Shocking reminder
Posted by lynnontop on October 19, 2009
It’s stories like this that remind me that we can’t take it for granted that our rights will be recognized elsewhere, not even in the US.
Recently, S and I were talking with her cousin about travel. We mentioned that we’d have to take extra precautions (e.g. me adopting my own son, us bringing powers of attorney etc) and simply avoid certain destinations. It was even suggested that we go with Olivia or R Family, where there would be no concern about being lesbians.
But this story shows that even those precautions aren’t enough. And I’m not talking about a holiday in the middle east. This family was taking a cruise that was departing from Miami (a R Family cruise, in fact). When one of the women collapsed and was rushed to hospital, her partner was told that they were in an anti-gay city and State. Although she had a Power of Attorney and Living Will faxed to the hospital so that she could make decisions about health care as well as be by her partner’s side, she and their children had to wait in the waiting room, without any information, while the woman died alone.
At every turn, the hospital seemed bent on thwarting access, and refused to even provide a copy of the death certificate to the surviving partner.
The courts dismissed the ensuing lawsuit.
Needless to say, I won’t be travelling to Florida any time soon. How many US states are out-of-bounds to same-sex families on vacation? Is there a list? Perhaps it’s safest to assume that all US states are on that list.
If a similar thing would ever happen to me (I can hear a Jewish friend making spitting sounds as I write this) I hope I remember to say I’m S’s sister.
You might consider doing one or more of the following:
Donate to the Lambda legal fund, which filed the lawsuit.
And in Canada, donate to Egale.
Optionally, if you find you can’t avoid Miami, just head on down to the Jackson Memorial Hospital and consider urinating upon it. Interestingly, Jackson Memorial Hospital is considered by US News to be one of the best hospitals in the US. Super.
