MEMORANDUM FOR THE SECRETARY OF HEALTH AND HUMAN SERVICES
SUBJECT: Respecting the Rights of Hospital Patients to Receive Visitors and to Designate Surrogate Decision Makers for Medical Emergencies
There are few moments in our lives that call for greater compassion and companionship than when a loved one is admitted to the hospital. 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.
Yet every day, all across America, patients are denied the kindnesses and caring of a loved one at their sides — whether in a sudden medical emergency or a prolonged hospital stay. Often, a widow or widower with no children is denied the support and comfort of a good friend. Members of religious orders are sometimes unable to choose someone other than an immediate family member to visit them and make medical decisions on their behalf. 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 lives — unable to be there for the person they love, and unable to act as a legal surrogate if their partner is incapacitated.
For all of these Americans, the failure to have their wishes respected concerning who may visit them or make medical decisions on their behalf has real onsequences. It means that doctors and nurses do not always have the best information about patients’ medications and medical histories and that friends and certain family members are unable to serve as intermediaries to help communicate patients’ needs. It means that a stressful and at times terrifying experience for patients is senselessly compounded by indignity and unfairness. And it means that all too often, people are made to suffer or even to pass away alone, denied the comfort of companionship in their final moments while a loved one is left worrying and pacing down the hall.
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By this memorandum, I request that you take the following steps:
1. Initiate appropriate rulemaking, pursuant to your authority under 42 U.S.C. 1395x and other relevant provisions of law, to ensure that hospitals that participate in Medicare or Medicaid respect the rights of patients to designate visitors. It should be made clear that designated visitors, including individuals designated by legally valid advance directives (such as durable powers of attorney and health care proxies), should enjoy visitation privileges that are no more restrictive than those that immediate family members enjoy. You should also provide that participating hospitals may not deny visitation privileges on the basis of race, color, national origin, religion, sex, sexual orientation, gender identity, or disability. The rulemaking should take into account the need for hospitals to restrict visitation in medically appropriate circumstances as well as the clinical decisions that medical professionals make about a patient’s care or treatment.
I wonder who will be the first wingnut to scream bloody murder about this new rule, the purpose of which is, among other reasons, to allow nuns to visit their sisters in the hospital.
Gov. Bob McDonnell has forcefully ordered state agencies not to discriminate against gay and lesbian workers during the hiring process or in the workplace, but he opted not to push legislation that would produce a similar effect.
His directive Wednesday comes in response to controversy ignited by a letter that Attorney General Ken Cuccinelli sent to Virginia college and university officials telling them they lack the legal authority to adopt employment policies with sexual-orientation protections.
While McDonnell’s missive takes a strong stand against discrimination, it doesn’t carry the weight of law as an executive order does.
This directive basically says the state shouldn’t discriminate, but there are n0 legal consequences if it does. If McDonnell is so committed to preventing discrimination based on sexual identity, why not give those protections the force of law?
Virginia will continue to challenge the Environmental Protection Agency’s effort to regulate greenhouse gases while federal lawmakers take center stage in the debate.
Daniel Dodds, a spokesman for state Attorney General Ken Cuccinelli, said the state will pursue litigation “until it’s rendered moot by anything on the federal level.”
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Cuccinelli last month asked a federal appeals court to review the EPA’s finding that greenhouse gases are a health threat. Texas, the U.S. Chamber of Commerce and other business groups filed similar complaints.
So when the law fits into The Cooch’s ultra right-wing conservatism, then the law must be enforced at all costs! But when Cooch disagrees with a law, well, it must be overturned no matter the cost. And speaking of cost:
State Sen. Donald McEachin, D-Richmond, estimated it will cost Virginia up to $500,000 to pursue the case. The General Assembly is building a budget that cuts $4.2 billion from education, health care and transportation and is considering adding or raising a number of fees to raise revenue.
Sure, let’s get rid of a few more teachers and social services so Cuccinelli can do a bad job at playing scientist. Pretty soon we’ll all be praying for the economic strength of the Gilmore administration.
