We are actively investigating other pathways to allow more people from these groups to donate. We are committed to making it easier for more people to donate blood, however it takes time, research, and we need to know that it’s safe and feasible. We know people are frustrated by these rules, and we too would like to see more change. It is discrimination and I feel so helpless,' Scott said. 'It's heartbreaking to constantly hear advertisements on radio and or social media pleading for blood donors when there are many gay men willing to help out but purely because I am a man who is in love with and married to another man, I simply cannot donate. Speaking to FEMAIL the brothers who have a combined 1.2 million followers on TikTok said they both feel 'very strongly' about Scott and other gay men being able to donate. To add to his anger the social media star says the organisation 'blocked him from their Instagram handle' when he approached them on the issue. 'If I was to go in there they would turn me away because I am gay,' he said. 'It is hurtful I am sick of it, I hear their adds every single day in the car and it tells me I should be saving lives and I should consider donating my blood. He was staying a Noone’s parents’ Sydney home when he died.Scott, who is gay, says he is not allowed to give blood because he is married to a manīut this doesn't make the situation any less frustrating for would-be donors like Scott. They lived in Canberra where Johnson studied at the Australian National University which posthumously awarded him a Ph.D. Johnson studied at universities in California and at Cambridge in Britain before moving to Australia in 1986 to live with his Australian partner Michael Noone. Some men were also robbed.Ī coroner had ruled in 1989 that Johnson had taken his own life, while a second coroner in 2012 could not explain how he died. The coroner also found that gangs of men roamed various Sydney locations in search of gay men to assault, resulting in the deaths of some victims. White's lawyers have appealed his conviction and hope he will be acquitted of the murder charge in a jury trial.Ī coroner ruled in 2017 that Johnson “fell from the clifftop as a result of actual or threatened violence by unidentified persons who attacked him because they perceived him to be homosexual.” She said a sentence for the same crime today would be “much higher.” The evidence is too slender to support that,” Wilson added. Neither is the court imposing a sentence for a crime motivated by hatred for a particular sector of society. “Because of the lapse of time, the offender is no longer the same angry young man who raised his fists to another on the edge of a cliff.
“It should be understood that the court is not sentencing a violent and reckless young man for a targeted attack on a gay man,” Wilson said. White had a record of violent crime before and after the murder but had not committed any offense since 2008. She said she only became aware of a reward when the victim’s brother, Steve Johnson, doubled the sum in 2020. Under cross-examination on Monday, Helen White denied she had been aware of a 1 million Australian dollar ($704,000) reward for information on Johnson’s murder when she went to police in 2019. Wilson did not accept the defense lawyers’ argument that Helen White had been motivated to report him to police by a reward. Johnson must have been terrified, aware that he would strike the rocks below and conscious of his fate,” Wilson added. “In those seconds when he must have realized what was happening to him, Dr. Johnson, causing him to stumble backwards and leave the cliff edge,” Wilson said. Wilson said it was not possible to draw any conclusions beyond a reasonable doubt about what had happened at the clifftop.
Scott White told police that he was himself gay and frightened that his homophobic brother would find out. She told the court on Monday that her husband had told her Johnson had run off the cliff. Jill Biden Visits Europe to Meet With Ukrainian Refugees