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In a memo issued Thursday, President Barack Obama directed the Secretary of the Health and Human Services agency "to ensure that hospitals that participate in Medicare or Medicaid respect the rights of patients to designate visitors." This order, which covers most hospitals in the United States, is being hailed as an important victory for the LGBT community. However, it also benefits many other individuals and communities, as well.
The widely reported case of Janice Langbehn served, in part, as a catalyst for the president's actions.
Langbehn, along with the couple's three children, was denied the ability to see her dying partner of 18 years, Lisa Marie Pond, when Pond was hospitalized in Florida in 2007.
After Pond's death, Langbehn sued the hospital, but the case was dismissed because there was no legislation requiring that visitation rights be granted to patients.
A Jackson Memorial Hospital official told Langbehn "[Miami] is an anti-gay city in an anti-gay state," clearly marking hers as a case of callous anti-gay discrimination. The hospital's argument and the court's dismissal of her case was additionally chilling in that it ruled that, absent specific legislation, patients have no human right to visitation when they are hospitalized.
Therefore, President Obama's memo made clear that in addition to protecting the rights of gays and lesbians, there are many other personal and family situations which this directive will now cover. The memo reports:
Yet every day, all across America, patients are denied the kindnesses and caring of a loved one at their sides -- whether in a sudden medical emergency or a prolonged hospital stay. Often, a widow or widower with no children is denied the support and comfort of a good friend. Members of religious orders are sometimes unable to choose someone other than an immediate family member to visit them and make medical decisions on their behalf. Also uniquely affected are gay and lesbian Americans who are often barred from the bedsides of the partners with whom they may have spent decades of their lives -- unable to be there for the person they love, and unable to act as a legal surrogate if their partner is incapacitated.
The ability to visit life partners in the hospital is often used as an argument for legalizing gay marriage. However, that does not help me as a single woman. President Obama's efforts here cover both me and my two partnered lesbian sisters equally, and for that I am deeply appreciative.
Related Reading
BlogHer CE no-I-am-zoe The Importance of "Gay Friendly" Health Care
It's hard for me to imagine how someone, or many someones in Janice's case, could be so cruel to deny visitation and information her and their children. And for what purpose? What did it accomplish? I can't even begin to think how out of my mind I would have been if I had been in her position. It is unfortunate that stories like this are a sad and sobering reminder to make sure we have all of our legal ducks in a row.
Waymon Hudson at The Bilerico Project: Florida Hospital Changes LGBT Policies After Denying Lesbian the Right to Visit Her Dying Partner
Jackson Memorial has added a non-discrimination policy that includes sexual orientation, gender identity and gender expression, a patient's bill of rights that states the hospital's commitment to "providing quality care for LGBT patients", and a visitation policy that updates the definition of family to include same-sex partners and other people who may not be legally related to a patient.
That's a huge move forward from where the hospital was and sets a good example of the direction all healthcare providers should be moving.
egalia at Tennessee Guerilla Women: Obama Orders Hospitals to Honor Same-Sex Partner Rights (includes video)
Under the new rule, hospitals must allow lesbian and gay persons to have visitation rights. This is the kind of rule change that everyone thought Obama would implement in the first days of his term instead of only months before an election which some fear will be a Democratic bloodbath. Better late than never.
Ari Shapiro at NPR: Obama: Hospitals Must Grant Same-Sex Visitations (includes audio)
Some prominent gay and lesbian advocates said they had never thought of using Medicare and Medicaid funding as a tool to force hospitals to expand LGBT access. It's a move that Duffy of the Family Research Council calls "a big-government federal takeover of
