Obama orders hospital visitation rights for LGBT Americans

From CNN:  Obama ordered the Dept of Health & Human Services to establish a rule: if hospitals accept Medicare/Medicaid funding, they must let partners visit gay patients.

Obama requested that the regulation make clear that any hospital receiving Medicare and Medicaid funding, which includes the vast majority of U.S. hospitals, must allow patients to decide who can visit them and prohibit discrimination based on a variety of characteristics, including sexual orientation and gender identity.

To quote the vice-president, "This is a big fucking deal."  For years, LGBT people have petitioned hospitals, counties, and state governments to allow us to visit our sick partners in the hospital.  In the back of our heads, there's the worry that we might die like Lisa Pond, alone, with our lover barred from the room, without the chance to say goodbye.  Or that when our partners need us, we'll be barred from telling the doctor our partner's medical history and allergies.

Many gay people travel with our wills & durable power of attorney paperwork tucked into our suitcases, just in case.  Here's hoping that Obama's order works, and we can travel lighter.

Hate Crimes bill passes

Catching up on legislative action: two weeks ago Congress passed the "Matthew Shepard and James Byrd, Jr. Hate Crimes Prevention Act". Last Wednesday President Obama signed it into law.

The law expands the 1969 federal hate-crime law to include a victim's real or perceived gender, sexual orientation, gender identity, or disability. This is big:

• No longer must the victim be engaged in a federally--protected activity like voting. Texas has no hate-crimes statute when James Byrd was lynched; a similar crime now would bring additional penalties.
• The law gives the feds power to prosecute hate crimes when local authorities won't. Also, it helps state and county agencies cover the costs of high-profile investigations and trials. (The trial of Matthew Shepard's killers financially drained a Wyoming county.)
• It requires the FBI to track statistics on hate crimes against transgender people. We don't actually know many transgender folk are attacked and murdered every year, because the feds haven't counted.
  

Fundamentalist Christians have fought hate crimes measures on the grounds that they stifle free speech. That's not true. It is absolutely, 100% legal to stand on the corner and tell the world how much you hate brown people and gay people.

Hate crimes should be punished more severely because such crimes target not only the direct victim, but an entire minority community. A brick through the window of a synagogue is worse than a brick through the window of a 7/11. A lynching is worse than a murder. Therefore, the people who perpetrate hate crimes should face tougher sentences.