Sameer

“I wanted to give my blood to a place that wants my blood.”

Sameer has a friend whose son was in need of a bone marrow transplant. Wanting to help, he made an appointment for his bone marrow to be screened to find out if he might be eligible to donate marrow to the boy. To his surprise, he found out that gay men aren’t allowed to donate bone marrow. And so with a little bit of frustration and a lot of desire to help others, Sameer began to look for a cause that actually wanted his blood. He discovered that cause and volunteered for an HIV vaccine study.

Sameer was born in Michigan, grew up in Florida, and went to college in Pennsylvania. A job and good friends brought him out to San Francisco. He now works for a company ensuring that the software used with medical devices meets federal regulatory standards. He smiles at being called “very detail oriented” and refers to himself as a geek.

In his spare time, the self–identified geek likes to play video games. “I can play for 12 hours straight,” he admits with a large grin. Fantasy games are another pastime. Sameer takes part in a Dungeons and Dragons group that he helps run every other weekend.

“Friends are very important to me,” says Sameer. It’s really for these friends—and not only because he could not donate bone marrow—that he volunteered to be part of an HIV vaccine study. “I have friends who are positive. Many of them are straight.” He added, “AIDS is still known as a gay disease and it affects many gay people, but not all HIV positive people are gay.”

Sameer is very appreciative of the clinic staff and describes them as extremely accommodating and nonjudgmental. “You have to talk about very private matters during a clinic visit. Nothing surprises the staff. And they make me feel like I am really helping.”

When describing why he wanted to publicly disclose himself as an HIV vaccine study volunteer Sameer noted, “I am a gay Indian American. You don’t hear about the gay Indian American community.” And so Sameer stands up to be counted, not only as a gay Indian American, but a volunteer who has generously given of his time to help find a way to end the HIV epidemic.