Amid the AIDS epidemic in 1983, the FDA banned gay and bisexual men from donating blood in an attempt to stop the spread of the virus. Back then, little was known about the disease and there were no quick tests to determine if someone had it.

These days HIV testing can be done in as little as 15 minutes and the disease can be detected as little as 18 days after initial exposure. The disease is also no longer a death sentence. Those who get proper medical treatment can live as long or almost as long as those who are HIV negative.

In 2015, the FDA lifted the lifetime ban for gay and bisexual males and reduced it to any men who had homosexual sex within the past year.

For many, these blood donation bans seemed to stem from homophobia.

Although HIV is more prevalent among gay and bisexual men, heterosexuals also engage in high-risk sexual behavior. But they were only banned from donating blood if they had sex with a prostitute, accepted payment for sex or injected drugs.

via Attitude / Twitter

Now, given the need for blood during the coronavirus crisis, the FDA has made big changes to its blood donation rules. On April 2, the FDA announced it had shortened the period of gay-sex abstinence from 12 months to just three.

“To help address this critical need and increase the number of donations, the FDA is announcing today that based on recently completed studies and epidemiologic data, we have concluded that the current policies regarding the eligibility of certain donors can be modified without compromising the safety of the blood supply,” the notice says.

“As a result of this public health emergency, there is a significant shortage in the supply of blood in the United States, which early implementation of the recommendations in this guidance may help to address (even though the recommendations in this guidance are broadly applicable beyond the COVID-19 public health emergency),” the memo says.

The new ruling also reduced the ban on donations from women who have had sex with a man who has had sex with a man to three months as well.

via Instinct / Twitter

The new policy also reduces the 12-month deferral to people who’ve had tattoos to three months and the lifetime ban for those who’ve exchanged sex for money and accepted money for sex to just three months.

President Trump is on board with the decision which is surprising given his lackluster record on LGBT rights.

“President Trump wants those who wish to donate blood and for those who accept the donations to be able to do so safely,” White House Deputy Secretary Judd Deere said via email to the Washington Blade. “Today’s decision is driven by health and science. The White House supports the Commissioner on this action.”

Sarah Kate Ellis, the CEO of GLAAD, celebrated the change but believes more has to be done.

“This is a victory for all of us who raised our collective voices against the discriminatory ban on gay and bisexual men donating blood,” Ellis said.

“The FDA’s decision to lower the deferral period on men who have sex with men from 12 months to 3 months is a step towards being more in line with science, but remains imperfect, Ellis added. “We will keep fighting until the deferral period is lifted and gay and bi men, and all LGBTQ people, are treated equal to others.”

At a recent press conference, after his brother Chris was diagnosed with COVID-19, New York governor Andrew Cuomo kept reiterating two sentiments: “We’re all in this together,” and “This virus is the great equalizer.”

I understand the sentiment. I’ve said and written the “We’re all in this together” line several times myself over the past few weeks.

And in one sense—an important sense—it’s true. This pandemic is impacting the entire planet like nothing we’ve seen in our lifetimes. No one is untouched by it in some way. Anyone, rich or poor, can get sick and die from this virus. In that sense, it unites us as human beings, and I hope it will awaken us to our essential oneness.

But Cuomo was wrong on the second point. The fact that this is an equal opportunity virus doesn’t make it “the great equalizer.” The coronavirus pandemic doesn’t equalize anything. In fact, it merely highlights and magnifies our existing inequalities.

I’ve been thinking lately about the sinking of the Titanic. Those 2,240 passengers and crew members were on that boat together. Everyone was a part of the fear and the tragedy as it sank.

They were all in it together. No one escaped the terror. They were all touched by it.

But they were not touched by it equally.

Gov. Cuomo seized the historical moment with a rousing speech to the National Guard: This is a ‘rescue mission’

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Passengers aboard the Titanic ranged from some of the wealthiest people on Earth to third-class steerage passengers, who were mainly working-class immigrants. And during the voyage, the third-class passengers had to stay in their designated area of the ship, which was gated off from the top three decks where the wealthier passengers hung out. Ship stewards could open the steerage gates in an emergency, but otherwise, they stayed closed.

In the chaos of the ship sinking, some of those gates never got opened, which prevented some third-class passengers from getting to the deck with the lifeboats. Those folks drowned trapped in their assigned place, the only place they could afford, without even a fighting chance of survival.

