2 GAY PEOPLE'S CHRONICLE
April 23, 2010
www.GayPeoplesChronicle.com
Obama requires hospitals to allow partner visits
by Eric Resnick
Washington, D.C.-President Barack Obama has directed hospitals receiving Medicare or Medicaid money to allow domestic partners to visit patients.
The president instructed Health and Human Services Secretary Kathleen Sebelius on April 15 to develop regulations for hospitals that require partner and family-ofchoice visits be treated the same as those by spouses and immediate family.
The regulations will be a condition for participation in Medicare and Medicaid.
Obama reportedly made the move after hearing of Lisa Pond, who died alone in Miami after hospital officials refused to allow her partner Janice Langbehn and their three children to visit her in 2007.
A federal judge rejected a lawsuit filed on Langbehn's behalf, saying that no law required the hospital to allow a partner to visit.
According to Lambda Legal Defense, Obama called Langbehn from Air Force One shortly after signing the directive.
"There are few moments in our lives that call for greater compassion and companionship than when a loved one is admitted to the hospital," reads the directive's preamble.
"In these hours of need and moments of pain and anxiety, all of us would hope to
have a hand to hold, a shoulder on which to lean a loved one to be there for us, as we would be there for them."
Obama recognized that people often facing difficulty with visitation issues include widows with no children whose close friends do not qualify as family, and members of religious orders.
"Also uniquely affected are gay and lesbian Americans who are often barred from the bedsides of the partners with whom they may have spent decades of their livesunable to be there for the person they love, and unable to act as a legal surrogate if their partner is incapacitated."
The new rules will require hospitals to respect the right of patients to designate visitors.
Obama's directive also says HHS should ensure that hospitals have policies to respect advance directives, powers of attorney for health care, and other legal documents that patients may have, designating who can make decisions for them if they are incapacitated.
The president wants HHS to report back to him in 180 days with additional recommendations about hospital visitation, medical decision-making and other issues that affect LGBT patients and their families.
Obama's action is not law, and does not rise to the level of an executive order, but
like an executive order, it will cause regulations to be changed. Those regulations are enforceable by the federal government.
The regulations will take effect following their drafting at HHS and the required public comment period for 30 days following publication in the Federal Register.
The regulations could be overturned by a future administration or act of Congress, but neither are likely once they are in effect. "The president's directive is a small, but welcome step forward," said Freedom to Marry executive director Evan Wolfson. "It addresses one of the many ways same-sex couples and their loved ones are made vulnerable and harmed by the denial of marriage and the safety-net of protections marriage brings in this case, the assurance that a spouse can be by a loved one's hospital bedside and participate in medical decision-making at a time of great need."
Wolfson said the action "is particularly noteworthy in its acknowledgment of how same-sex couples are uniquely affected by marriage discrimination and are thus in need of this kind of remedial presidential directive."
"Of course, the real cure is to end exclusion from marriage," Wolfson said.
"Piecemeal steps," Wolfson concluded, "addressing one protection at a time, will take up a lot more time than either the
administration or American families can afford."
Hospital visitation was the only specific promise to the LGBT community Obama made in his speech accepting the Democratic Party nomination in 2008.
"I know there are differences on same-sex marriage, but surely we can agree that our gay and lesbian brothers and sisters deserve to visit the person they love in the hospital and to live lives free of discrimination" the candidate said then.
The president's action comes a month after criticism that the final version of the health care reform package excluded provisions inserted in the House version by lesbian Wisconsin Rep. Tammy Baldwin.
Baldwin's language could have ended the taxation of employer-provided domestic partner health benefits and increased Medicaid coverage for early HIV treatment.
It could have also given HHS the power to make same-sex couples a family, with all the legal benefits of that definition, for the purpose of health care coverage.
The Senate version, which ultimately passed, excluded Baldwin's provisions.
Following the election of Republican Scott Brown in Massachusetts, neither Senate Democrats nor Obama pushed for them to be included.
Fisher shores up his support for full marriage
by Eric Resnick
Cleveland-Senate candidate Lee Fisher strengthened his support for marriage equality last week, moving closer to his opponent Jennifer Brunner's strong backing of it.
The comment came in response to the final question of an April 13 debate at the Cleveland City Club, asked by Karen Kasler of Ohio Public Radio.
