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Obama Orders Hospital Visitation Rights


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President Barack Obama signed a memorandum Thursday requiring hospitals to allow gays and lesbians to have nonfamily 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. The memo was posted on the White House website Thursday afternoon.

Reads the memorandum: “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.”

A White House official told The Washington Post the memorandum will affect any hospital that receives Medicare or Medicaid funding.

Read the memorandum here.

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Reader Comments
  • Name: robert
    Date posted: 4/16/2010 12:31:06 AM
    Hometown: atlanta

    Comment:

    Mike, are you 12?

  • Name: Mike
    Date posted: 4/16/2010 12:18:02 AM
    Hometown: Chicago

    Comment:

    So we can die together but we cannot live together? This is not equality. It's crap-and Obama's full of it.

  • Name: r
    Date posted: 4/15/2010 11:27:27 PM
    Hometown: bellevue

    Comment:

    I can't believe this homophobe Obama! He's not doing anything for gays! I think I'll put a donkey's ass on the cover of my magazine! Screw the democrats! They won't get any of my money!

  • Name: CJ
    Date posted: 4/15/2010 11:00:20 PM
    Hometown: LA

    Comment:

    Dameon is right. Regulations by executive agencies (like the Dept. of Health and Human Services) have the same force as statutory law. The president is the head of the federal bureaucracy. So, yes, this directive and any related regulatory changes that result are legally binding. Even if he does nothing else, no one can say Obama has done nothing for us. This is BIG. So, before we inevitably start complaining that this isn't marriage equality or a repeal of DADT, let's take a moment to appreciate the fact that this will have a very real, very large, and very personal positive impact on the lives of many members of our community.

  • Name: melvin
    Date posted: 4/15/2010 10:45:16 PM
    Hometown: South Dakota

    Comment:

    Well, it is a law as long as Obama is president. As in Virginia, Gov. McDonnel [or whatever] rescinded the previous administration's non-discrimination policy for gays and lesbians. So, as Ronnie said........it is NOT a codified law. Isn't that Obama's argument for the DADT law?

  • Name: Dameon
    Date posted: 4/15/2010 10:03:39 PM
    Hometown: Phoenix

    Comment:

    Actually, this IS the law for any hospital that received government Medicare/Medicaid funding, which is the vast majority of them. If the government says they are forbidden from discriminating against us, then they are, unless they want to lose their funding. Very well played by Obama!

  • Name: Franz
    Date posted: 4/15/2010 10:02:00 PM
    Hometown: Seattle

    Comment:

    I agree with Ronnie, it's a very lawyer thing to do but it won't be enforced. Table scraps......This Congress and last Congress are experts at non-binding bureaucracy.

  • Name: Kari
    Date posted: 4/15/2010 9:37:55 PM
    Hometown: Baltimore

    Comment:

    This is excellent news!

  • Name: Mark
    Date posted: 4/15/2010 9:34:50 PM
    Hometown: Seattle

    Comment:

    It's the humane thing to do. (Noted: done by a Democrat)

  • Name: Ronnie Mc
    Date posted: 4/15/2010 8:49:49 PM
    Hometown: Hawthorne,NJ

    Comment:

    It's a good step...however its not a law....it won't be enforced....Full Equality NOWWW!!!!



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