Hospital Visitation for Gays and Lesbians

by Crystal Alburger

The president's memo of April 15th is certainly cause for celebration, but what does it really mean for the LGBT community? The memo didn't create a new law, taking immediate effect, which grants gays and lesbians the same automatic right to visit their partners that spouses enjoy in all hospitals. But it's a barometer of his concern for LGBT Americans and his commitment to correcting the injustices we face.

"Obama orders hospital visitation rights for gays, lesbians," CNN reported two weeks ago. The president's memo of April 15th is certainly cause for celebration, but what does it really mean for the LGBT community?

First, let's look at the memo itself.

The memo didn't create a new law, taking immediate effect, which grants gays and lesbians the same automatic right to visit their partners that spouses enjoy in all hospitals. Rather, it requests the Secretary of Health and Human Services to initiate a process (which could take several months[1]) intended to give patients the right to designate visitors who are to be treated as family members and respected as medical representatives at federally subsidized hospitals. Fortunately, this law will apply to the vast majority of US hospitals, because the vast majority accept funding for Medicare and Medicaid.[2] Unfortunately, however, the law won't apply to all hospitals. So remember: while the law will certainly be life-changing for LGBT families, it won't be formulated for quite awhile yet, it won't affect every single hospital, and you'll need to fill out some paperwork if you want to take advantage of it.

Now, let's look at how the memo came to be and how that affects the LGBT community. Three years ago, on a family vacation to Florida, Lisa Pond suffered a brain aneurysm and was rushed to Jackson Memorial Hospital.[3] There, Janice Langbehn, her partner of nearly 18 years, the other mother of their four children, who held power of attorney, begged hospital staff to be admitted to her room and was instead kept away from her while she slipped into a fatal coma.[4] Last May, The New York Times published an article about the tragedy. White House Chief of Staff Rahm Emanuel saw this article and shared it with the president, who then ordered policy change to begin on the issue that day.[5] After issuing the April 15th memo, President Obama called Janice Langbehn to express his sympathy for her loss and apologize for the way she was treated by hospital staff.[6] In an interview afterwards, Janice Langbehn said she was "humbled that he would know Lisa’s name and know our story."[7]

This is compassionate, constructive dialogue between Washington and the LGBT community. Reminiscent of the president's handwritten promise to Lieutenant Sandy Tsao to bring an end to Don't Ask, Don't Tell, it is a barometer of his concern for LGBT Americans and his commitment to correcting the injustices we face. It is, in short, a symbol of more to come. Compare the president's response to Janice Langbehn's horrifying experience to that of the federal judge who rejected her lawsuit against Jackson Memorial Hospital, saying no laws required the staff to admit her to her partner's room.[8] The president's memo is important to the LGBT community not only because it has spurred the creation of a law that will change the way we are treated at hospitals, but also because it came out of a compassionate process which is bound to produce more results.

Crystal Alburger is a recent college grad and newlywed. The author of The Love Letters Project, she has been writing an open letter to the president every day since she and her wife exchanged vows in the San Francisco Bay Area and plans to continue doing so until same-sex marriages are legally recognized nationwide. In her letters, she writes about love, politics, religion, money, work, travel, homophobia, linguistics, and puggle puppy ownership as they relate to marriage equality and gay rights.