The right to say goodbye. A legislative update.

  
 
by Corey Whelan

One of the most well read and vastly circulated blogs that The AFA has ever published appeared on this page last April, entitled "Old Gay Bones".  This piece relayed a tragic situation experienced by all too many LGBT families, that of not being allowed to visit, or comfort, a relative in a hospital.  No matter if that relative is a mom or a dad, or a grand dad, or a loving partner.  No matter if that relative is merely sick or silently dying, the spouses, children, loved ones of these individuals were often kept away from the bedsides of those who needed them most.  Who sometimes, needed them for the very last time.  

I must say, kudos to President Obama for being able to push this one through.  As of this week, patients at hospitals nationwide will now be allowed to decide who can visit them, and who is authorized to make decisions on their behalf.  New federal regulations that were put into effect this past Tuesday have made sexual orientation, gender identity or family makeup superfluous to the more significant issues at hand in these situations - those most human of issues.  Who do we need?  Who do we love? Who do we want to be with us, when we die?

Hospitals must now inform patients and their attending friends and families of their rights to visitors of their choosing.

For more on this story, click here.

 

 

Comments

[Theresa M. Erickson, Esq.]

Corey, thanks so much for posting this information and getting the word out. Not many know that this is now available. Kudos to all that helped passed this legislation.