Vampires

So I went ahead and signed up to give blood today.  I've been donating for a couple decades now, off and on.  I was a lot more diligent about it back in my college days.  Nowadays, it's pretty much just whenever there's a blood drive at work.  At the rate they're going, the Red Cross isn't going to be accepting blood from anybody in the near future.  It seems every time I donate, they've added a few more questions to disqualify folks.

I really don't understand the one that disqualifies any male who's had sex with another man since 1977.  So if you had sex New Year's Eve 1976, it's okay, but not after?  I guess no women or heterosexual men  get infected with HIV, ever.  Of course, it's okay to have had syphilis or gonnorhea and been treated.  Sheesh.  Another one that gets me is the fact that they won't take blood from my little sister, since she lived for a year in Germany in the 80's, when my father was stationed over there.

It just seems silly to me that the Red Cross is always crying out about how the blood supply is dangerously low when they turn potentially fine donors away for silly reasons.  Of course, since I have a fairly uncommon blood type, A negative, they'll start calling and sending post cards to me 57 days after I give.

I wonder if they realize how many perfectly healthy people lie in order to donate to the inadequate blood reserves.