The fact that they were “all in it together” didn’t change the structures in place before the tragedy—structures that directly impacted their fate on that ship.

Of course, as we know, there weren’t enough lifeboats for all of the passengers anyway. Barely half, in fact. Having an adequate number of lifeboats would have made the first-class top deck look “cluttered,” which the wealthy ship owner didn’t want for his wealthy passengers. Besides, the ship was supposed to be “unsinkable.”

And so it was that the economic inequality clearly delineated in the ship’s voyage played out in its sinking as well.

Because they were already on the upper decks, wealthy passengers got to the lifeboats first. Some were lowered into the ocean and rowed away from the ship before their boats were even full.

Despite the standard “women and children first” rule of saving people at sea, 52 out of the 79 children from third-class died in the sinking—about the same percentage as first-class men.

Overall, 61% of first-class passengers, 42% of second-class passengers, and 24% of third-class passengers survived.

Some might say, “Well of course fewer third-class passengers survived—they were farther from the lifeboats,” and that’s exactly the point. The wealthier passengers had an advantage from the get go. The poorer passengers had farther to go, and some of them were cut off completely.

The Titanic passengers were all in that boat together, but that didn’t mean they were equally impacted by its sinking. And we will see the same impact of inequality play out in this pandemic as well.

It’s true that wealthy people aren’t immune from the virus, and some will die. But they still have an advantage from the start. Wealthy folks have access to the best medical care and the ability to afford it. For goodness knows what reason, the wealthy appear to be able to get tested for the virus even without showing symptoms, while the average American has a hard time getting a test unless they are ICU-level ill.

Poor people are starting at a disadvantage, as they are a) more likely to have underlying health conditions, b) less likely to seek medical help early over fears of not being able to afford it, and c) more likely to work in the vital-but-low-paying service industries we are now relying on to feed us, keep our grocery stores and hospitals clean, and transport our food and garbage, putting them at higher risk of exposure.

Wealthy nation offers concrete rectangles to people without homes during pandemic

Shaun King/Instagram

So yeah. We’re all in this together. But that doesn’t change the fact that our vast economic inequality means this pandemic will affect people differently. This will be true both here in the U.S.—where 1 in 9 Americans in our “booming” economy were living below the poverty line—and around the world, where 1 in 3 do.

We learned from the Titanic that disasters don’t play out equally, even if they impact everyone. We will learn the same thing with this crisis, and with every tragedy that follows until we make some fundamental changes in our economic systems.

If we want to claim that we’re all in this together, let’s make sure we have enough lifeboats for everyone and do something about the gates that keep people trapped in the lower decks before this ship sets sail again. Since we’ve clearly hit an iceberg and will need to rebuild the economy anyway, perhaps we can purposefully build it in a way that works for all, not just those on top.

Smart little life-improving finds.

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Anthony Fauci is a name that will come to define this generation. The 79-year-old head of the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases was most likely preparing to wind down an already historic career having helped lead the fight against other world changing epidemics like AIDS and Ebola. But it is almost surely his work as the face in the war against the coronavirus for which he will be most remembered.

And it’s increasingly obvious that the main reason Fauci will be seen as perhaps the leading hero of this pandemic is in the masterful way he has risen above politics, steered clear of the catastrophic governmental incompetence that has plagued this crisis and in how his honest, blunt and occasionally reassuring tone has helped steer our collective psyche into calmer waters.

Part of Fauci’s job has been making the rounds giving interviews to a long list of media outlets. But it was an interview he gave on Tuesday that has so far best encapsulated the way his persona is bringing most Americans together, united against this terrible disease. Some highlights:

In an interview with Vanity Fair,Vanity Fair, Fauci offered some never-before-seen insights on what life is like at the forefront of battling the virus.

On how much he dealt with President Trump before the virus and how much he interacts with him now:

“Well, I had some interaction. And now I see him for at least an hour or more every single day … I see him so often and for so long I almost never have to call him directly because I know that literally I’m within a few feet of talking to him if I want to anyway.”

On he and Trump both being New Yorkers:

“He’s an action person. I mean he likes to get things done. He doesn’t want to waste a lot of time. He wants to just get right to it.”

On navigating the pandemic in an era of heightened political partisanship:

“Well, I just stick very strictly to the science and the evidence base. I’m not new to this. I’ve been doing this now for over 30 years, starting with the HIV/AIDS issues with President [Ronald] Reagan, and I have found, and it’s proven time and time again: stick with the science, stay completely out of the politics. I have no ideology. My ideology is health, public health, and science. You do that. You can make it uncomplicated. If you get involved in political rhetoric, then it gets complicated.”

