The Project Negative crew have been very busy little bee’s over the last few weeks, doing their best to spread awareness of the gay and bi blood ban that is currently blanketing Britain.

The Diversity and Wellbeing event was a great success on the 9th of March, with a constant stream of people coming over to visit the Project Negative table. A large amount of people we spoke to on the day had previously been unaware about the blood ban and were shocked about the discrimination behind it.

Our Project Negative home girl Jade Dale was one of the team members at the event and told me “We received a great deal of support from all age groups and backgrounds. It was good to see people ask us about the ban and having strong and positive opinions. It was even surprising to hear a nursing practitioner was unaware of the ban and see her sign. Overall the event was a real success, we hope change is not too far around the corner.”Nice one Jade, looking at the amount of signatures people signed on the blood ban petition there are a lot of people out there against it. But I’m willing to bet we can find more.

The official Project Negative launch went with a bang on Friday the 19th March with scores of party goers turning up wearing red to show their support for the cause. I managed to commandeer Rebekah Douglas, a media student at Birmingham City University, and drag her off the dance floor for a chat. She told me “The launch is a great way of getting people’s attention and spreading the word about Project Negative. Me and my friends have all signed the petition against the blood ban, this is a great cause and I’m proud to support it.”

Founder and boss man of project negative, Adam Steward agreed with Rebekah and stated that “The event has been a massive success, loads of fun too. We got almost 50 signatures added to the petition tonight! More and more people are starting to hear about Project negative.” But don’t forget that all you internet surfers can sign our online petition too at ipetitions.com It only takes a minute to complete and every signature counts.

Some of the comments written by supporters alongside their signatures on the blood ban petition have really touched the team members here at Project Negative head quarters. April Saunders signed the online petition from half way across the world in Sydney, Australia. She commented “It’s about equal rights and anti-discrimination.” Another online petition signer was Ashley from across the pond in Arvada, USA, wrote “Shameful. I feel anybody who is gracious enough to donate blood should be allowed to do so.” A more local signer is Helen Jones from Wolverhampton and she stated “All those people who need blood are suffering un-necessarily over a load of bigoted outdated views.”

Also massive, huge thanks to all the support from Project Negative’s Facebook fans. The group has reached an impressive 1,116 followers! Here’s a big shout out to one of our online friends, Helen Jones, she wrote “That’s disgusting, they can’t be that desperate for blood supplies then can they? They’re always begging on the telly!!!! Everyone should be treated the same regardless.” You tell it how it is girlfriend, thank you for taking the time to show your support for our cause.

To help spread awareness of the gay and bi blood ban add your friends to our group, visit our blog and sign the online petition. From the 1^st of April you will also be able to view Project negative’s very own grand spanking new website. Look out for news and details of our next up and coming events.

By Kimberley Gammon