Do sperm banks take gay/bi donors?

[Anonymous]

Just curious. I noticed while looking through the websites that for those that have a section with a question about sexual orientation, 100% put straight. Are they purposely filtering out any gay/bi men?

[Anonymous]

I don't know but I read the being gay comes through the mother's genes anyway, if that's the issue.

[Anonymous]

Yes, they take them. Many who are gay/bi will not answer the question. I have gay friends who have donated to sperm banks.

[Anonymous]

Even if one lied how would the sperm bank tell by looking at the sperm?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:I don't know but I read the being gay comes through the mother's genes anyway, if that's the issue.

That sounds fake. No one knows how people become gay or even if it is genetic versus environmental

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Yes, they take them. Many who are gay/bi will not answer the question. I have gay friends who have donated to sperm banks.

So... are you saying they had to lie to donate sperm? That means that the banks *don't* take gay/bi men then.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I don't know but I read the being gay comes through the mother's genes anyway, if that's the issue.

That sounds fake. No one knows how people become gay or even if it is genetic versus environmental

I'm not a scientist. That's just something I heard.


https://www.theguardian.com/science/2014/feb/14/genes-influence-male-sexual-orientation-study

"The work has yet to be published, but confirms the findings of a smaller study that sparked widespread controversy in 1993, when Dean Hamer, a scientist at the US National Cancer Institute, investigated the family histories of more than 100 gay men and found homosexuality tended to be inherited. More than 10% of brothers of gay men were gay themselves, compared to around 3% of the general population. Uncles and male cousins on the mother's side had a greater than average chance of being gay, too."

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I don't know but I read the being gay comes through the mother's genes anyway, if that's the issue.

That sounds fake. No one knows how people become gay or even if it is genetic versus environmental

I'm not a scientist. That's just something I heard.


https://www.theguardian.com/science/2014/feb/14/genes-influence-male-sexual-orientation-study

"The work has yet to be published, but confirms the findings of a smaller study that sparked widespread controversy in 1993, when Dean Hamer, a scientist at the US National Cancer Institute, investigated the family histories of more than 100 gay men and found homosexuality tended to be inherited. More than 10% of brothers of gay men were gay themselves, compared to around 3% of the general population. Uncles and male cousins on the mother's side had a greater than average chance of being gay, too."

Here's another one:

https://www.livescience.com/7056-mom-genetics-produce-gay-sons.html

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Yes, they take them. Many who are gay/bi will not answer the question. I have gay friends who have donated to sperm banks.

So... are you saying they had to lie to donate sperm? That means that the banks *don't* take gay/bi men then.

No, I said that they left the question blank. It is not a requirement to answer the question to donate. There is the possibility that the sperm bank you saw was biased and filters/does not allow gay/bi men. But I know that there are at least a couple of fertility clinics in the area that will allow gay/bi sperm donations and do not require you to answer that question in order to donate.

[Anonymous]

No, they will not unless you are using the person as a known donor. My wife and I are a same sex couple and our gay friend is also the donor for our children. We worked with Fairfax Cryobank, and there were a lot of hoops he had to jump through and red tape we had to deal with. Specifically, he had to go through STD testing when he first started donating, then his sperm had to sit in quarantine for six months and he was tested again. Once the tests all came back clear, we could use the sperm. It became quite expensive, but this donor was our pick for many reasons and I'm glad we chose the path we did.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Yes, they take them. Many who are gay/bi will not answer the question. I have gay friends who have donated to sperm banks.

So... are you saying they had to lie to donate sperm? That means that the banks *don't* take gay/bi men then.

No, I said that they left the question blank. It is not a requirement to answer the question to donate. There is the possibility that the sperm bank you saw was biased and filters/does not allow gay/bi men. But I know that there are at least a couple of fertility clinics in the area that will allow gay/bi sperm donations and do not require you to answer that question in order to donate.

So this means men are posing as the "intimate partner" for these women, right? No fertility clinic is going to just let you do this without some kind of lying involved. At least, I'd be really surprised if they did. Now, if you choose to deceive the clinic, that's an entirely different thing.

[Anonymous]

Certain states (NY) do not all donor sperm from men who have sex with men so it might be that some banks just automatically reject them?

Source: https://www.thespermbankofca.org/faqs

[Anonymous]

Do not *allow donor sperm from men who have sex with men

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Even if one lied how would the sperm bank tell by looking at the sperm?

The concern for the sperm bank in terms of liability is the elevated chance of gay donors having HIV (even if this isn't true/is a faulty assumption), not that the offspring would turn out gay. Similar to banning gay men from donating blood - antiquated, but yeah, still very much a thing.

[Anonymous]

The Sperm Bank of California (TSBC) does