Reproductive justice advocates say it’s time to redefine infertility and how it’s handled by health insurers.

Chicago couple Adam Motz and Amadou “Tee” Lam have been together for more than five years. But they started talking about having kids on their second date.

“We were out to dinner and Tee brought it up,” Motz, 32, said. “Because for him — for both of us — having children was essential, and agreeing on that was the bare minimum before we could go any further.”

It was early to have the conversation, he admitted, “but we knew it wouldn’t work if we didn’t both feel the same way.”

Fortunately they did.

Motz and Lam, 38, were married last March. By the time the two men came back from their honeymoon, they were talking to potential egg donors. In June, they called a fertility specialist to discuss in vitro fertilization.

"When straight couples can’t conceive, we try to help. We deserve the same chance to build our family."
ADAM MOTZ

She warned them that, as a gay male couple, they might face pushback from their insurance company. Motz, a lawyer with the Cook County State's Attorney's Office, is covered by Blue Cross Blue Shield of Illinois. Like most carriers, BCBSIL doesn’t cover surrogacy. But Motz said when he called the company in July, an agent told him that the egg donation and fertilization would be covered.

“Then he called back almost immediately and said it wouldn’t be,” Motz recalled. “The reason he gave was because we were a male-male couple.”

Insurance mandates nationwide define infertility in heterosexual terms: Couples must try to conceive through sexual intercourse for a year before being covered. In most states, a woman without a male partner is mandated to attempt intrauterine insemination up to a dozen times before a plan covers egg donation.

But for Motz and Lam, their lack of a viable egg isn’t viewed by the insurance industry — or the law — as a medical problem. As a result, they had to pay close to $20,000 out of pocket for egg retrieval and prescriptions for their donor.

“We submitted the claims in October anyway,” Motz said. “Then, in November, a different agent left us a voicemail.” In that message, which Motz shared with NBC News, a BCBSIL representative states, “These services are not covered for male-to-male relationships, therefore they are being denied.”

Dr. Mary Wood Molo of Chicago’s Center for Reproductive Health told NBC Chicago she has seen insurance providers cover egg donor costs for patients of other sexual orientations.

“For hetero and lesbian couples, yes, but not for same-sex male couples — with any [kind of] insurance,” Wood Molo said.

Motz and Lam appealed the denial, with Wood Molo writing a letter they said BCBSIL requested, explaining why these two men could not become pregnant on their own.

“It was very obvious that Adam and I cannot have kids,” Lam said. “I mean, I don’t know how much more obvious it could be.”

Since then, the couple said, BCBSIL has changed its story several times. Initially, according to Motz, it claimed the egg donor’s prescriptions, which ran into the thousands of dollars, should have been covered by Motz’s prescription carrier. It then, Motz said, told the couple those claims were denied because the donor, Motz’s high school friend, wasn’t on his policy. Then in September, in a letter shared with NBC News, the insurer said the denial of these costs was a mistake and the claims “should have been paid.”

“They’ve changed the rationale for denying coverage so many times,” Lam said. “We’ve heard so many different excuses. But the consistent message is that it’s because we’re a male-male couple.”

That’s when the company is actually talking to them: Lam said BCBSIL stopped communicating for months on end, only re-establishing contact after NBC Chicago ran its story on their situation.

In a statement to NBC News, Blue Cross Blue Shield of Illinois said it was committed to providing quality, cost-effective health care regardless of sexual orientation. “BCBSIL has a longstanding history and unwavering commitment to diversity, equity and inclusion across our company and in the communities we serve.” The company also has a page on its website about “LGBTQ inclusion,” where it states, “We work together with our lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender and questioning/queer (LGBTQ) employees to better understand the health care needs of our LGBTQ members.”

It has agreed to cover approximately $2,000 in expenses relating to the egg-retrieval procedure, but Motz and Lam say they are still out $18,000 from their initial claims. By the time their surrogate gives birth, the medical expenses alone could reach $60,000. The couple’s situation is not uncommon, according to Victoria Ferrara, a Connecticut attorney specializing in assisted reproductive technology law.

“The problem is with how insurance companies define infertility,” Ferrara, who also runs a surrogacy agency, said. “You have to be trying to get pregnant for a year before they’ll cover you. Obviously, for a gay couple, that definition isn’t going to work.”

Most insurance plans don’t cover surrogates and many don’t cover egg donors. Because they have to work with both, gay men face the highest financial burden when it comes to creating a family. But lesbians and single people also run afoul of insurance mandates centered on heterosexual couples.

In 2013, California passed legislation guaranteeing LGBTQ people coverage for fertility treatments — but not IVF, which male couples inherently require. New Jersey and a few other states have similar laws.

