A gay couple are speaking out about their decision on filing a class action lawsuit against New York City over IVF benefits. The filing alleges that the city violates civil and constitutional rights by denying in vitro fertilization benefits to men.
Corey Briskin and Nicholas Maggipinto filed the lawsuit in May 2024 after they faced challenges that eventually prevented them from getting IVF benefits, accusing the city's health insurance plans of discriminating against employees who are gay males, along with their partners.
"We wanted to have children and we wanted to do that biologically … which meant ultimately IVF and eventually surrogacy," Corey said. "We had many hurdles to get to the point of even trying to be pregnant," Nicholas added.
Corey was working as a lawyer in the city's district attorney's office, and he said that IVF coverage only applies to women in the city, not men. He went on to explain that they filed the lawsuit "to ensure that, when an employer offers a benefit like access to IVF to its employees, it does so on an equal basis regardless of the sex, sexual orientation, marital status."
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"And in our case specifically, it needs to change its definition of infertility and update its policy to include gay men and single men," Nicholas added. The couple's attorney, Peter Romer-Friedman, says his clients' case is an "historic" one. "We're hoping that this case will help establish the principle that gay men deserve the very same benefits to help grow their families biologically."
