit it. Finally but not least, of course, there is Brittany from Glee whose sexuality I praised in my last post.

So, yes, had these characters been around 10 years ago, maybe I wouldn't have taken those three extra years coming to terms with my own sexuality. Who knows?
Coming to terms with my sexuality – twice
Posted inBig Brother (UK) bisexuality Bones buffy the vampire slayer Glee sexuality Warehouse 13

Coming to terms with my sexuality – twice

This post was inspired by a conversation I had last night with a Twitter friend who I started speaking to about Pretty Little Liars and Glee.

For those who don't know me, I'm an out bisexual woman. At least I am now. When I was 14 I knew I was interested in girls because I had the hugest crush on one of my best friends from secondary school. There was also Anna Nolan in the first series of Big Brother who was an inspiration.

I just didn't know if I liked exclusively women. Because there was also Xander in Buffy and Brad Pitt. I inched out of the closet after telling 3 of my friends I thought I was bi.



When I was 16 two things were going in my life:
  1. I ever so slightly illegally started going clubbing in my local gay scene.
  2. I started going to Alpha because quite a few of the members of my family had died recently so I sought out meaning in life.
In the gay scene I came across some quite derogatory remarks about bisexuals: they were greedy, they were confused, they couldn't be faithful or that they were just "in a phase". Suffice to say I didn't want to be seen as any of these things. However, I still had a massive crush on Brad Pitt which I couldn't just shrug off as me clinging to normality. Ironically it was at Alpha that in a conversation with one of my best friends at the time that I decided I was a lesbian with just one exception.

As it happened, the college's Christian Union invited speakers to the cafeteria one day. One question and answer stands out in my mind to this day:
Q: What does Christianity say about gay people?
A: There's only one cure to homosexuality and that's through Jesus Christ.
From this moment I knew I couldn't be a part of a religion who thought that homosexuality was something to be "cured". I was so proud of the fact that whereas most people going through Alpha seem to go from being agnostics to Christians I went from being agnostic to being an atheist. That's not my attitude about religion any more, as I've realised that although there are some stick-in-the-muds, the people who practice it can be as open and welcoming to gay people as atheists can. I am also back to being an agnostic (but that's a whole other story).

So, I started coming out to all my friends and my mother as a lesbian and it all went pretty well for about a year. I then kinda accidentally started making out with guys every now and then. When one of these guys was a friend of mine I ended up terribly confused again about my sexuality for the first time in two years. I really *liked* him but he was man shaped so, er, why would that be true. At that point I could have taken one of two paths, go for it with my friend (who was being terribly understanding considering) or swear off men completely. I chose the latter option. I was a lesbian, I'd decided that when I was 16 and anything else was just unacceptable.

A few months later I went to uni. I made out with a few girls in my first year but was never anything serious. I was quite active within the uni's LGB association [as it was at the time]. I was out as a lesbian but I still didn't make a secret of my attraction to Brad Pitt.

Despite my insistence to both myself and everyone around me that I was a lesbian this didn't stop crushes on a few guys from uni getting through.

Thanks to the relative [in comparison to my home town] acceptance of bisexuals within the LGB I slowly came to accept that it was OK to like both. Over the year, I went to the cinema with my uni friends a lot. One of these films was Troy. All my friends joked beforehand about how I'd stop them talking when Brad Pitt was on the screen (normally I'd be commenting with the rest of them). However, at the end, it wasn't Brad Pitt I was talking about, it was Eric Bana. One of my more observant friends noticed that this was a man who wasn't Brad. It was in May that I finally decided to tell people that I liked the men too. At first it was just my uni friends, who were all very supportive; I couldn't handle my mother getting all excited that I might bear her grandchildren after all. At the age of 19 I'd finally come to terms with my true sexuality.

I know it may seem silly that it was liking men that I seemed to have so much trouble accepting, but the fact was there weren't any positive bisexual role models in media to counteract the image of bisexuality that I got from my home town's scene. The only female characters who I saw on the screen at the time who were interested in men and women were of the depraved bisexual trope. Hardly people to look up to.

It's much better now, there is Angela from Bones, who although is now married to a man has had loving relationships with women in the past. Here, Heather Hogan praises Bones creator's crafting of the character.  There are also Myka and HG from Warehouse 13, although the creative team don't seem to want to admit it. Finally but not least, of course, there is Brittany from Glee whose sexuality I praised in my last post.

