FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE

July 2, 1996

GLAD Sues New England Medical Center

GLAD Sues New England Medical Center for Refusing to Provide Reproductive Services to Gay Man

BOSTON, Massachusetts) Today, Gay & Lesbian Advocates & Defenders (GLAD) filed a complaint at the Massachusetts Commission Against Discrimination alleging sexual orientation and disability discrimination by New England Medical Center (NEMC) and Richard Reindollar, M.D. GLAD filed the complaint on behalf of Boston resident Robert Carr, who alleges NEMC refused him reproductive medical services because he is a gay man.

“Both the law and fundamental fairness dictate that the full range of health care, services and treatment be available without regard to sexual orientation or unscientific stereotypes about gay men as automatically having HIV,” stated Bennett Klein, a GLAD attorney. Klein, together with Mary L. Bonauto, another GLAD attorney and cooperating counsel Susan Wilson of Brookline, represents Carr.

Carr, who is the father of one child, sought to provide his semen to the mother of what would have been his second child. He was referred by his primary care physician to Dr. Reindollar’s office for banking and transportation of his semen to the mother’s care provider. NEMC and Dr. Reindollar categorically refused to provide the service, even though they are capable of doing so and have done so for others, and even though standardized test results on Carr, including HIV test results, indicated insemination with Carr’s semen was safe.

“My decision to have children was the result of many years of careful consideration,” added Carr. “Yet in a few short weeks the New England Medical Center and Dr. Reindollar took that decision away from my family based on the fact that I am gay. This was not their decision to make.”

Underscoring Carr’s concern about the access of gay people to basic medical services, Mary Bonauto, GLAD’s Civil Rights Director, stated, “We cannot have health care providers picking and choosing what medical services they will provide to gay people based on their ideas of what is and isn’t appropriate for us. Gay men who are willing to accept the joys and responsibilities of fatherhood should be free to do so and are legally entitled to do so.”

GLAD is New England’s leading legal rights organization for lesbians, gay men, bisexuals and people with HIV. GLAD’s mission is to achieve full equality and justice for all individuals in these groups, primarily through litigation and education.