Surface Judgments, Profound Questions: A Homosexual Male's Phlebotomy Experience

Abstract

Background and Objectives: Two of the authors, one heterosexual and one homosexual, both voluntarily
donated blood to a well-known health institution in the Philippines. As they were filling out the paperwork, one of the authors' attention was called by one of the questions in the form: “Nakipagtalik ka na ba sa iyong kauri?,” which can be literally translated as “Have you had sex with your own kind?”. This erroneously phrased question is the sole question interrogated and problematized in the study.

Methodology: Reviews of Standpoint Theory and the methodology associated with it and, in effect, used in the study, form part of the critique, divided into individual narrations and interpretations by each author. A third co-author, a hematologist, lends her insight on the logistics and issues of phlebotomy. Institutional
ethnography is brought to bear on the narratives.

Results and Conclusion: This three-author collaboration is presented as a claim that an interdisciplinary
approach may open new vistas to a phenomenon that has long existed but been ignored. Reviews of
Standpoint Theory and curriculum planning for health professionals are recommended.