“We’re doing this for every LGBTQ+ couple who had to give up on their hopes and dreams of creating a family”
BY ELEANOR NOYCE, IMAGE VIA WHATWEGANDIDNEXT ON INSTAGRAM
Lesbian influencers Whitney and Megan Bacon-Evans, known collectively as Wegan, have launched a legal case against the Frimley branch of the NHS fertility sector in England. Claiming that it discriminates against LGBTQIA families, Wegan have accused it of punishing them financially on account of their sexuality. NHS Frimley is responsible for commissioning NHS healthcare across East Berkshire, North East Hampshire, Farnham and Surrey Heath.
NHS Frimley’s policy dictates that same-sex female couples, single women and people with wombs must pay for twelve intrauterine insemination treatments to indicate medical infertility. This can amount to in excess of £30,000 before those undertaking it are eligible for NHS help, with the policy for cisgendered heterosexual couples, in the majority of cases, necessitating a mere two years of trying for conception. In Wegan’s case, the couple have already spent £8000 on donor sperm and compulsory pre-insemination tests.
Next week, legal firm Leigh Day, supported by Stonewall UK and the British Pregnancy Advisory Service, will apply for a judicial review for Wegan’s case, arguing discrimination under the Equality Act as well as the eighth and fourteenth article of the European convention on human rights. If this case is successfully granted, it could be heard in January 2022.
Whitney and Megan are prominent #WLW influencers, having met online in 2008. Accumulating over 200,000 followers across YouTube, Instagram, Facebook, Twitter and TikTok, they first gained an online following in 2009 after appearing on BBC’s Britain’s Relationship Secrets and Say Yes To The Dress. Identifying as a femme lesbian couple, Whitney and Megan co-founded Find Femmes in 2015 to help other femme LGBTQ women find love.
Wegan have been open about their fertility journey, sharing updates with their followers on Instagram and TikTok. Launching a £10,000 fundraiser to cover the legal fees, the couple shared in an Instagram post: “We’re doing this for every LGBTQ+ couple who had to give up on their hopes and dreams of creating a family. If found to be unlawful, this could positively impact the tens of thousands of LGBTQ+ people embarking on their path to parenthood now and in the future to come. It is time for discrimination to end and for there to be equal treatment with heterosexual couples in the healthcare system”.
To support Whitney and Megan in their case, consider donating to their fundraiser. Keep up with them on Instagram and Twitter, too.
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