According to a study, a man who wished to donate sperm to aid Black and LGBTQ families reveals his disbelief at receiving a rejection notice because he is gay.

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The FDA prohibits males from becoming anonymous sperm donors if they have had sex with another man within the preceding five years. When he was turned down for sperm donation, a gay guy was shocked to learn this, according to The Washington Post. TreVaughn Roach-Carter said in an interview with The Post that he believed the ban would be “far gone and over.” Subscribe to our daily newsletter to receive exclusive analysis, news, and trends in your inbox. Thank you for registering! According to The Washington Post. , a 26-year-old gay man was astonished to get a rejection email from a sperm bank after submitting a semen sample.

TreVaughn Roach-Carter was not allowed to donate his sperm because he claimed to be gay. According to The Post, FDA laws forbid men who have had sex with another man within the previous five years from becoming anonymous donors. (The FDA does not forbid gay men from donating sperm in situations where the receiver is aware of the donor.)

Roach-Carter told The Post, “I believed these restrictions were something that was long gone and over and that I wouldn’t have to worry about it.”
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According to The Post, Carter wanted to contribute his sperm to make it simpler for same-sex couples to have babies.

According to The Post, he stated, “I know that when the time comes for me to have children, it will be a drawn-out, difficult, and possibly expensive procedure.” “And I wanted to make things as simple as I could for other individuals who would be going through similar situations,” she continued.

Black Roach-Carter also wished to aid anyone who wished to “have families who look like them.” Less than 2% of all sperm donors at the four biggest cryobanks in the nation are Black, according to Analysis by The Washington Post .

The 26-year-old male had been declined as a sperm donor in the past, but he was recommended to try again after earning his bachelor’s and master’s degrees. According to Jaime Shamonki, the chief medical officer at California Cryobank, the process for sperm donation is extremely selective and generally favors donors with higher education, as reported by The Post.

He was turned down the day after donating semen upon his return in 2020 since he had said that he was gay in his application.

An anonymous sperm donor cannot be a man who has had sex with another man during the preceding five years due to FDA regulations that went into effect in 2005. The basis for this was that gay men had a higher risk of contracting HIV, according to medical literature that cited statistics from the height of the HIV/AIDS epidemic.

Human rights organizations questioned the reasoning behind it at the time. “It is risky and unfair to deny a homosexual man who engages in safe sex in a monogamous relationship sperm donation while allowing a straight guy who frequently engages in unprotected sex with several partners,” stated Joe Solmonese, former president of the Human Rights Campaign, per a 2005 press release. .

The Post points out that before it is sold, donor sperm is put in quarantine for six months and checked for HIV.

According to the FDA, there are no immediate intentions to lift the prohibition, the publication was informed. FDA press representative Veronika Pfaeffle told The Post that “despite the high level of accuracy and sensitivity of today’s donor screening tests for communicable diseases, FDA believes additional safeguards are needed to prevent the introduction, transmission, and spread of communicable diseases to protect recipients.”

Roach-Carter visited the Sperm Bank of California, which said that due of the FDA regulations, it is losing out on donors, particularly donors of color.

In the previous three years, it received applications from 20 Black male applicants for sperm donation who disclosed having sex with men. According to Kenya Campbell, director of programs, “so for us, that was 20 opportunities that we could not even begin a process simply because they were part of the LGBTQ community.”

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