I'm So Proud to Work with Sarah Lawrence College Student Activitsts

I’ll be honest; working at Sarah Lawrence College can be tough. Our students are taught to challenge authority. They want an explanation for every decision, and they often have follow-up questions.

Let’s just say, they keep me on my toes. And sometimes all that time on point exhausts me the point that I flop into bed before 9 pm.

Then one day, they do something wonderful, and it’s all worth it. March 1, 2013 was one of those days.

You see, on March 1, faculty member, Dave McRee submitted a Blood Donor Justice petition to The White House’s We The People site. The petition asks President Obama to urge the FDA to allow healthy gay and bisexual men to donate blood. (In case you didn’t know, under the current FDA policy, any man who has had sex with another man since 1977 is banned from donating blood for life.)

If the petition can gather 100,000 electronic signatures within 30 days, the White House has promised that it will consider the petition and issue a response to the author. This is where the Sarah Lawrence students (and their seemingly endless supply of energy) come in.

The students immediately formed a marketing task force to spread the word about the petition. They created a Facebook page and a graphic campaign. They enlisted the support of the college’s Committee on Student Life and Student Senate. Then they contacted similar organizations at colleges across the country to gain support from their peers.

Currently, they are putting together a YouTube video of student and faculty testimonials, to help others understand the discriminatory and outdated nature of the FDA policy. They are gathering a group of “street team” members to go into New York City during spring break and share their stories with others.

When I see the dedication and fervor the students show in challenging this discriminatory policy, it helps me appreciate why maybe it feels like they’re giving me a hard time. (Did I mention that it’s my job to enforce campus policies?)

On the face of it, the FDA policy seems to make sense. When they compare gay and bisexual men against the larger population of potential blood donors, gay and bisexual men have a larger risk for being HIV positive. Therefore the FDA bans them from giving blood.

But the Sarah Lawrence students keep digging. They ask the hard questions that the FDA doesn’t seem to have canned answers for. Why are we screening blood donors based on sexual orientation in the first place? Why aren’t we screening them based on behaviors, like unprotected sex or IV drug use? Isn’t that what lots of other countries are already doing?

They’re also asking the larger question: At a time when the blood supply is dangerously low, why are you allowing outdated policies based on bad science and discriminatory stereotypes to keep healthy Americans from donating blood?

So far, the petition has already gained over 11,000 signatures, and I couldn’t be more proud. I’m proud to work with young people who still believe their voices, when raised together, have the power to change things for the better. I’m proud to work at an institution whose mission is fostering and enriching those values.

True, I’m still exhausted when I get home at the end of the day, and I can’t remember the last time I was up for the 11:00 news. But, I check the Blood Donor Justice petition’s progress before I fall asleep each night. And lately, I have really good dreams.