So, yes, had these characters been around 10 years ago, maybe I wouldn't have taken those three extra years coming to terms with my own sexuality. Who knows?
Day 21 – Favourite ship
Posted in30 Days of TV bisexuality buffy the vampire slayer Glee Pretty Little Liars RIzzoli and Isles sexuality tv Warehouse 13

Day 21 – Favourite ship

I've been shipping since before I knew shipping was a thing. When I started watching Buffy I wanted for ages for Xander to wake up and see what was right in front of him - Willow. Well, that was until Oz turned up and swept her off her feet, and then it was Tara... Oh damn it, I must have just been a Willow shipper .

Anyway, my favourite ship (with steep competition from Emily and Maya in Pretty Little Liars, HG and Myka in Warehouse 13 and Rizzoli and Isles), if you hadn't guessed already, are these two lovely ladies:

Brittana pinkie love








Santana started off as Quinn's bitchy sidekick and Puck's one time girlfriend. Brittany was the ditzy blonde in the cheerios who was there for comic relief. However, from these humble beginnings Naya and Heather crafted much bigger roles for themselves. This was thanks to their antics in the background early in season 1. They spent most of their time sitting together, so to make a joke of this, the producers decided to throw in a line about the characters sleeping together in the middle of a conversation about Rachel knowing that Puck was the father of Quinn's yet to be born baby.

This was supposed to be a one off, a throwaway joke that was never to be touched upon again. However, from here the good ship Brittana set sail. Before this there had been suspicions that they were together with moments like this in their very first song together:
brittany santana glee I Say a Little Prayer







However, this was the first time the subtext between the two had become maintext. Thanks to the fans' reactions, the producers woke up to what had been in front of them for the whole time and Santana, after initially telling Britt that she was just with her because Puck was in prison at the time, finally admitted she loved her in one of the most touching moments of the second season [script and commentary taken from Christie Keith's recap of Sexy on AfterEllen]:
Santana approaches Brittany at her locker, and says, "Can we talk?"

"But we never do that," Brittany says.

"I know," Santana says, looking so soft and sad I barely know it's her. "But I wanted to thank you for singing that song with me in Glee Club."

"Yeah…"

"'Cause it made me do a lot of thinking. What I realized…" she takes a deep breath… "What I realized is why I'm such a bitch all the time. I'm a bitch because I'm angry. Because I have all of these feelings. Feelings for you, that I'm afraid of dealing with, because I'm afraid of dealing with the consequences." A football player walks by, and Santana waits until he's past to go on. "And Brittany… I can't go to an Indigo Girls concert. I just can't."

"I understand that."

Santana looks at her. "Do you understand what I'm trying to say here?"

She reluctantly shakes her head. "Not really."

"I want to be with you. But I'm afraid of the talks and the looks. I mean, you know what happened to Kurt at this school."

Brittany looks surprised. "But honey, if anybody were to ever make fun of you, you would either kick their ass or slash them with your vicious, vicious words."

Santana starts to cry. "Yeah, I know, but I'm so afraid of what everyone will say behind my back. Still, I have to accept that I love you. I love you. And I don't want to be with Sam or Finn or any of those other guys. I just want you. Please say you love me back. Please."

Brittany is gazing at her, so moved. "Of course I love you, I do. And I would totally be with you if it weren't for Artie."

Santana is shocked. "Artie?"

"I love him, too. I don't want to hurt him. It's not right. I can't break up with him."

And now Santana is shocked and furious. "Of course you can. He's just a stupid boy." And so much is crystal clear now.

Brittany looks upset. "But it wouldn't be right. Santana, you have to know if Artie and I were to ever break up and I'm lucky enough that you're still single…"

Brittany tries to take Santana's hand, and Santana pulls it way, saying, "Don't."

Brittany goes on. "I am so yours. Proudly so."

"Yeah, wow," Santana hisses. "Whoever thought that being 'fluid' meant that you could be so stuck."

Brittany says, "I'm sorry," and reaches for Santana, who says, "Don't. Get off me," and walks off, leaving Brittany standing despondent in the hall.
Wow, just wow. I know how much I moaned about season 2 of Glee, but when it got it right it was amazing.  It was heartbreaking stuff and it's also helped young girls coming to terms with their sexuality, so it's incredibly important.

