Alan Cumming's Hilarious Campaign Against The FDA

If you're a gay or bisexual man who's considering donating blood, Alan Cumming wants to help with your "celibacy challenge" imposed by the FDA. Ever since the FDA announced it would be changing its archaic policy barring gay and bisexual men from donating blood, many have been cautiously thrilled — unfortunately, there's a catch. The new policy, which takes effect this year, allows gay men to donate blood only if they are abstinent for an entire year.

This is to say nothing of the vague language in the FDA's new policy that makes it nearly impossible to parse whether the transgender community is barred from donating blood or not. Enter GLAAD and the Gay Men's Health Crisis, who enlisted the help of actor Alan Cumming to mock the still archaic policy and call for an actual change that could see as many as 4.2 million new donors helping to save millions more lives.

The video opens with Cumming announcing himself as the head of the Department of Sexual Abstinence, then lists approved activities to help get you through your sexless year, known as the "celibacy challenge." Such innocuous pursuits as working out and cleaning your house are instantly filled with innuendo in the hands of Cumming.

Playing off other social awareness campaigns, the celibacy challenge website even offers shareable badges to proclaim your failures, ranging from "yes, we can't" to "I didn't even last through the FDA announcement."

By signing the petition, you're proclaiming to the world that "I just signed up to fail America's hardest challenge," or so the largest of the shareable messages says. It's a playful way to poke fun at a policy that is still incredibly exclusionary; not only detrimental to the LGBTQ community, but preventing countless pints of blood from reaching patients who desperately need it.

As of this writing, 6,345 people have signed GLAAD's anti-discrimination petition aimed at the FDA, which reads:

The FDA recently announced that gay and bisexual men might finally be allowed to donate blood after being banned for life since the ‘80s — but only if they are celibate for one year. So straight guys can have safe sex with woman after woman and still donate blood. But gay and bi men who have safe sex for an entire year – even with a monogamous partner – would still be banned. Sounds like discrimination to us. We want the FDA to screen all prospective blood donors based on risk, regardless of their sexual orientation or gender identity.

The group needs just 1,155 more signatures before it reaches its goal of 7,500, which should be a fairly easy feat given the fact that it's only been live for two days — certainly far easier than a whole year of celibacy.

Images: GLAAD