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Members of Fairfax Cryobank completed training with the Family Equality Council

Recently members of the Cryobank completed several incredibly important trainings offered by Family Equality Council:

• Beyond Diversity: LGBTQ 101
• Creating an Inclusive Practice
• Trans Fertility Considerations

As our society evolves and we continue to open our minds to the diversity that exists, it is critical for professionals to learn, grow, and adapt to provide inclusive practices.  Fairfax Cryobank specializes in helping individuals to build families by using donor sperm.  We serve a beautifully diverse population now, which is very different from the population served when we first opened.

In the 1980s when our Cryobank was getting started, the vast majority of clients were cis-gender heterosexual couples dealing with male infertility.  This meant that our processes, forms, and even language were suited to that population.

Over the years we began serving more women who were not partnered, as well as same-sex female couples.  We worked to change and update our processes, forms, and language to meet the needs of our clients.

As we expand and work with ever more diverse individuals and couples, we have worked to use non-gendered language and to offer the opportunity for our clients to define the terms they would like us to use.  The Family Equality Council training informed some of our recent changes and updates.

Beyond Diversity: LGBTQ 101 is a great tool that gives the trainee a foundation of knowledge on which to build.  Creating an Inclusive Practice gives amazing tips and advice on how best to serve individuals as sensitively and comprehensively as possible while helping individuals to learn terms that may be new to them.  Trans Fertility Considerations may be the most important module of all because those in the trans community are chronically underserved and even traumatized by insensitive or hostile practitioners. 

These three trainings have been an important and educational experience for our staff.  Completing these along with other pieces of training has allowed us to create an inclusive sensitive environment based on kindness and respect.

By Michelle Ottey, Ph.D. Fairfax Cryobank Laboratory Director, Director of Operations

Learn more about how Fairfax Cryobank is an LGBTQX+ friendly sperm bank on our resource page here.