Tainted Blood

This week, at the urging of a family member, I went to donate blood. The Austin Bio-Med Center is located on I-35 in North Austin and is conveniently located to my sister’s home, where I am presently residing, so I decided to stop in and give. I was told that the first visit requires three hours of my time as I would be required to undergo a complete physical and that subsequent visits would only take an hour and a half.

After about 30 minutes I had been through a series of, “go here and do this, now go sit in the lobby and we’ll call you shortly,” when a lady who looked like a doctor called me. She escorted me to her office where she asked me to have a seat and proceeded to close the door behind me. As she sat down she told me, “Mr. Brown, I’m sorry to have to inform you that, due to your “background,” we will not be able to accept you into our program. Feeling rather embarrassed and somewhat stupefied, I politely said, “Oh, okay.” I got up and left.

As I drove the few miles home my head began to clear and anger began to set in, so I decided to call the clinic and speak to a manager. The first woman I was transferred to, Kasandra, was apparently so shocked when I explained that I am a Registered Sex Offender who was denied entry into their program because of my status that she couldn’t even speak to me – she immediately asked me to hold. After several minutes, Jenni, a manager, picked up the phone and asked if she could help me. I proceeded to introduce myself and explained that I am writing an article based on my experience from this afternoon. We went on to talk for over 15 minutes. I explained that these sorts of blanket restrictions against former offenders, which serve no justifiable purpose, have a serious impact on the mental stability of people such as me. I explained that there are those within this population of some 603,000 Americans who are unable to channel these frustrations into something healthy and productive, as I am able to do, and that the long-term ramifications are going to cause more victims. At first she seemed concerned that I was implicitly warning that I was somehow mentally unstable, but after we talked for a while she actually began to feel comfortable and seemed genuinely impressed that I was taking the time to do what I do. I told her that the reason I was calling her was to verify for the record that it is their policy to deny entry into their program to anyone who has a conviction of a sex offense in their past. She told me she would have to review my file and call me back. She didn’t budge when I explained I wasn’t looking for an answer that my file would somehow reveal but rather was referring to their general policy. She told me she would call me back. It has now been over 24 hours, and Jenni hasn’t called me back.

My family was shocked to learn that I was barred from donating blood due to my status as a Registered Sex Offender. As I tried to search for a rational explanation for such a policy to exist I told my sister, “I guess it’s because they feel that someone who has committed a sex offense would pose a greater risk for having some STD that would make their blood unusable.” She made the point that if one were classified as a pedophile their blood would probably be more pure than a normal person who was promiscuous. I found her statement to be sadly true and somewhat ironic.

In the end the thing that stuck in my mind the most about this situation was not the ridiculousness of their policy or the fact that I felt the discrimination was unwarranted. My biggest concern is the long-term impact that situations similar to this, that we as a large population of people are forced to endure on a daily basis, will have on the mental stability of each of us. My biggest concern is that I know it is only a matter of time before someone is faced with a situation like this and it becomes the proverbial last straw. This is why I spend so much of my personal time trying to educate people. I truly believe we can change the inevitable before it occurs – that is my goal.

I believe that my blood still has value, and I will continue to push for change until my blood is no longer considered tainted. Won’t you join me in my efforts?