On a personal note, I love this scene for its positive portrayal of bisexuality. Which, considering the source, is amazing. When Glee overtly tried to tackle the "bi" issue before, it did it so clumsily and was bordering on offensive. Here we have a girl [Britt] who openly admits she loves another but doesn't want to leave her existing relationship with a man to be with her because as far as she's concerned, Artie has done nothing to deserve [actually, he'd done plenty, but I'll be quiet]. Brittany is not a confused, greedy or predatory individual, she's simply a person who loves people regardless of their gender. If I had had this Glee episode when I was 16, maybe I wouldn't have spent 3 years denying I had any interest in men [more on this in another post]. So, yes, thank you so so much.

To conclude the post, I shall point you to a twitter friend of mine's Glee recaps as she does Brittana much more justice than I do and leave you with some wonderful, wonderful screencaps [credits in the titles]:

brittany and santana during sexy

brittany and santana making out during duets

brittany santana me against the music

Santana singing Songbird

Day 21 – Favourite ship
Posted in30 Days of TV bisexuality buffy the vampire slayer Glee Pretty Little Liars RIzzoli and Isles sexuality tv Warehouse 13

Day 21 – Favourite ship

I've been shipping since before I knew shipping was a thing. When I started watching Buffy I wanted for ages for Xander to wake up and see what was right in front of him - Willow. Well, that was until Oz turned up and swept her off her feet, and then it was Tara... Oh damn it, I must have just been a Willow shipper .

Anyway, my favourite ship (with steep competition from Emily and Maya in Pretty Little Liars, HG and Myka in Warehouse 13 and Rizzoli and Isles), if you hadn't guessed already, are these two lovely ladies:

Brittana pinkie love








Santana started off as Quinn's bitchy sidekick and Puck's one time girlfriend. Brittany was the ditzy blonde in the cheerios who was there for comic relief. However, from these humble beginnings Naya and Heather crafted much bigger roles for themselves. This was thanks to their antics in the background early in season 1. They spent most of their time sitting together, so to make a joke of this, the producers decided to throw in a line about the characters sleeping together in the middle of a conversation about Rachel knowing that Puck was the father of Quinn's yet to be born baby.

This was supposed to be a one off, a throwaway joke that was never to be touched upon again. However, from here the good ship Brittana set sail. Before this there had been suspicions that they were together with moments like this in their very first song together:
brittany santana glee I Say a Little Prayer







However, this was the first time the subtext between the two had become maintext. Thanks to the fans' reactions, the producers woke up to what had been in front of them for the whole time and Santana, after initially telling Britt that she was just with her because Puck was in prison at the time, finally admitted she loved her in one of the most touching moments of the second season [script and commentary taken from Christie Keith's recap of Sexy on AfterEllen]:
Santana approaches Brittany at her locker, and says, "Can we talk?"

"But we never do that," Brittany says.

"I know," Santana says, looking so soft and sad I barely know it's her. "But I wanted to thank you for singing that song with me in Glee Club."

"Yeah…"

"'Cause it made me do a lot of thinking. What I realized…" she takes a deep breath… "What I realized is why I'm such a bitch all the time. I'm a bitch because I'm angry. Because I have all of these feelings. Feelings for you, that I'm afraid of dealing with, because I'm afraid of dealing with the consequences." A football player walks by, and Santana waits until he's past to go on. "And Brittany… I can't go to an Indigo Girls concert. I just can't."

"I understand that."

Santana looks at her. "Do you understand what I'm trying to say here?"

She reluctantly shakes her head. "Not really."

"I want to be with you. But I'm afraid of the talks and the looks. I mean, you know what happened to Kurt at this school."

Brittany looks surprised. "But honey, if anybody were to ever make fun of you, you would either kick their ass or slash them with your vicious, vicious words."

Santana starts to cry. "Yeah, I know, but I'm so afraid of what everyone will say behind my back. Still, I have to accept that I love you. I love you. And I don't want to be with Sam or Finn or any of those other guys. I just want you. Please say you love me back. Please."

Brittany is gazing at her, so moved. "Of course I love you, I do. And I would totally be with you if it weren't for Artie."

Santana is shocked. "Artie?"

