Dispatch: New LGBT Hospital Visitation Rights, A Local Perspective

clipped from www.dispatchpolitics.com HOSPITAL VISITATION RIGHTS Obama's directive is not a cure-all Saturday, April 17, 2010 2:51 AM By Rita Price THE COLUMBUS DISPATCH Doctors told him to come quickly. His partner of 30 years had fallen gravely ill while on a business trip and might die within hours. Mike Brittenback wanted to run out the door of their Columbus home and race to Philadelphia, but he couldn't. "Not until I found a copy of our medical power of attorney," Brittenback said. "They said it could come under question." Frantic, he tore through the house but couldn't find the documents. No one asks husbands and wives for proof, he thought. "I had to wait six hours until the bank opened," said Brittenback, 63. "I had to get the originals from the safe-deposit box." Bill Meezan eventually recovered from the episode of septic shock in late 2008. He felt great yesterday, and even a little hopeful, as he and Brittenback discussed President Barack Obama's directive to extend hospital visitation rights to gay partners and to honor their choices about who makes their health-care decisions.

"It's a huge step forward, and I'm delighted that the president has done this," said Meezan, 63, a professor of social work at Ohio State University. "But it still doesn't convey the full rights of a married couple."

Obama's order, which must be written into rules by the Department of Health and Human Services, seeks to remedy the discrimination that same-sex couples can face when one of them - or one of their children - becomes ill.

Advocates say some hospitals have barred them from intensive-care units, which might permit only family visitors, and haven't always respected their right to make medical decisions for an ill or injured partner.

In Columbus, which has a large gay population, most hospitals are fairly progressive, local gay-rights organizations say. Still, family conflicts can make for terrible snags.

"Where it becomes even more of an issue is when you have blood relatives who don't want the partner involved," said Peggy Anderson, president and CEO of the Columbus AIDS Task Force. "Then it becomes a nightmare."

Obama clearly wants the wishes of the patients protected, Meezan said.

Chuck Eubanks, 49, of Columbus, said he wasn't kept from his partner, but he did have to explain their relationship during a hospitalization in Chicago.

"When I wanted to go in, they said he could only be seen by family or kin," Eubanks said. "Michael is my next of kin. But how could I prove that?"

He said Obama's directive "is a wonderful thing. It's a step, at least, to acknowledge people who have built lives together."

Meezan said that, because he fell into a coma and no longer was able to express his wishes, he isn't sure if Obama's directive would have kept Brittenback from having to produce the power of attorney.

He and Brittenback married in Massachusetts last year. They soon will move to New York, which has not legalized gay marriage but does recognize marriages from other states.

Karla Rothan, executive director of Stonewall Columbus, agreed that most doctors and hospitals here are cooperative. But it still isn't easy.

"Gay and lesbian people go to great lengths to have all their paperwork together," she said.

Sometimes, Rothan said, if a partner dies and there is an autopsy, they find that the coroner can't release the body to them because of strict next-of-kin rules.

"There's about a thousand different rights that we don't have," she said, "because we can't legally marry."

rprice@dispatch.com