"[Miami] is an anti-gay city in an anti-gay state."
-- Jackson Memorial Hospital official to Janice Langbehn, who was not allowed to see her dying partner. And the court agreed.
In the home state of Charlie Crist, where the law does little for the Sunshine State's LGBT residents, a horrific court rejection that only highlights the extent to which gay and lesbian couples are treated in the most inhumane way --one that heterosexual couples will never experience -- during their most vulnerable moments. The case is Langbehn v. Jackson Memorial Hospital. (Lambda Legal):
The United States District Court for the Southern District of Florida today rejected Lambda Legal's lawsuit filed against Jackson Memorial Hospital on behalf of Janice Langbehn, the Estate of Lisa Pond and their three adopted children who were kept apart by hospital staff for eight hours as Lisa slipped into a coma and died.
"The court's decision paints a tragically stark picture of how vulnerable same-sex couples and their families really are during times of crisis," said Beth Littrell, Staff Attorney in Lambda Legal's Southern Regional Office based in Atlanta. "We hope that because of Janice's courage to seek justice for her family in this case that more people better understand the costs of antigay discrimination. This should never happen to anyone."
While on a family cruise leaving from Miami, Lisa Pond, a healthy 39 year-old, suddenly collapsed. She was rushed to Miami's Jackson Memorial Hospital with her partner Janice and three children following close behind. There, the hospital refused to accept information from Janice about her partner's medical history. Janice was informed that she was in an antigay city and state, and she could expect to receive no informationrmation or acknowledgment as Lisa's partner or family.
A doctor finally spoke with Janice telling her that there was no chance of recovery. Other than one five minute visit that was arranged by a Catholic priest at Janice's request to perform last rites, and despite the doctor's acknowledgement that no medical reason existed to prevent visitation, neither Janice - who provided the hospital with a medical Power of Attorney document - nor their children were allowed to see Lisa until nearly eight hours after their arrival. Soon after Lisa's death, Janice tried to get her death certificate in order to get life insurance and Social Security benefits for their children. She was denied both by the State of Florida and the Dade County Medical Examiner.Today's ruling comes after the Public Health Trust of the Miami Dade County, the governing body of Jackson Memorial Hospital, filed a motion to dismiss the case. The court ruled that the hospital has neither an obligation to allow their patients' visitors nor any obligation whatsoever to provide their patients' families, healthcare surrogates, or visitors with access to patients in their trauma unit. The court has given the Langbehn-Pond family until October 16 to review the ruling and consider all legal options.
You see that - even though the hospital was presented with a legal document giving her medical POA, she could neither see her dying partner nor obtain a flipping death certificate!? This is sick on so many levels. The issue here is that even with the right legal documentation, once the battle in the hospital begins between homophobic officials and the partner, time wasted on trying to obtain basic rights you are entitled to allows the patient's life to fritter away over this bullsh*t. If the doctor said there was no medical reason for her not to see her partner, then that should have been the end of it.
Janice Langbehn's reaction on her blog:
justice denied, justice delayed since hearing a little after 1pm (9.29.09) my time today that Judge Jordan (Federal Judge in Florida) sided with the hospital (Jackson Memorial Hospital - Ryder Trauma Center)
my world has crumbled, my heart was stabbed just like watching Lisa collapsing all over again on the Rfamily cruise on 2/18/07
words of encouragement have poured in from friends, family and others to say "hang in there - the fight is just starting".
and then our son David - saying "mom that's messed up - if we were here in Group Health we could have been with other mom but because we were in Florida we couldn't - how is that fair - shouldn't the laws me the same in all the states" he is only 14 and has some learning delays - what does that say about our society, our laws, and how we wrong others every day if my 14 year old son can see it's "not fair"I honestly don't know how I pick myself up and put on a brave face for public speaking that has always been very trying and hard for me even before this decision - now it will be augmented with an asterisk that says but she failed in court
I know there are people who disagreed that I should never have filed the lawsuit to begin with, that to let the dead lay in rest. I couldn't - I never could - I always picked at those wounds on my arms or face hoping for a different outcome. Speaking out about the inequality we faced was no difference.