Nationwide “it’s a real hodge-podge,” Ferrara said.

New York’s Fair Access to Fertility Treatment Act, which went into effect Jan. 1, requires insurance plans serving 100 or more employees to cover IVF. But same-sex male couples aren’t included in that mandate.

“It’s so expensive for LGBTQ couples to have kids to begin with, that this smacks of not just plain discrimination but exacerbated discrimination,” Ferrara said.

Cathy Sakimura, family law director for the National Center for Lesbian Rights, helped draft California’s LGBTQ-inclusive fertility legislation. She said there needs to be a change in how we view helping people start a family.

“The language we use treats the situation like it’s an illness. In some cases, it’s just the physical circumstances of your body,” Sakimura told NBC News. “Why do we even call it ‘infertility’? It’s about fertility, about family coordination, about assisted reproduction.”

Reproductive justice, she said, is the ability to have or not have children in a way that makes sense for your family. She and other fertility advocates want egg and sperm donation, embryo transfer and, ultimately, surrogacy fees added to coverage plans.

It won’t be an easy battle: When advocates in California tried to pass a fertility preservation bill — which would have required carriers to cover egg and sperm freezing for people undergoing chemotherapy and other procedures — insurance lobbyists fought it so vigorously the measure was dropped.

“They’re going to fight really hard against this,” Rich Vaughn, founding partner of L.A.-based International Fertility Law Group, said. “It’ll take a lot of work to get this done in all 50 states.”

Vaughn said many of his clients inquire about coverage for fertility treatments and are turned down. “So the question becomes, ‘Do we fight the insurance company or do we just move on and start our family?’” he said. “Most just move on.”

Motz and Lam aren’t ready to give up just yet.

They’ve been in contact with the American Civil Liberties Union and are also working with a private attorney, not just for reimbursement of their claims but also on a possible discrimination suit.

“As a society, we’ve established that having a family is a priority,” Motz said. “If we really believe that, there’s no reason we should be deprived of the opportunity. When straight couples can’t conceive, we try to help. We deserve the same chance to build our family.”

The rules currently require men who have had sex with men to abstain for three months before giving blood.

Gay and bisexual men will be able to donate blood more easily from next summer following a landmark policy change, the NHS blood service has announced. The move has been welcomed by campaigners who have fought to overturn rules that “perpetuate inequality”.

Men in a long-term relationship with another man will be able to donate blood from next summer, NHS Blood and Transplant (NHSBT) said. The rules currently require all men who have had sex with men to abstain from sex for three months to give blood.

The change in policy will mean risk assessments for donors will be conducted on an individual basis, rather than a population-based one. It will mean that anyone who has the same sexual partner for more than three months will be able to donate if there is no known exposure to a sexually transmitted infection and they are not using anti-HIV drugs PreP or PEP, NHSBT said.

The health check questionnaire will include new behaviour-based indicators to assess potential donors, including considering whether a donor exhibits high-risk sexual behaviour such as having multiple partners or taking part in “chemsex” – having sex while under the influence of stimulants.

Campaigners applauded the step, with Ethan Spibey, the founder of the pressure group FreedomToDonate, saying: “Almost six years ago, our group of volunteers set out to rewrite the rules that had perpetuated inequality and prevented thousands of potentially safe donors from donating for too long. Today, we welcome a pioneering new policy and are immensely proud that more people than ever will be able to fairly give the life-saving gift of blood.”

He added that the change in policy will allow for the “potential of so many safe donors” to be fulfilled, noting that the blood service had announced at the beginning of 2020 that it needed 68,000 new male donors.

Dr Michael Brady, medical director at the Terrence Higgins Trust, welcomed the move. He said “The UK is leading the way in ensuring that blood donation is more inclusive and now will allow many more gay, bisexual and other men who have sex with men to donate blood.”

He added that there is “certainly more work to do” and the charity will “continue to work to ensure that our blood donation service is inclusive and evidence based”, noting restrictions remain in place for former injecting drug users among others.

Su Brailsford, associate medical director at NHSBT, which oversees blood donations in England and transplants across the UK, said: “Patients rely on the generosity and altruism of donors for their life-saving blood. We are proud to have the safest blood supply in the world and I’m pleased to have concluded that these new changes to donor selection will keep blood just as safe.”

She pledged to keep working with LGBT representatives, patients and donors in the run-up to next summer to ensure the donor assessment process is “inclusive and done well”.

Matt Hancock, the health secretary, welcomed the step, adding that it “recognises individuals for the actions they take, rather than their sexual preference”.

The policy change is the latest easing of restrictions for donors. A lifetime ban on gay men donating was reduced to a one-year abstinence from sex requirement in 2011. It was then cut to a three-month requirement in 2017.