"I love him, too. I don't want to hurt him. It's not right. I can't break up with him."

And now Santana is shocked and furious. "Of course you can. He's just a stupid boy." And so much is crystal clear now.

Brittany looks upset. "But it wouldn't be right. Santana, you have to know if Artie and I were to ever break up and I'm lucky enough that you're still single…"

Brittany tries to take Santana's hand, and Santana pulls it way, saying, "Don't."

Brittany goes on. "I am so yours. Proudly so."

"Yeah, wow," Santana hisses. "Whoever thought that being 'fluid' meant that you could be so stuck."

Brittany says, "I'm sorry," and reaches for Santana, who says, "Don't. Get off me," and walks off, leaving Brittany standing despondent in the hall.
Wow, just wow. I know how much I moaned about season 2 of Glee, but when it got it right it was amazing.  It was heartbreaking stuff and it's also helped young girls coming to terms with their sexuality, so it's incredibly important.

On a personal note, I love this scene for its positive portrayal of bisexuality. Which, considering the source, is amazing. When Glee overtly tried to tackle the "bi" issue before, it did it so clumsily and was bordering on offensive. Here we have a girl [Britt] who openly admits she loves another but doesn't want to leave her existing relationship with a man to be with her because as far as she's concerned, Artie has done nothing to deserve [actually, he'd done plenty, but I'll be quiet]. Brittany is not a confused, greedy or predatory individual, she's simply a person who loves people regardless of their gender. If I had had this Glee episode when I was 16, maybe I wouldn't have spent 3 years denying I had any interest in men [more on this in another post]. So, yes, thank you so so much.

To conclude the post, I shall point you to a twitter friend of mine's Glee recaps as she does Brittana much more justice than I do and leave you with some wonderful, wonderful screencaps [credits in the titles]:

brittany and santana during sexy

brittany and santana making out during duets

brittany santana me against the music

Santana singing Songbird

A critique of the coverage following the lifting of the lifetime ban on blood donations from men who have had sex with men
Posted inanalysis bisexuality criticism discrimination evidence based policy politics

A critique of the coverage following the lifting of the lifetime ban on blood donations from men who have had sex with men

For those of you who don't already know, last week it was announced there would no longer be a lifetime ban on men who have had oral or anal sex with men (MSM) giving blood. Men will now be able to give blood a year after they last had sex with another man.


First of all: I welcome this change. In 2004 I collected signatures to ask the National Blood Service to review their policies as I felt at the time it was unnecessarily discriminatory. Since then however, I have changed my mind somewhat. Being able to give blood shouldn't about the feelings of the donors but about the health of those who receive the blood. MSM make up a significant proportion of those living with HIV, when compared to the proportion of the total population who are MSM. Because of this, I can understand why evidence had to be looked at before lifting the lifetime ban. If the recent study had found that the lifetime ban had remained in place in order to secure the blood supply, I would have supported this as long as the evidence had supported this. I do think that there is room for improvement though. As it stands now, a gay man in a committed relationship will still not be able to give blood, even if both partners have been faithful for the last 12 months. I'd be in favour of a further change which only ban those who have had a new partner in the last 12 months. However, if there isn't any evidence to support this change, then I can accept that it can't be made. Chris Ward, a writer for Lib Dem Voice appears to share my views and writes about them more eloquently here. This doesn't mean I think that all gay men are inherently at risk from being infected with HIV. In fact, I think it's nonsensical that a committed gay couple still can't give blood whereas a man or a woman who sleeps with a different partner of the opposite sex each week will be able to.

The coverage for this change has been mixed. Even the best article about it have been misleading, at least as far as the headline goes:

From Pink News: One-year blood donation deferral for UK gay men
The headline implies the new policy only applies to those men who identify as gay. However, it doesn't. Thanks to this change, men who now identify as straight who experimented in his youth will now be able to give blood. Thankfully though it goes on to rectify this in the very first paragraph:
The Department of Health has announced it will remove the lifetime blood donation ban on any man who has ever had gay sex.
I can forgive the headline because the alternative would have been almost as long winded as my own.