Cuccinelli Orders Va. Colleges to Strip Sexual Orientation and Gender Identity from Anti-Discrimination Policies
Last November, 58% of Virginians voted to elect Ken Cuccinelli as our next Attorney General. In doing so, 58% of Virginians voted to discriminate against LGBT students and faculty at our state’s colleges and universities:
“It is my advice that the law and public policy of the Commonwealth of Virginia prohibit a college or university from including ‘sexual orientation,’ ‘gender identity,’ ‘gender expression,’ or like classification as a protected class within its non-discrimination policy absent specific authorization from the General Assembly,” he wrote in the letter.
Colleges that have included such language in policies that govern university hiring and admissions — which include all of Virginia’s largest schools — have done so “without proper authority” and should “take appropriate actions to bring their policies in conformance with the law and public policy of Virginia,” Cuccinelli wrote.
So I guess when UVa and William and Mary and the like prepare their recruitment materials for next year, they’ll have to put a big ole’ asterisk next to diversity to remind prospective students that only straight students are welcome in Virginia.
At least when Gov. Bob McDonnell rescinded anti-discrimination protections for LGBT state employees, maybe some people could have claimed to have been surprised since McDonnell likes to run for office as a moderate. But The Cooch has never been anything but a far-right, anti-government, gay-bashing, woman-hating whackjob, or, as the Virginian-Pilot put it in their endorsement of his opponent Steve Shannon:
To put it politely, Cuccinelli’s election would bring embarrassment to Virginia, instability to the state’s law firm and untold harm to the long list of people who don’t fit his personal definition of morality.
Well, we went ahead an elected him anyway. And now, Virginia is getting just what we voted for.
Activists and political observers expect the private members’ bill, which proscribes the death penalty for “serial offenders” and is still in the committee stage, to pass with little opposition and some minor changes.
Likely changes may include modifying the death penalty to life imprisonment, altering clauses nullifying international treaties, conventions and protocols that contradict the act, and removing a section about extradition.
“It’s catastrophic,” said Frank Mugisha, chairman of Sexual Minorities Uganda (SMUG), a local activist group.
“People are being arrested, intimidated already. What’s going to happen if it’s passed?”
COURT CHALLENGE
Bahati, of the ruling National Resistance Movement party, said diplomatic pressure would not affect the legislation.
“We cannot exchange our dignity for money,” he said.
Rights groups say gays and lesbians already face illegal detention and abuse under Uganda’s current laws, a situation that is likely to worsen if the bill is passed.
“Certain provisions in this bill are illegal. They are also immoral,” said Kate Sheill, Amnesty International’s expert on sexual rights, in a statement with 16 other rights groups.
“They criminalise a sector of society for being who they are, when what the government should be doing instead is protecting them from discrimination and abuse.”
Museveni has been quoted in that local media as saying that homosexuality is a Western import, joining some Ugandan and continental religious leaders who believe it is un-African.
Activists see the legislation as another sign of the growing impact of U.S. evangelicals and anti-gay campaigners in Uganda. But Bahati denied any foreign influence contributed to the bill.
The act will criminalise anyone “who acts as an accomplice or attempts to promote or in any way abets homosexuality”, and a person in authority who “aids, abets, councils or procures another to engage in acts of homosexuality”.
Activists say they will contest the bill in court if passed.
Canon Gideon Byamugisha, a prominent leader in the Ugandan Anglican Church has properly called this bill “state-legislated genocide” against homosexuals. Meanwhile, American evangelicals like Pastor Rick Warren (yes, that Pastor Rick Warren, who gave the invocation at Barack Obama’s inauguration) refuse to condemn the legislation.
Exciting news, America! Alleged human and former Vice President Dick Cheney will not run for president. However, Palin/Beck 2012, also. (Dallas Morning News/Newsmax)
Oklahoma State Sen. Steve Russell (R-OK City) would like his state to opt-out of federal hate crime laws which currently infringe on his right to beat up gay people because of their gayness. (Oklahoma Daily)
Former Gov. Tommy Thompson (R-WI) is interested in running for an office! Maybe for governor, or senator, or mayor of some little town. He doesn’t much care so long as the obviously fake name “Tommy Thompson” is on the ballot somewhere! (Political Wire)
Sarah Palin has a clever idea to make Muslims not hate us anymore: religious profiling of all Muslims, to protect “innocent American lives” of the Christian variety. (TPM Live Wire)
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