Gay youth in Charlotte, NC, silenced by their school system, seeing entire plays cancelled simply because they have a single lesbian character, are refusing to pretend they don't exist. Not surprisingly, people who wish gay youth didn't exist are opposed.

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Did you know that the Red Cross sells blood to hospitals after you donate it? Did you know that every major blood bank in the US told donors to stop coming on about September 14th -- except the Red Cross, which continued to collect blood that would go bad by now unless it was frozen with a program the Red Cross doesn't actually have in place? Did you know that the Red Cross wants to spend 10% of the money donated for families of the attacks to create a frozen blood program so they can sell more blood? Or how about that its president, Dr. Bernadine Healy, is resigning partly because the Red Cross board of directors wants to spend $30 million of the donations on a new telecommunications system? Or that the Red Cross is a $2.5 billion per year organization that doesn't reveal salaries, expenditures, or anything else to anyone? Today's Washington Post has the story on the blood donations, but after hearing from my sister and others who've worked with the American Red Cross, I suspect this is still the tip of the iceberg. You'll be sure to hear more about it now that one former Red Cross fatcat is running for the US Senate. (No, it's not "pick on North Carolina day," I promise.)

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Slate's David Plotz: Stop picking on the Red Cross. Plotz defends the decision to start a national frozen blood reserve for $50 million as wise and foresightful, but doesn't mention what the Post did today (two days later, though): the Red Cross didn't have the machinery in place to freeze the blood they told people would be frozen. Now up to 20% of it will be destroyed, and good luck getting those people back to the donation table.

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