This is tragic, enraging and disgusting because there was re was no reason for this to happen. Florida needs to stop this rank discrimination -- and it doesn't even have to do it by affirming gay families, btw. At least in NC, the law on the books is that a patient can designate anyone to be their primary point of contact. Of course if the patient is not conscious, then you do have to rely on legal paperwork. However, I've never experienced any problems here, in fact it's been the opposite, neither of us have ever been asked for documentation or questioned at all. I will say that hospitals need to update all of their forms to allow a box for "partner" or "significant other."
The cruelty could be resolved by the state's legislature changing the law -- is there any chance this will happen?
Hat tip, Donica.
NOTE FROM PAM: While Gay Men's HIV Awareness & Testing Day was a couple of days ago (Sept 27), the fact is that every day should be an awareness and testing day because of the severe impact of HIV/AIDS in communities of color.
According to recent data distributed by the Global Business Coalition on HIV/AIDS, Tuberculosis & Malaria (GBC), men who have sex with men ("MSM") account for almost half of the one million people living with HIV in the US. In addition, MSM account for more than half of all new HIV infections in the US and MSM are the only risk group in which new HIV infections are increasing -- and many are unaware of their status.
Actor Doug Spearman (known to most of you from his work on "Noah's Arc") has contributed this guest post to the Blend and discusses how HIV/AIDS went from a front burner issue to the topic some segments of the LGBT community often relegates to the back burner -- as if, Doug says, it's a problem of the last century -- even as it spreads like wildfire in minority communities at this moment.
The bubble burst a long, long time ago.
By Doug Spearman
On the night I turned 28, my best friend Jeff and I stood in my kitchen in Boston at 3am in the morning swaying in our after-bar drunkenness making the messiest peanut butter and jelly sandwiches and giggling about the night. I remember he turned away from me and said over his shoulder, "I have something to tell you."
There was a pop. I don't think Jeff heard it, but I did. It was tiny and soft like a soap bubble. That gilded bubble of safety and "not us" had burst. I knew what he was going to say, and I knew that he didn't want to so I licked the peanut butter off my fingers and said if for him. "You're HIV positive, aren't you?" He turned around and wouldn't look at me. So I hug ged him. Immediately and as hard as I possibly could.It dawned on me at that moment that we, two guys who'd been friends since our freshmen year at Indiana University way back in l980, had been dancing on the edge for a long, long time - like Jimmy Stewart and Donna Reed doing the Charleston on a moving gym floor in "It's A Wonderful Life." Jeff had fallen in and I was still waving my arms in the air trying to keep my balance.
Since that night, September 3rd l989, science and society have come a long way. There aren't as many death notices in the gay papers anymore. My friends aren't fading and falling like autumn leaves and turning into dried out versions of themselves. No one seems to be embroidering memorial quilts anymore. There don't seem to be many people with the same haunted look walking down the streets of Boystown anymore.
Being HIV positive isn't the death sentence it used to be thanks to medications. Instead, leafing through Out and Thed The Advocate, you see people taking charge of their positive destinies, mountain climbing, and biking, and LIVING with exuberance and resignation through HIV. One of my ex's was even the poster boy - the blonde world traveler, matched canvas bags in tow - for a drug that gave him nightmares and night sweats.
For a time in the 1990s you couldn't go anywhere, especially here in Hollywood, without seeing a red ribbon pinned to chest of a celebrity. I remember when my boss at CBS started wearing a small red ribbon brooch that was made of rubies. All I could think of was that the disease that was killing and crippling my people had become fashionable. You don't see a lot of red ribbons anymore, do you? We've moved on to white ones, because now that AIDS has been dealt with we've moved on to marriage.
The truth is society, gay and straight, seems to think of AIDS as the last century's problem. Now, it's a managed-care disease, as my doctor calls it. There are drugs and therapies to handle it.
Yeah. As long as you can afford them. As long as you've got health insurance and/or access to state funded medical services. I know a lot of people in California who are going to be doing a bit less biking and maybe less mountain hiking when and if Governor Schwartzenager's cuts to AIDS funding really do happen as scheduled.AIDS isn't disappearing, especially if you're Black or Latino in this country. Infection rates may have gone down - a bit - among white gay men, but in minority communities from Oakland to DC, it's again that thing no one talks about. But it's killing us. For the last five years, the numbers of new infections among Black men between 15 and 35 is horrifying. The numbers are almost as bad among Latino men. AIDS is the number one killer of Black Women in the United States. People who don't think to look for it are getting it, and because they're less likely to have access to medical services, they won't find out till it's too late.
