President Obama proclaimed Monday, Sept. 28, Family Day, and included a reference to gay families in his formal proclamation.
In the first paragraph, the proclamation stated: “Whether children are raised by two parents, a single parent, grandparents, a same-sex couple or a guardian, families encourage us to do our best and enable us to accomplish great things.”
In stark contrast to this inclusion was a Sept. 29 ruling in which a federal court in Florida dismissed a lesbian’s lawsuit against Miami’s Jackson Memorial Hospital for barring her from seeing her partner after she suffered a brain aneurysm and fell into a coma in 2007. Lisa Pond died the following day.
Despite having a medical power-of-attorney and being a resident of Washington state (certainly more gay-friendly than Florida), Janice Langbehn was not allowed to see Pond for eight hours, except for a brief five-minute visit while a priest performed last rights. The hospital also did not accept medical information from Langbehn or have any regard for her healthcare power-of-attorney.
The couple’s three adopted children also weren’t permitted to see Pond.
In addition, the Dade County medical examiner and State of Florida denied Langbehn’s request for a copy of Pond’s death certification.
For its part, the hospital argued — and the court held — that it had no obligation to allow visitors, nor to provide families, healthcare surrogates or visitors access to patients in its trauma unit.
A hospital spokesperson also denied allegations that gay and lesbian patients and their families were treated differently.
“We have always believed and known that the staff at Jackson treats everyone equally, and that their main concern is the well-being of the patients in their care,” said Jennifer Piedra.
Despite these assurances, it’s highly unlikely that an opposite-sex couple would have faced this opposition; in fact, heterosexual couples are rarely, if ever, asked for proof of marriage other than their word.
And in this instance, it seems Langbehn and Pond had taken the “right” steps, those that same-sex couples are advised to take to secure their relationships: They had obtained a power of attorney, ensuring legal responsibility for each other — a step that many gay couples never take.
The case highlights the difficulties same-sex couples face in the United States, where only a few states have marriage equality or civil unions — and how important achieving marriage equality is.