France's Europe Minister Clément Beaune

‘I am gay, and I have no problem saying it,’ says Clément Beaune.

French Minister for European Affairs Clément Beaune publicly came out as gay in an interview with French gay magazine Têtu, in which he also promised to support LGBTQ communities in Poland. 

“I am gay, and I have no problem saying it,” he told the magazine, prompted by a question on lesbian, gay, bisexual, trans and queer rights in Europe. He said he wanted to show his homosexuality was “not an obstacle” to becoming a minister. The full interview with Têtu will be published on Wednesday.

Beaune promised he would visit a Polish “LGBT-free” zone early next year, as well as bringing his support to a Polish abortion rights organization.

Hundreds of Polish municipalities have declared themselves “LGBT-free” zones. The Polish government offered in August to support towns that have lost EU funding because of this. 

“I wouldn’t want people to say I am fighting against “LGBT-free” zones because I am gay,” said Beaune, “It would be insulting to say I am leading that fight for myself.”

“However, as European affairs minister, I have an additional responsibility. I must fight for tolerance,” he added.

Beaune’s predecessor as European affairs minister, Amélie de Montchalin, wrote in a June POLITICO op-ed that “Europe should be leading by example” and denounced rising discriminations against LGBTQ people.

For now, however, Beaune has a Brexit-filled agenda in his role as European affairs minister. He has made multiple appearances in recent days expressing his support for European fisheries as high-stakes negotiations continue on a possible Brexit deal.

A gay man in California has won a legal challenge over his right to use the car license plate QUEER, after officials argued it should be banned because it may cause offence.

Computer engineer, folk musician and record producer Amrit Kohli, the owner of music label Queer Folk Records, had applied for the unusual personalised license plate.

Despite the plate reflecting both his sexuality and the name of his trademarked business, it was rejected by the California Department of Motor Vehicles on the grounds that it “may be considered insulting, degrading, or expressing contempt for a specific group or person.”

After a legal challenge, US district judge Jon Tigar of San Francisco held in a ruling on Tuesday (24 November) that the license plate rules infringe upon constitutionally-protected free speech.

The judge wrote: “California’s prohibition on personalized license plate configurations ‘that may carry connotations offensive to good taste and decency’ constitutes viewpoint discrimination.

“Kohli, who identifies as gay and established Queer Folk Records and the music label Queer Folk – which is trademarked by the United States Patent and Trademark Office – describes his ‘effort to reclaim the word queer… to drain its denigrating force’.

“The DMV’s determination that QUEER ‘may be considered insulting, degrading or expressing contempt for a specific group or person,’ and thus ‘may be considered offensive’ reflects both the assessment of a viewpoint – an assessment that may or may not be correct, depending on the context – and the regulation’s effect of disfavouring ideas that offend.”

QUEER is not the only license plate California rejected.

Kohli’s challenge was brought alongside several others challenging license plate denials.

They include military veteran Paul Ogilvie, who was denied the license plate OGWOOLF reflecting “his military nickname, OG, and his long-time interest in wolves” because it was deemed to be gang-related.

Likewise a fan of the band Slayer was denied the license plate SLAAYRR, while Ducati motorcycle fanatic Andrea Campanile was denied DUK N A on obscenity grounds.

The ruling draws on a 2017 Supreme Court decision in the case of Asian-American rock band The Slants, who were initially refused registration of their trademark on the grounds that “slants” is widely considered a racial slur.

Attorney Wen Fa of the libertarian Pacific Legal Foundation said: “This is a great day for our clients and the 250,000 Californians that seek to express their messages on personalized license plates each year.

“Vague bans on offensive speech allow bureaucrats to inject their subjective preferences and undermine the rule of law.”

The DMV said it would review the ruling.

Hallmark has released its first gay Christmas movie just in time for the holiday season, with the channel promising its 'most diverse lineup' amid the release of their 40 new films.



The flick, titled The Christmas House, also stars a familiar face - Jonathan Bennett (aka Mean Girls' Aaron Samuels) as Brandon, who's trying to adopt a baby with his husband Jake, played by Brad Harder.

Speaking of his numerous appearances in Hallmark films, Bennett said he had 'tears well' in his eyes after learning the film would be featuring a gay storyline.

"I've played straight characters in Hallmark movies for years now," Bennett told Refinery29.

"I've told their stories so many times that it was nice to be able to tell a story that felt more authentically me."



Bennett added that upon learning that he nabbed the role in The Christmas House, he asked about further plot details, not yet knowing it would be the channel's first LGBTQ Christmas film.

"I asked them, 'What's the name of my [girlfriend]?'... They said, 'Jake.' And my jaw hit the floor. And I think I had tears well in my eyes, I was so excited," he said.