However, unsurprisingly, the coverage from The Mail and the Telegraph hasn't been as good. The problems with The Mail's coverage starts with the laughable headline:
Lifetime blood donor ban for gay men lifted - as long as they haven't had sex for a year
The lifetime blood donor ban for MSM has been lifted and replaced with a one-year deferral. To try and say that a lifetime ban would still be in place if the man has had sex in the past year is simply wrong and logically non-sensical. Not only that, this rule wouldn't stop bisexual men who have had sex with women in the past year. Also, gay men occasionally have sex with women. It's not the norm but it happens. Those men who identify as gay who for some reason have only had sex with a woman or women in the past year would not be banned under the new rules.

The writer just refused to qualify throughout the article that the lifetime ban didn't just impact gay and bisexual men but also men and those who may have experimented in their youth and those who didn't have much choice in the matter. The Mail also seems to break basic rules of writing articles, saying that LGB organisations welcome the changes in the paragraph directly before this one:
Deborah Jack, chief executive of the National AIDS Trust, said: 'The lifetime ban on gay men donating blood has been at the centre of much controversy and debate in recent years, particularly as it became clear that this rule and current science were completely out of sync."
The NAT isn't an LGBT rights' organisation, it never has been. From its 'about us' page:
NAT is the UK's leading charity dedicated to transforming society's response to HIV. We provide fresh thinking, expertise and practical resources. We champion the rights of people living with HIV and campaign for change.
A better quote to follow the previous paragraph would have been from Stonewall's statement, which they have very helpfully provided on their website. They also make a massive clanger:
Most new HIV (human immunodeficiency virus) infections in the UK still result from men having sex with men.
In the latest statistics I can find (from 2010) MSM only made up 39% of those newly diagnosed with HIV. But research, what's that Mail?

I didn't think it'd be possible for anyone to outdo The Mail's bad journalism but somehow on this occasion, the Telegraph rose to the challenge.

Even the headline is an amazing example of scaremongering:
Gay men can give blood after discrimination claims
Coming from The Telegraph one instantly gets the impression the paper thinks this is "a bad thing" which must be stopped. It seems to suggest the reason why the lifetime ban has been lifted because of pesky homosexuals demanding their pint of blood to be sucked from their arteries. This could not be further from the truth if it tried. Yes, some gay men have been campaigning for the blood ban to be re-examined, including Peter Tatchell (more on him later). However, what lead to the change was a study of empirical evidence by The Advisory Committee on the Safety of Blood, Tissues and Organs (SABTO) which concluded there would be no higher risk of people acquiring HIV and other blood borne viruses with a one year deferral when compared to a lifetime ban. They also included this lovely paragraph:
It is not thought that the change will result in large numbers of new donors, however, since most homosexual men are sexually active.
Yeah, those pesky homosexual men, they're all at it, unlike the... er... rest of humanity? Unlike in The Mail's article, bisexual men aren't even mentioned here.

I haven't found some of the response from gay rights' campaigners to be altogether helpful either. For instance Peter Tatchell wrote in the Guardian last Friday to say that the changes should go further:
Most gay and bisexual men do not have HIV and will never have HIV. If they always have safe sex with a condom, have only one partner and test HIV negative, their blood is safe to donate.
I completely agree with him here, but what SABTO needs is data to prove this, not rhetoric. So what I think would be more helpful would be to ask for the next study to examine allowing those in committed relationships to give blood, rather than insisting the change must happen regardless.

In Stonewall's statement, their CEO Ben Summerskill is quoted as saying:
To retain a blanket ban on any man who has had sex with another man in the last year, even if he has only had oral sex, remains disproportionate on the basis of available evidence.
However, if you actually read SABTO's report which was published by the Department of Health it says:
The risk with oral sex is very low but HIV transmission does occur, however, given the lack of data it is difficult to make summary estimates for the transmission risk through oral sex.
So according to the official report, no such data relating to oral sex exists. However, the rest of the statement seems quite sensible:
Stonewall will continue to push for a donation system based on the real risks a potential donor poses. People wanting to donate blood should be asked similar questions - irrespective of their sexual orientation - that accurately assess their level of risk of infection.
I'd welcome this, although the donor questionnaire might get a bit busy. Perhaps another study is required? (I perhaps should have mentioned I'm an analyst at heart ;-))

I never thought I'd say this: congratulations to the coalition for coming to a good decision. You're not there yet, but maybe as more evidence becomes available you'll get there eventually.