How To Protest FDA Ban by Buying Red Paint Made from Real Gay Men’s Blood
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The FDA’s ban on blood donated by gay men is a hold over from the height of the AIDS epidemic and one of the last vestiges of stigma from an ignorant era. Now the agency Mother and artist Stuart Semple, have released an entire paint collection, also made from real blood called the Gay Blood Collection that includes a fountain pen, screen printing ink, acrylic paint, spray paint, and a marker, all in the same deep red.
Ranging from $30 to $200 apiece, the supplies are designed to be protest tools for people to print shirts, paint protest signs, and/or sign petitions to fight back against the FDA’s homophobic and outdated policies. In an effort to support those affected by the policy, all proceeds from the sales will go to Callen-Lorde Community Health Center, a New York City-based primary care center that serves LGBTQ communities.
Activists have long used color as a form of political protest. In the United States, thousands of women donned pink pussy hats to rail against Trump’s misogyny after he became president. In Mexico, every year on International Women’s Day, women march against violence by wearing purple, a color long associated with feminist movements. And in Iran, protesters, wrapped up in green, took to the streets to protest the 2009 elections in what became known as the Green Revolution.
It’s worth noting that the Gay Blood Collection has launched the same year that the American Red Cross declared its worst blood shortage in over a decade. If the outdated and discriminatory FDA policy were eliminated, more than 600,000 pints of blood could be added to the system every year. Perhaps that mind-boggling number should be painted on a protest sign—in blood red, of course.
