Overview

In Banning Queer Blood, Jeffrey Bennett frames blood donation as a performance of civic identity closely linked to the meaning of citizenship. However, with the advent of AIDS came the notion of blood donation as a potentially dangerous process. Bennett argues that the Food and Drug Administration, by employing images that specifically depict gay men as contagious, has categorized gay men as a menace to the nation. The FDA's ban on blood donation by gay men remains in effect and serves to propagate the social misconceptions about gay men that circulate within both the straight and gay communities today. Bennett explores the role of scientific research cited by these banned-blood policies and its disquieting relationship to government agencies, including the FDA. Bennett draws parallels between the FDA's position on homosexuality and the historical precedents of discrimination by government agencies against racial minorities. The author concludes by describing the resistance posed by queer donors, who either lie in order to donate blood or protest discrimination at donation sites, and by calling for these prejudiced policies to be abolished.

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9780817358518

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[ Banning Queer Blood ] traces the intersection of HIV/AIDS, blood supplies, the Red Cross, and queerness over the last quarter century. . . . The methods used by the author include performativity/queer theory, archival research, rhetorical analysis, and interviews. . . . Throughout I found myself spellbound by the stories told, the ways of telling them, and the subtle methods of procuring and producing them. Toby Miller, author of Cultural Citizenship and The Well Tempered Self: Citizenship, Culture, and the Postmodern Subject

[<i>Banning Queer Blood</i>] traces the intersection of HIV/AIDS, blood supplies, the Red Cross, and queerness over the last quarter century. . . . The methods used by the author include performativity/queer theory, archival research, rhetorical analysis, and interviews. . . . Throughout I found myself spellbound by the stories told, the ways of telling them, and the subtle methods of procuring and producing them. Toby Miller, author of <i>Cultural Citizenship </i>and <i>The Well Tempered Self: Citizenship, Culture, and the Postmodern Subject</i>

Author Information

Jeffrey A. Bennett is Assistant Professor of Communication Studies at the University of Iowa, USA. He has published articles in The Quarterly Journal of Speech, Critical Studies in Media Communication, The Journal of Homosexuality, Communication and Critical/Cultural Studies, and Text and Performance Quarterly.

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