theFeed and medical authorities plainly state that gay and bi man should not be restricted from donating blood,” GLAAD President and CEO Sarah Kate Ellis said in a statement. “All blood donations, regardless of sexual orientation, are screened to ensure healthy samples and now the American Medical Association, leading elected officials, and more than 600 medical professionals have all done the work for the FDA and unequivocally state that this ban needs to end.” l
FRANCOIS CLEMMONS, VIA WIKIMEDIA
the FDA for dragging its feet, saying that there is already plenty of scientific evidence — Italy moved over to a behavioral-based screening years ago, without any corresponding increase in the number of bloodborne infections — to support eliminating the categorical restrictions currently in place. “The FDA is placing American lives on the line as they debate stigma, not science. During the current crisis, the FDA is wasting time and money on a pilot study when all the scientific research
Unneighborly Gay Mister Rogers co-star says Fred Rogers told him to stay closeted and marry a woman. By John Riley
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RANCOIS CLEMMONS, THE ACTOR WHO PLAYED Officer Clemmons on Mister Rogers’ Neighborhood, says in a soon-to-be-released memoir that his co-star and mentor Fred Rogers advised him to stay in the closet and marry a woman after finding out that Clemmons was gay. In the memoir, Officer Clemmons, slated for release on May 5, Clemmons details his relationship with Rogers, the show’s titular character and producer, whom he looked to as a father figure. The men met through Rogers’ wife, Joanne, at church, when Clemmons was 23 and a student at Carnegie Mellon University. Rogers, then 43, invited him to join the show, where he appeared over the course of the next two decades, making him one of the first African-Americans with a recur-
ring role on a children’s TV series. In one notable skit, Clemmons and Rogers put their feet in a kiddie pool together, a subversive message to some at a time, following the enactment of the Civil Rights Act, when people were still fighting laws that attempted to bar people of color from using the same swimming pools as whites. Clemmons told People magazine that he and Rogers became very close through their work relationship, becoming something of a “marriage.” “Fred never stopped listening and I never shut up,” Clemmons says. “He was the spiritual love of my life.” In the interview with People, Clemmons recounted Rogers serving as a substitute father figure to him. “I didn’t know what I was so hungry for, until I heard Fred APRIL 30, 2020 • METROWEEKLY.COM
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