US President Barack Obama signed a memorandum requiring hospitals to allow gays and lesbians to have non-family visitors and allowing their partners medical power of attorney. The memorandum orders the Department of Health and Human Services to prohibit discrimination in hospital visitation. It reads: "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." It will affect any hospital that receives Medicare or Medicaid funding. Speaker of the House of Representatives Nancy Pelosi says it is a critical step in ending discrimination against LGBT families, "and ensuring that, in the event of a hospital stay, all Americans have the right to see their loved ones." The Human Rights Campaign has told AP it is an important action that was inspired in part by a New York Times article about a lesbian couple in Miami. They were kept apart while one lay dying in a hospital despite having an "advanced health care directive" asking for full visitation rights for each other. "Discrimination touches every facet of the lives of lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender people, including at times of crisis and illness," said HRC President Joe Solmonese. "The president's action today will help ensure that the indignities" suffered by the Miami patient and her children will not happen to others.
Credit: GayNZ.com Daily News staff
First published: Sunday, 18th April 2010 - 11:06am