This really was the least he could do:
President Obama on Thursday signed a memorandum requiring hospitals to allow gays and lesbians to have non-family visitors and to grant their partners medical power of attorney.
The president ordered the Department of Health and Human Services to prohibit discrimination in hospital visitation. The memo is scheduled to be made public Friday morning, according to an administration official and another source familiar with the White House decision.
An official said the new rule will affect any hospital that receives Medicare or Medicaid funding.
That’s a good first step! Now, pass ENDA, and repeal DADT and DOMA, please, and we might consider shutting up for five seconds. I know, I know, we’re so picky about being treated like second class citizens.
(h/t Greg Laden)
UPDATE: I didn’t see this the first time around, and I have to agree with Dan Savage here: this is heartening, and classy.
Officials said Obama had been moved by the story of a lesbian couple in Florida, Janice Langbehn and Lisa Pond, who were kept apart when Pond collapsed of a cerebral aneurysm in February 2007, dying hours later at a hospital without her partner and children by her side.
Obama called Langbehn on Thursday evening from Air Force One as he flew to Miami, White House officials said. In an interview, Langbehn praised the president for his actions.
“I kept saying it’s not a gay right to hold someone’s hand when they die, its a human right,” she said, noting that she and Pond had been partners for almost 18 years. “Now to have the president call up and say he agrees with me, it’s pretty amazing, and very humbling.”
Nice.
