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Obama makes hospitals allow gay visitation rights
President Barack Obama makes remarks at a DNC fundraiser at the Arsht Center for the Performing Arts in Miami, Florida April 15, 2010.
Credit: Reuters/Jim Young
WASHINGTON |
WASHINGTON (Reuters) - President Barack Obama issued a memo on Thursday that would require hospitals accepting Medicare or Medicaid funds to allow visitation rights to gay and lesbian partners.
Obama asked the Secretary of Health and Human Services to set up rules to make sure all hospitals that participate in the government-funded Medicare and Medicaid programs respect the rights of patients to designate who may visit them.
"It should be made clear that designated visitors ... should enjoy visitation privileges that are no more restrictive than those that immediate family members enjoy," the memo said.
It said hospitals could not deny visitation privileges on the basis of sexual origin, race, religion or gender identity.
"Every day across America, patients are denied the kindness and caring of a loved one at their sides -- whether in a sudden medical emergency or a prolonged hospital stay," Obama wrote.
He cited widows or widowers without children, members of religious orders as examples of people who have been unable to choose the people they want to be at their side in the hospitals that follow a relatives-only visitation policy.
"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," he said.
Obama said he was taking the measures to expand visitation rights to "ensure that patients can receive compassionate care and equal treatment during their hospital stays."
He also ordered hospitals participating in Medicare or Medicaid to ensure that all patients' advance directives, which include appointing someone to make healthcare decisions if necessary, are respected.
The memorandum was applauded by gay rights groups who have pushed to increase the visitation and decision making rights of same-sex partners.
"Discrimination touches every facet of the lives of lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender people, including at times of crisis and illness, when we need our loved ones with us more than ever," said Joe Solmonese, president of Human Rights Campaign, the largest U.S. gay rights group.
He said Obama's decision was inspired by publicity over a hospital's refusal to allow Lisa Pond to have her partner Janice Langbehn and their children at her bedside as she lay dying.
"No one should experience what befell the Pond-Langbehn family, and the president's action today will help ensure that the indignities Janice and her children faced do not happen to another family," Solmonese said.
Obama has been under pressure from some gay activists who backed him for president in 2008 but were disappointed that he had not acted sooner on major gay rights issues.
In January he called for an end to the "don't ask don't tell" policy restricting gays from serving in the military.
(Reporting by Deborah Charles)
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My wife and I proudly voted for him in 2008, ad we will also in 2012 when he is reelected.
As we reflect back upon history, one thing remains clear regardless of one’s religious affiliation or no affiliation: More people have died in the name of God than any other way throughout history.
Indeed, for hundreds of years, religious elites and common people have used their own religious interpretation (and passed down interpretation) to oppress based on gender, sexual orientation, religion and ethnicity. We have come to know of the atrocities that were all tied to religion such as the Holocaust, African-American enslavement, and the persecution of Jews.
In his book, “Holy Horrors: An Illustrated History of Religious Murder and Madness,” James A. Haught chronicles a thousand years of religious hate ranging from the witch hunts, to the numerous crusades, to the Holy Inquisition, to the religious anti-Semitic influence that later fueled the Holocaust. Haught says, “Millions of innocent men, women and children, since the introduction of Christianity, have been burned, tortured, fined, and imprisoned, yet we have not advanced one inch towards uniformity. What has been the effect of the coercion? To make one half of the world fools and the other half hypocrites.”
Furthermore, theologian Richard Rubenstein wrote that the Nazis “did not invent a new villain…they took over the 2,000-year-old Christian tradition of the Jew as a villain. The roots of the death camps must be sought in the mythic structure of Christianity.”
Throughout history numerous religious leaders and common people have pointed to specific passages in the Bible that have been used to validate slavery. One insightful book, “Noah’s Curse: The Biblical Justification of American Slavery,” by Stephen R. Haynes, further shows how just “one” biblical passage fueled anti-African-American sentiment over the course of hundreds of years.
The biblical passage, “A servant of servants shall he be unto his brethren,” reads Noah’s curse on Ham. Ham is later identified as the ancestor of black Africans, and this particular biblical passage is just one that has been used historically to justify African-American slavery. Also many Christian clergymen throughout history were pro-slavery. Historian Larry Hise says in his book, “Pro Slavery,” that ministers “wrote almost half of all defenses of slavery published in America.” He also lists more than 250 religious men who used the Bible to prove white people were entitled to own black people.
Similarly, Hitler and other anti-Semitic leaders throughout history have used biblical passages to validate the persecution of Jews. Here is just one passage that fueled anti-Semitism: “You suffered from your own countrymen the same things those churches suffered from the Jews, who killed the Lord Jesus and the prophets and also drove us out. They displease God and are hostile to all men in their effort to keep us from speaking to the Gentiles so that they may be saved. In this way they always heap up their sins to the limit. The wrath of God has come upon them at last.” (1 Thessalonians 2:14-16).
In the year 2000, Pope John Paul II issued a historical pardon at St. Peter’s Basilica regarding the Catholic Church’s prime role in the persecution of Jews for the past 1,000 years. In addition, they also released a document that named (and officially validated) other multiple “sins” on their part including the Holocaust, Inquisition, Crusades and other religious acts.
Not surprisingly, comparable negative sentiment that existed hundreds of years ago against African-Americans and Jews, continues on even today for non heterosexuals. True, much progress has been made, but even today, when discussing bisexuality or homosexuality, some people are quick to (just as in history) point to biblical passages that condemn anyone who is not heterosexual.
Earlier last year, we witnessed a progressive change in history as gay and bisexual men and women married in California before Proposition 8 was passed. With the right time to pass, it will not be long when equal marriage rights under the law will be given to non-heterosexuals; similar to the way the bans on interracial marriage were outlawed and ruled unconstitutional by the United States Supreme Court despite 72% of the majority of Americans in favor of interracial marriage bans at the time.
Still, some do not consider gay rights a “civil rights” issue. However, Coretta Scott King, wife of the late Martin Luther King Jr., disagrees with them. In 1998, on the 30th anniversary of her husband’s assassination she commented: “I still hear people say that I should… stick to the issue of racial justice, but I hasten to remind them Martin Luther King Jr. said, ‘Injustice anywhere is a threat to justice everywhere.’ ” I appeal to everyone who believes in Martin Luther King Jr.’s dream to make room at the table of brother-and-sisterhood for lesbian and gay people.”
Clearly, religion has also been used against women throughout history. One such biblical passage has been used to prohibit women from being ministers: “Let your women keep silence in the churches: for it is not permitted unto them to speak.” (I Corinthians I 4:34). This helped fuel misogynistic beliefs at the time, viewing women as merely second-class citizens.
Yes, it is true more people have died in the name of God throughout our history than any other way. So it behooves us today to not forget our history, for we may be doomed to repeat it. As we have seen through hundreds of years, indeed it has been repeated. I know I will never identify myself as a Catholic or with any other religion that is not in line with my life-changing (progressive) and liberal beliefs. However, I do believe in God very much and always will; there is a higher Creator, and I believe that our higher Creator would want us to most definitely learn from our horrid history, so that we will never repeat it again. The time is now for us to continue to fight for civil rights in all aspects. The work is never done!
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