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Plexed is a community of gay (and bisexual/confused/..straight?) youth who chat and that.
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Bloody Discrimination
- byRob on14th April, 2009 inChats
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I had been previously aware of a disparity in the way the National Blood Service treated heterosexual and homosexual people wishing to donate blood, however it was not until recently when I researched their exact policy that I learnt the extent. I was shocked upon first learning their position – in fact it is the only time in my lifetime I have ever been so angry with a law it made me feel sick upon learning of its existence. It is clearly also a policy not widely known – two of my close friends who are regular blood donators (and straight, if that is relevant) were not aware of the complete ban on homosexuals and were as shocked and disgusted as I was.
I am an 18-year-old male and recently decided I wished to start giving blood, partially encouraged by the highly provocative and effective adverts currently shown on TV by the NBS. I had gone along with a friend when she was giving blood once before, however at the time "chickened out" myself. I had felt I had let myself down by doing this, and an event in my family made me very determined that at the next opportunity I would. As I had a look for information on doing so however I discovered that purely because I was gay – or as the NBS specify "have had sex with a man" – I am now banned for life from ever giving blood – simply because I am gay my blood considered too high a potential risk, and so effectively worthless.
The NBS provide a position statement in which they attempt to justify their position. Firstly, they attempt to claim that somehow the ban is not actually on gay and bisexual men, but just men who “have sex with a man”.... 
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Gay Guy's Guide to a Sexual Health Check
- bychis on28th October, 2008 inChats
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Today I went to the Genito-Urinary Clinic at my local hospital for a sexual health check. It was my first time going for one of these, so I didn't really know what to expect. It made me a little nervous - I hope that in writing this I spread a little knowledge, so that when anybody has to go for a check, they know what sort of thing to expect, and will hopefully feel a little less nervous.
[/list]
Upon reaching the clinic (after a confusing trek through the maze-like hospital building), I was given a form to fill out - it asked for personal details, the name of my GP, simple things like that. They keep these details for their records, but all consultation notes, samples and swabs are anonymous, using a patient number that is attached to your file. After filling out my details, I waited until a doctor was ready to see me.
The consultation with the doctor was fairly informal. We talked about my sexual history, which was fairly simple in my case. Subjects included:
[list][*]Who I had had sexual contact with and when;
[*]What kind of sexual contact I had with them, and whether it was protected or unprotected;
[*]Whether I?d ever used needle drugs, or had injections while abroad;
[*]Whether I?d ever had sexual contact with someone of another nationality.[/list]
Some of this did feel quite embarrassing, but it?s very important to be as open and honest as possible about your history, to help them help you. The staff running these clinics are trained to be sensitive to the delicate nature of these topics, and are completely non-judgemental about your history. In other words - everyone's cool!
After that conversation, the doctor took me through the tests and examinations that they offer. None of...
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Goodbye, I love you.
- byRob on24th July, 2008 inChats
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The following article was originally posted by former member Cjays.
Recently I was comforting a friend; she had lost her Grandma to cancer. It was the hardest thing to cope with for her at that time because she had not been able to see her Gran before she died.
I knew how hard this time was for her, as I lost my boyfriend in a car accident last year. I knew she would be feeling bad for not saying "I love you" to her gran before she died, just as I did last year.
It's the hardest thing in the world to lose someone close to you, often we never get a chance to tell that person we love them before it's too late to ever say it again.
We never know when we will pass away, nor do we know who is next to leave us, all we know is that when something tragic happens, we never get that time back, and everything we wished we had said suddenly hits you.
Make the time every day, just to let those three words make the lives of the people you love, a little better that day. It costs nothing and yet means so much.
We all grieve in different ways too. Most of us spend days or weeks in disbelief of the loss. It's understandable, it's a big thing to lose someone forever whom you love so much.
Some of us have a party, to celebrate the life of the person we loved. This is often the way the person whom has passed away would like us to remember them.
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[b:12l54ove]It's not hard to say "I Love You" so make the time every day to let the people uou love know that you do love them.[/b:12l54ove]
[i:12l54ove]As the old saying goes - you don't know what you've got till...
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Depression
- byScotsman88 on27th May, 2008 inChats
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Feeling miserable, sad or down is normal and we all feel this way from time to time throughout our lives. These feelings don?t tend to last too long and shouldn't interfere with our lives. We usually cope with these times of down and misery. However, with clinical depression these feelings last for much longer (weeks, months or years) and they are so bad that they interfere with your life.
As with our everyday feelings of low mood, there will sometimes be an obvious reason for becoming depressed, sometimes not. It can be a disappointment, a frustration, or that you have lost something - or someone ? important to you. There is often more than one reason, and these will be different for different people.
Other people may think that you have just "given in" or that you are just "weak", as if you have a choice in the matter. The fact is, there comes a point at which depression is much more like an illness than anything else. It can happen to the most determined of people ? even powerful personalities can experience deep depression. Winston Churchill called it his "black dog".
[i]Symptoms[/i]
There are a large number of clearly defined symptoms for depression. Normally, people suffering from clinical depression will have five or six of them present (but people can have more or less). Some of the symptoms include:
*continuous low mood, or sadness,
*feelings of hopelessness and helplessness,
*low self-esteem,
*tearfulness,
*feelings of guilt,
*feeling irritable and intolerant towards others,
*lack of motivation, and little interest in things in general,
*lack of...
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Acting Straight
- byRob on30th April, 2008 inChats
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[b]The following article is by guest writer Josh Aterovis.[/b]
I got a friend request from a cute guy on MySpace the other day. As I was perusing his page, I saw that he described himself as "straight-acting" in his About Me section. It certainly wasn't the first time I'd seen the phrase, but for some reason, it jumped out at me this time. It got me thinking about how often I hear someone gay use the expression "straight-acting" to describe another gay man or even themselves. The more I thought about it, the more offensive it became. I'm sure I've been guilty of using it in the past, but more recently, I've come to realize just how damaging the term can be -- both within and outside the LGBT community.
How does one even act straight? Is there one prescribed way to be heterosexual? And why would a gay person even want to act straight? Maybe because the flip side of acting straight would be acting gay.
Ask your Average Joe on the street what it means to act gay and you're likely to get a laundry list of gay stereotypes: limp wrist, lisp, obsession with appearance, flamboyant, and effeminate, maybe with a few "you go, girls" thrown in for good measure. Do I know any gay people who fit that description? Sure. But I know even more who don't. The truth is there are as many ways to act gay as there are to act straight. It's the stereotypes that scare some people, though.
I used to date a guy who could easily have been described as "straight acting." By his nature, he was very masculine: liked guns and cars, played in a death-metal band, and usually dressed in a sloppy-casual style that was as far from the stereotypical "gay style"...
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