Every day that bubble of "not me - them" bursts. Every day people tumble backwards off that edge where Jeff and I stood - and it's still a long, long, long way down. I'm still waving my arms in the air. Still doing what I can to stay negative. Even though the fighting for funding, fighting for awareness and even fighting the temptation to just not put the condom on can be exhausting and overwhelming.
Why are so many of people - men and women, straight and gay - still converting? After more than twenty five years of messaging, pleading, begging, cajoling, teasing, taunting, and worrying people to take care of themselves and their partners, are we still spreading this disease to each other? How did we fail? We've tried everything, haven't we? What new imagining do we have to do? What new words do we have to craft, what new advertising campaigns? I don't know. Really. I don't.
What I do know is that as long as I have to, I'll keep getting testng tested. I'll keep asking my partners about their status before we have sex. I'll keep asking after my friends' health. I'll keep giving my friends holy shit when I hear they're not being safe. I'll keep giving money and time where I have it, when I have it.
I'll keep waving my arms in the air. To keep my balance. To not fall. To not give in. And to continue to draw as much attention to the AIDS and HIV as I can.
You can share your story and learn you can protect yourself from HIV/AIDS, on the Facebook page for National Gay Men's HIV Awareness Day, where others are continuing to post.
crossposted on Holy Bullies and Headless Monsters
I ain’t against gay people. I’m just against it being promoted to kids. . .
I know people that’s gay. My wife’s got friends that are gay. I got family that’s gay. Cousins and shit. He cool as fuck. He cool as a motherfucker. He’s my homie. I just mean that on some of these TV shows, they got dudes kissing. And kids are watching that shit. We can’t have kids growing up with that. . . .but let’s keep it behind the scenes. Ain’t nothin’ wrong with it if that’s what two dudes wanna do. Cool. But that’s not bring that out into the world, where the kids can see that. We don’t want all the kids doing that. ‘Cause that ain’t how we was originally put here to do. Like I said, I ain’t got no problem with the gays.
What? Excuse me? Is this the same guy who spent a considerable amount of time rapping about "money 'n' bitches." Isn't this the same guy who got arrested last year for drug posession?
Who the hell appointed him as a moral spokesperson? I guess when you reduce the worth of black people to the lowest common demoninator of sex, that means all black people get reduced, lgbts of color included.
Well speaking for myself and so many lgbts of color he has insulted (and many of them lead households that includ e children), I want to school Mr. G. on a few things.
With all due respect to Warren G, maybe he should stop obsessing over what he thinks is gay sexual behavior and start focusing on heterosexual sexual behavior. Since he has a problem with two men kissing, I would sincerely hope that he has an equal problem with songs and videos that objectify women as sex objects, that teaches black children to be underacheivers, and that romanticize the selling of drugs.
Or have I just described the contents of his last albums?
Just to be clear about things - homosexuality is not a "lifestyle." Putting on a skin tight dress or wearing your pants down past your ass, drinking and hitting on each other in a club, and then having wild sex that leads to illegitimate births is a lifestyle.
Why don't folks like Warren G. ever criticize that?
You see this is s is the problem that lgbts of color face in the black community. This open hypocrisy that we are supposed to say nothing about.
I am so sick and tired of members of black community who will screw each other till the cows come home without the courtesy of a wedding ring and then have the absolute nerve to pass judgment on lgbts of color just because we want a little affection from each other.
I am so sick and tired of black pastors who will say nothing about the depressing rate of black men in prison and black girls with babies but will break each other's necks to get camera time in order to dehumanize lgbts of color.
I am so damn tired of being treated like a dog being allowed to come in a house as long as he doesn't pee on the furniture. "Oh I don't have a problem with gay people as long as they are not in my face about it."
What the hell is that supposed to mean anyway?
I am sure the entire African-American community does not feel the same way as Warren G. but damn his comments get me angry.
Can black folks have a serious conversation about lgbt issues? Is it totally impossible?
Lgbts of color are not objects to be pointed at or referred to as dogs or "the other."
We are contributing members of society and especially the black community.
And I don't think it's asking too much for the black community to gives us the respect we are entitled to.
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