and each time I run across a story like this it will be re-posted and linked to on this blog until such time as it stops happening. Obama recently signed a Presidential Order stating that any medical institution receiving Medicare/Medicaid funds must not discriminate on the basis of sexual orientation, those who do, will lose their funding. The goal was to make head way at preventing this sort of thing from happening. We’ve seen 2 stories like this now in 2 months and thousands more go unreported and untold. For you heterosexual married rereads of this blog, what might YOU do if your spouse landed in the hospital for whatever reason and despite your marriage (and the rights you have through that marriage to make medical decisions for your incapacitated spouse) were told not only your directives were unimportant, they also had no legal bearing. Think about the things you take for granted.
Clay and his partner of 20 years, Harold, lived in California. Clay and Harold made diligent efforts to protect their legal rights, and had their legal paperwork in place—wills, powers of attorney, and medical directives, all naming each other. Harold was 88 years old and in frail medical condition, but still living at home with Clay, 77, who was in good health.
One evening, Harold fell down the front steps of their home and was taken to the hospital. Based on their medical directives alone, Clay should have been consulted in Harold’s care from the first moment. Tragically, county and health care workers instead refused to allow Clay to see Harold in the hospital. The county then ultimately went one step further by isolating the couple from each other, placing the men in separate nursing homes…