Fauci has regularly appeared on the Fox News Channel where they earlier were resistant to his claims about the threat of the virus. On how he reacts to an overly skeptical media and if that forces him to be political even in subtle ways:

“One of the great things about messaging is consistency. If you consistently stick with the science, sometimes you might be contradicting something that someone says and sometimes you may be agreeing with it, but as long as you’re consistent with the science then you are fine.”

Fauci has publicly disagreed with Trump on several occasions. Typically, that leads to someone quickly exciting the White House, either voluntarily or by direct order. But Fauci’s position — and relationship with Trump — only seem to be getting stronger by the day. On if it’s “tough” debating your boss when your boss is the commander-in-chief:

“Has it been stressful? Uh, yeah. This is a very, very stressful situation for everybody, including me.”

And if he’s ever worried those disagreements will cost him his job:

“Not at all. I take the tack that I will say what’s true and whatever happens, happens. As a matter of fact, in fairness to him, the president has listened very carefully to what I’ve said. He’s taken my recommendations almost invariably, and he has never really contradicted things that I have recommended to him. He listens. I mean, there’s a lot out there in the press about conflict between the both of us. There’s absolutely none. There really isn’t.”

Finally, Fauci explained what has been the biggest challenge so far. In short, other people:

“It wasn’t any particular event that happened. It was just a realization a few weeks ago when the stress was overwhelming. I was getting 3,000 emails, a couple of hundred phone calls, every senator, every governor, every congressman wanted to speak to me and I was getting like two to three hours sleep. I realized then that I could not go on that way. I’m a very conscientious person. I like to answer calls. But I had to get myself used to the fact that I cannot do that. I’ve got to focus on what my primary responsibility is.”

Read the full interview with Vanity Fair here.Vanity Fair here.

“It’s very obvious what I prefer, and that’s he.”

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Joe Exotic’s ex-husband is THRIVING.

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People with no COVID-19 symptoms may be spreading the disease — but big questions remain about how much they are driving the pandemic.

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Before the pandemic began, the systems that govern our world were brittle. Today, they are broken. When we emerge, the world will be different and so will we.

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In an effort to provide entertainment relief for everyone doing their part by practicing social isolation, HBO has officially unlocked the largest amount of free content of any streaming platform to date. Starting Friday, April 3, the premium channel is offering viewers over 500 hours of programming that includes a robust collection of hit series and feature films:

All of the programming will be available to stream without a subscription starting Friday by downloading the HBO NOW or HBO GO apps or by visiting HBONOW.com or HBOGO.com. The content will also be made available for free via participating distribution partners’ platforms in the coming days.

HBO has never offered this amount of free programming before, and all it asks in return is that viewers stay at home. But if you’re up to it, they probably wouldn’t mind if you hopped on the #StayHomeBoxOffice hashtag while passing the time. Your call.

Here’s the full list of original series, documentaries, and Warner Bros. movies that will be available for a limited time starting Friday.

9 Full Series
Ballers (5 Seasons)
Barry (2 Seasons)
Silicon Valley (6 Seasons)
Six Feet Under (5 Seasons)
The Sopranos (7 Seasons)
Succession (2 Seasons)
True Blood (7 Seasons
Veep (7 Seasons)
The Wire (5 Seasons)

10 Docuseries and Documentaries
The Apollo
The Case Against Adnan Syed
Elvis Presley: The Searcher
I Love You, Now Die: The Commonwealth v. Michelle Carter
The Inventor: Out for Blood in Silicon Valley
Jane Fonda in Five Acts
McMillion$
True Justice: Bryan Stevenson’s Fight for Equality
United Skates
We Are the Dream: The Kids of the MLK Oakland Oratorical Fest

20 Warner Bros. Theatricals
Arthur
Arthur 2: On the Rocks
Blinded By the Light
The Bridges of Madison County
Crazy, Stupid, Love
Empire of the Sun
Forget Paris
Happy Feet Two
Isn’t It Romantic?
The Lego Movie 2: The Second Part
Midnight Special
My Dog Skip
Nancy Drew And The Hidden Staircase
Pan
Pokémon Detective Pikachu
Red Riding Hood
Smallfoot
Storks
Sucker Punch
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