I ask because the US government refuses to take mine. “Men who have sex with men” still cannot legally donate blood*—not unless we abstain from sex for three months. I abstained from queer pleasure for a quarter-century; I refuse to do so for even a minute longer. In the yaaaassified era of Target-sponsored Pride, I urge viewers to acknowledge the battles queer folx still fight—how Reagan’s “response” to the AIDS crisis endures forty years after its onset, even amid the nation’s worst blood shortage in decades. / Music: "Csárdás," composed by Vittorio Monti, performed on the flute and piano by Sydney Dayyani. / *the government has since changed its policy; regardless, I leave this note as a record of my continued discontent