"Many of the gay members of the crew came up to us and said that they've worked on a lot of Hallmark movies and to have representation like this for the first time was very special.

"It feels like I'm a part of progress."

The new lineup is a part of Hallmark's Countdown to Christmas program, which kicked off on October 24.

It comes following backlash last year after the Hallmark Channel bowed to pressure to pull an ad showing a same sex couple kissing, before reinstating the commercial.

Now, they look to have begun taking representation in a positive direction.

Bennett added: "What I think Hallmark Channel has done so well is they really have taken a step back and looked at representation and what that means to their viewers, what that means to their employees, what that means to the world.

"And they really put their money where their mouth is and are are stepping up and making sure that that holiday table is bigger than it's ever been before and making sure that the holiday table has a seat for everyone."

James Corden, Nicole Kidman, Andrew Rannells and Meryl Streep in The Prom

James Corden has been slammed for his “gross and offensive” portrayal of a gay man in the upcoming Netflix musical film The Prom.

The new adaptation of the Broadway musical, directed by legendary queer creator Ryan Murphy, revolves around a group of out-of-work actors who decide to come to the aid of a lesbian high-school student who is denied the chance to bring a female date to her prom.

The four actors travel to the small Midwestern town of Edgewater, Indiana, after seeing a news report about Emma’s experience and attempt to win her the chance to bring her girlfriend to the prom.

The Prom also stars Nicole Kidman, Meryl Streep, Keegan-Michael Key and Andrew Rannells.

James Corden has been heavily criticised for playing a camp gay man in Netflix’s The Prom
Corden plays Barry Glickman, an ailing gay Broadway star, in the musical adaptation – and it’s safe to say that queer critics are not impressed.

Erik Anderson, founder of AwardsWatch, delivered his verdict on the film on Twitter ahead of its 11 December release date.

“Really liked The Prom. A gorgeous and vibrant production. Streep is hilarious and commanding. Keegan-Michael Key is dreamy. Kidman, Rannells and Washington are fun,” Anderson wrote.

He also heaped praise on Ariana DeBose and Jo Ellen Pellman, the teenage lesbian couple at the heart of the film. However, Anderson wasn’t impressed by Corden’s performance.

“The main, and huge, drawback is James Corden,” he added.

“His performance is gross and offensive, the worst gayface in a long, long time. It’s horrifically bad.”

It’s not the most conventional of career changes…

But former RAF Regiment gunner Marc McAulay, who lives in Edinburgh, is now earning his stripes as a gay adult film performer and reckons he currently earns between £30,000 and £40,000 a year.

But he could be about to reach new heights after being shortlisted for five Prowler awards - including best International porn star - which he describes as “the Oscars” of the gay porn industry.

The 29-year-old, who is gay, hopes success at the awards will be the catalyst for a move to Los Angeles, widely regarded as the porn capital of the world.

Speaking to the Edinburgh Evening News, Marc said: “Being a Scottish professional porn star is popular with people in the US and Asia, they love the accent. Most of the guys I work with are either European or English.

“Living in Edinburgh is also great because it’s quite a cultural city and there’s a gay scene here.”

Marc was runner up in a competition called Mr Gay UK in 2008 and believes this helped him get into the industry along with his work in underwear modelling.

His first porn audition took place in London about four years ago and since then he has been performing roles on screen about once a month for various adult film companies.


Marc hopes to keep building his social media profile and make it big in the US one day.

Marc, who lives in Longstone, continued: “I have never worked with more professional people and the hotels and flights are paid in advance. It’s a safe industry and we have to get blood and urine tests done regularly - they put us through private tests and we sign each other’s paperwork.”

He has also built up a social media profile and earns money from subscriptions through an adult blogging platform called 'Justforfans.'

Marc, who joined the RAF in 2014, says he was a gunner in the RAF Regiment which meant specialising in infantry tactics, weaponry and force protection as part of an elite soldier team with duties like defending RAF bases and overseas air operations.

He was part of the RAF Regiment for about five years but remains a RAF reservist and says the air force has been supportive of his career choice.

He also has a very understanding partner who stays in the background whenever they go down to London for a shoot.

"I’ve lived a very big life that I’m super happy with."

As Luke Evans found success in Hollywood, he may not have put forth a definitive statement about his sexuality ― but that doesn’t mean he was trying to hide it.

The actor was named Attitude’s 2020 “Man of the Year,” and told the gay publication that accusations that he had kept quiet about his authentic self in prior interviews and on social media were simply “not true.”

“My career was public, I was photographed, and all that stuff,” Evans said. “My personal life just became the last thing that I had. Also, what was strange was that when people did find out that I was gay, there was a lot of articles and stuff written saying that I was hiding it, and I wasn’t.”