Tara Parker-Pope reveals two cases where discrimination kept a partner, and in one case the dying woman’s children, away from their loved one while they were dying in hospital.
One hospital involved is Jackson Memorial in Miami, a massive recipient of Federal dollars. In 1965 then un-integrated hospitals in the south were forced by the Federal government to take black patients as part of the new Medicare program. It’s high time that an executive order was made by Obama that hospitals receiving Federal dollars immediately change their visitation policies in this respect.
But beyond that, those bigots (including the ones who have commented on THCB) who continue to maintain that not changing the legal definition of marriage doesn’t hurt anyone should consider the stories of the people Tara reports about, and they should feel very guilty.
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Seriously when will this kind of thing come to a stop! We are talking about people, people. Why does love thy brother and thy neighbor get misconstrued! I am so tired of the biblical arguments against the gay lifestyle – this is coming from a church going Christian.
Anon, I didn’t bring up “the animals do it” argument, but since Hugh B thought it an appropriate comparison I thought I’d oblige and offer him some facts. I for one don’t think gays need any comparisons to live their lives the way they choose.
If Christians are safe targets then it’s because they make themselves so easy to hit by being hipocrites and bigots. The South just happens to harbor more than a few of the more fundamentalist ones. I’ll let Christians be if they stay out of the personal business of those people who don’t believe that their use of hate religion is what God wants.
Besides the name calling, there is a serious problem with accuracy here, bordering on an honesty issue. According to the article, the partner in question was allowed to see the patient, and the children weren’t allowed in because of their ages–nothing to do here with orientation but with the way the hospital staff interacted with the partner. The fact that the sister was given a room number when she arrived is irrelevant given how little information we have about the whole situation. As a hospital worker, I can say for sure that the difference may just have been the knowledge or attitude of a particular staff member who the sister talked to.
Even for atheists, health is not the be all and end all of existence. Suggesting that we overturn an entire social structure to solve a problem with hospital policies is a massive failure to see one’s own life and work in perspective.
Peter – Give the animals do it argument a rest. Otherwise I would have to let my 6 year old spread his feces across our windows – just as the gorilla at the zoo did last week at his school trip. Not a comment about gays, but about the tired defense of all behavior based on animal behavior.
“…south, where all the Christians are…” Give me a break. Lets challenge one bigoted opinion by expressing another bigoted opinion – only this time its a safe target – Christians.
“Didn’t you ever study “natural law” in school?”
Hugh B, Yes I did, but unless you believe that when you went to school there wasn’t anything left to learn then I guess you could assume there is no new knowledge.
You’d better enlarge your education and not rely on ignorance (and the bible) to make judgements.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Homosexuality_in_animals
http://news.nationalgeographic.com/news/2004/07/0722_040722_gayanimal.html
Does no one remember the story of King Canute?
Didn’t you ever study “natural law” in school?
You may call a duck a pony, but you will never take one for a ride.
In what way does this hospital’s policy relate to marriage? The hospital needs to change its policy to allow anyone close to patients to stay with them, regardless of relationship to the patient: marriage is a separate issue altogether. On the issue of marriage, though: the discussion is clouded when proponents of gay marriage call proponents of traditional marriage names (such as bigot). People who support traditional marriage are simply focusing on the institution of marriage and its definition. Most proponents of traditional marriage have no interest one way or the other in the sexual behaviors of those who support gay marriage. They just simply worry that marriage, historically a stabilizing insitution in society, will be defined out of existence.
The homosexual relationship has existed for ages. And people have not made a big fuss about. It is what it is. A relationship between two people. The trouble comes when we start looking the sanction for everything. The sanction is not a natural need of society or the individual. The trouble is when we have rules and and upon people discriminating, the state must get involved and sanction/approve. The danger then it brings is that it becomes a political issue and plays into the hand of those who hate it anyway.
If you look into the current debate on same sex relationship and the debate for the approval of marriage came because of benefits, inheritance, and so many other things.
We should be focussing on these issues. The issues that discriminate. Let two people live the way they want, share the way they want. If you take away those issues, then the demand for legal sanction of marriage goes away.
The so called right-wingers problem is that they have messed up their ownlives and now want to tell others how they can make others better. They say that government should not be involved in people’s life and then they say government should stop abortion, they say government should not support embryonic research as it has life, and then they go and take pride in eating meat…..and so much more.
The amount of time people liberal or conservatives are wasting trying to control other’s lives, they could use that to shape those lives and may be get the same result.
Let me tell you….I do not like abortion but I am dead-set against anti-abortion belief. Let us spend energy to ensure that the need of it does not arise through protection, education, morality…..whatever it takes.
How did I go from homosexual rights to abortion…beats me.
Let the gays live in peace without judging them….It is just a choice…It is not a good or bad. It is just a choice.
rgds
ravi
blogs.biproinc.com/healthcare
http://www.biproinc.com
Why is it that the South (where all the Christians are) always seems to need someone to hate and discriminate against?