"Mr. Fisher, you say you're in favor of marriage equality. How does that differ from
being supportive of same-sex marriage?" Kasler asked.
"Well, first of all, Karen, I believe it's the same thing," Fisher answered.
"I believe that the federal government has no business telling two people who are in a committed relationship and want to take responsibility for them the rest of their life that they can't marry. It's wrong."
The response was a stronger stand on the subject than the candidate has made before.
Fisher, the lieutenant governor, and
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Linus Herrel and Ray Burton founded Body Language in 1984. Since 1993, the store has been owned by Paul Zeitzew.
A merchant all of his life, Zeitzew just applied the principles for selling men's shirts to selling sex toys. "It works": he said, and the business has than more volume in those 16 years.
tripled
With the advent of the internet, Body Language has became international, shipping overseas as well as across the United States, making the store a major stop for personal appearances by gay porn stars and writers.
The company also is a contributor to almost every LGBT organization in the area. Body Language has also supported virtually every LGBT publication and event program by purchasing advertisements.
The merchandising policy has always been to have the latest and the best at the lowest prices possible. Zeitzew goes online frequently and checks prices of his items against retailers in other cities, adjusting prices if he finds others selling things for less.
Merchandising and a knowledgeable staff make the store a success. The staff includes Chris and Keith, who have been there over 10 years each, and Andre who is the newest member of the family.
The biggest business at the store is the rental and sale of DVDs. Body Language stocks over 2,000 titles, which is the largest collection of gay films in Ohio, with new movies coming in every week. More than 600 pieces of that stock are special purchases and markdowns for sale at low prices. It is the only outlet in the area that rents gay DVDs.
Approaching his 78th birthday, Zeitzew has been trying to sell the store for several years. An arrangement a year ago for someone to take over the business fell through due to the recession. "If no takers come along," he said, "we will have to consider closing the store. At 78 I would like to be swinging a golf club rather than dildos, paddles and slings."
Brunner, the secretary of state, are facing each other in a May 4 Democratic primary for the Senate seat now held by George Voinovich, who is retiring. The winner will run against Republican Rob Portman in November, a former U.S. House member from Cincinnati and George W. Bush's trade representative.
Both Democrats have longstanding relationships with the LGBT community and have used their political careers to help advance civil rights and equality.
The issue of marriage, however, and comfort with the LGBT political battles of today and the future, separate the two candidates somewhat, though less than a year ago.
Brunner has long believed that same-sex partners should have the right to marry. She has not put any qualifications on it, nor attempted any equivocation. It is a belief she has held publicly since 1988 when she stated it during an interview for a Columbus City Council appointment.
She believes that the right to marry is "elemental" and talks about it as a civil right, making no distinctions between the marriages of same-sex couples and opposite-sex couples in name, rights or benefits. Brunner, a former judge, published her call for marriage equality in the June 10, 2009 Huffington Post.
"It is time to make that right available to all American couples, whether they are heterosexual or same-sex," Brunner wrote. "This is a family values issue."
She has been endorsed by the Stonewall Democrats of Cleveland, Summit County, Mahoning County and Central Ohio. Fisher has been less clear on marriage.
Over the past year, his position has evolved and shifted several times, likely prompting Kasler's question.
Just over a year ago, Fisher told a reporter, "I am in favor of civil unions, but I have questions about marriage."
The question arose then because of his answers to a Project Vote Smart survey that appears to have been done during the 2006 gubernatorial race.
The survey asked: Do you believe that the Ohio government should recognize same-sex marriages?
Fisher answered, "No."
After the March 2009 civil union comment, under pressure from LGBT rights advocates with a fundraiser set for June 14 at a Cleveland gay couple's home-Fisher's campaign put out a message they described as "our statement in support of gay marriage.
""
"The government should be focused on creating jobs, lowering health care costs and moving to alternative energy, instead of trying to stop individuals who want to be in a committed relationship and take responsibility for each other," read the entire
statement.
Fisher took no questions on the statement, which caused daily newspapers to opine on whether or not Fisher supported marriage equality or just wouldn't oppose it.
As LGBT groups lined up behind Brunner, Fisher's position changed again slightly.
Fisher's website now reads: "Lee Fisher Continued on page 11
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