Obama orders hospitals to grant gay couples visitation rights

Gay rights activists have applauded President Obama’s signing of a memorandum this week that affords gays and lesbians’ partners medical power of attorney.

The memorandum instructs the U.S. Secretary of Health and Human Services (HHS) to implement new policy that will prohibit discriminative hospital visitation rights.

In the past hospitals could bar visitors to a seriously ill patient if they were not related by blood or marriage.

The new directive affords patients the right to designate visitors and, crucially, that those rights are respected. Tragically it comes too late for long-term partners of gay patients who in the past were denied access to dying loved ones.

Although gay activists have campaigned for years to end the discrimination it is thought the recent high profile case of same-sex partners Janice Langbehn and Lisa Pond, 39, inspired the new ruling.

Langbehn and Pond had been partnered for seventeen years when Pond collapsed whilst they were on holiday with their adopted children in Miami, Florida.

Despite being shown power of attorney documents hospital officials took eight hours to decide if they would permit Langbehn to visit her critically ill partner, by which time Pond had entered into a coma.

She was eventually granted permission to see Pond for five minutes as a priest performed the last rights.

The tragic case received high profile media attention highlighting the vulnerability of same-sex couples in times of crisis.

This week The President phoned Langbehn personally offering an apology and thanking her for her courage moments after issuing the memorandum.

In a statement issued on her family blog Langbehn praised and thanked The President for recognizing her case and issuing the new directive.

The memorandum also benefits patients without partners or children and members of some religious orders who wish to designate someone other than a family member to make medical decisions.

For weekly gay news and chat visit webcam social site http://www.mand8.com/