Obama Glacial On Gay Rights
Obama incremental on gay rights
"President Obama is ending a long-standing and unjust practice that discriminates against gays and lesbians by using the leverage of federal funding to compel equality in hospital visitation rights.
Under the president's order, any hospital that accepts Medicare or Medicaid funding for its elderly and poor patients would need to provide same-sex couples with the same visiting privileges permitted to married couples. The rule would encompass the vast majority of hospitals in the United States.
Obama's order is similar to the approach taken by President Lyndon Johnson's administration in using the 1965 establishment of Medicare to end desegregation in hospitals throughout the South.
The rule change was prompted in part by widely publicized instances in which longtime partners were denied access to their dying loved ones, even when they were raising children together and one of the partners held medical power of attorney for the patient.
The executive order is the latest of Obama's incremental steps on gay and lesbian rights. He recently signaled his intent to overturn the "don't ask, don't tell" policy that forces gay and lesbian military personnel to conceal their sexual orientation.
This nation continues to move slowly but steadily toward repealing myriad vestiges of discrimination based on sexual orientation. Each step is welcome, but the fact that hospital visitation remained an issue in 2010 is a sad reminder of how far we have to go."
"President Obama is ending a long-standing and unjust practice that discriminates against gays and lesbians by using the leverage of federal funding to compel equality in hospital visitation rights.
Under the president's order, any hospital that accepts Medicare or Medicaid funding for its elderly and poor patients would need to provide same-sex couples with the same visiting privileges permitted to married couples. The rule would encompass the vast majority of hospitals in the United States.
Obama's order is similar to the approach taken by President Lyndon Johnson's administration in using the 1965 establishment of Medicare to end desegregation in hospitals throughout the South.
The rule change was prompted in part by widely publicized instances in which longtime partners were denied access to their dying loved ones, even when they were raising children together and one of the partners held medical power of attorney for the patient.
The executive order is the latest of Obama's incremental steps on gay and lesbian rights. He recently signaled his intent to overturn the "don't ask, don't tell" policy that forces gay and lesbian military personnel to conceal their sexual orientation.
This nation continues to move slowly but steadily toward repealing myriad vestiges of discrimination based on sexual orientation. Each step is welcome, but the fact that hospital visitation remained an issue in 2010 is a sad reminder of how far we have to go."
Elderly Gay Couple Forcibly Separated, Abused, Robbed By County Officials in California
posted by nolocontendere at 10:25 PM
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