The year 2020 will be remembered not only for the pandemic but also for a major victory for equality that came amidst the 50th anniversary of PRIDE: the US Supreme Court made a landmark ruling barring job discrimination against sexual orientation and sexual identity.While LGBTQ+ rights have improved over the years, there are still challenges in the workplace. At Stork Club, we’re especially concerned that the process of becoming a parent for LGBTQ+ people is scary and is far more complex and challenging than others. Even so, a significantly increasing number of lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender, and queer millennials are planning to have children.
77% of LGBTQ+ millennials (aged 18-35) are either already parents or are considering having children, making it almost twice as common as it was for their previous generation, according to the national survey from the Family Equality Council. Unlike older generations of LGBTQ+ families who often had no choice but to conceive a family through intercourse, 63% of this generation plan to start families using assisted reproductive technology (e.g., IVF, IUI, donor egg/sperm), foster care, or adoption.
We strongly believe having a family is a fundamental human right, but for LGBTQ+ parents, family-building options are often financially inaccessible.
The most “affordable” procedure for LGBTQ+ parents to have a baby costs around $30,000, which is much higher than equivalent fertility treatments for heterosexual parents. Unfortunately, numerous studies show that nearly 30% of the LGBTQ+ population live at or below the poverty line with an annual income below $25,000.
It’s even worse for LGBTQ+ people of color, LGBTQ+ women, and transgender or gender nonconforming (GNC) populations.
In addition to the prohibitive cost of maternity and parental care, LGBTQ+ parents face legal and medical obstacles: surrogacy is still illegal in many states of the US, parental rights are not always automatic, lack of specialized prenatal care, and more. Traditional medical insurance leaves the LGBTQ+ population behind, despite the fact that fertility and parental coverage play a crucial role in their lives.
We’re here to help make parental equality real. I’m thrilled to announce that, for the first time, companies can offer an inclusive maternity program to support their LGBTQ+ employees throughout all stages of the family-building process by adding the Stork Club maternity program to their healthcare plans. Stork Club has partnered with Fairfax Cryobank and Fairfax EggBank to provide donor sperm and egg coverage for LGBTQ+ individuals, single parents, and those with genetic health issues.
Stork Club’s donor tissue coverage is an integral part of its overall LGBTQ+ maternity care program covering preconception through birth and newborn care, including IVF, surrogacy, child adoption, and pregnancy support. Unlike a perk or another app, Stork Club extends traditional healthcare coverage to historically overlooked, yet critical components of maternity health resulting in better outcomes, while drastically reducing employers' healthcare costs.
We strongly believe that just as workplace discrimination based on sexual orientation and identity is now clearly illegal, there should also be no parental discrimination on those same grounds.
