Despite these advances, disheartening circumstances continue to arise in which people are denied the right to visit their same-sex partners in the hospital. These complications occur even when couples have proof of their relationships. In Missouri, Roger Gorley was removed from his partner’s bedside in April 2013 even though he was in a civil union with the patient, Allen Mansell, and had a health care proxy for visitation. When Mansell’s family members objected to Gorley’s visit, hospital staff called the police, who arrested Gorley and escorted him out of the hospital.

Nearly a year after issuing the regulations, HHS released a guidance letter in September 2011 to implement and enforce visitation, health care proxy, and advance-directive requirements. Through this guidance, HHS required State Survey Agencies, which conduct compliance inspections on behalf of CMS, to ensure that hospitals participating in Medicare and Medicaid programs have established written policies to implement the November 2010 regulations. This letter also clarified that the visitation regulations require hospitals to provide visitation rights to domestic partners of incapacitated patients without requiring documentation of those relationships in most circumstances. In those limited circumstances where documentation can be requested, the information required of same-sex couples cannot be more stringent than that which is required of different-sex couples.

These forms also serve as a medical power of attorney, allowing patients to authorize their partners to make medical decisions on their behalf if they were to become incapacitated. In states where same-sex marriages, domestic partnerships, and/or civil unions are not legal, partners can use these proxies to prove relationship to their injured loved ones so that they can visit them.

President Barack Obama issued a presidential memorandum four years ago on hospital visitation that called for “appropriate rulemaking … to ensure that hospitals that participate in Medicare or Medicaid respect the rights of patients to designate visitors.” The memorandum recommended that the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services, or HHS, detail guidelines for hospital visitation that prohibit discrimination based on “race, color, national origin, religion, sex, sexual orientation, gender identity, or disability.” HHS issued such regulations in November 2010. The regulations prohibit these types of discrimination in hospital visitation and make it clear that designated visitors should be permitted access to patients regardless of whether they have a legally recognized relationship. These regulations also require hospitals to have written guidelines and inform patients of their visitation rights.

In February 2007, Janice Langbehn was denied the right to visit her same-sex partner in the intensive care unit at Jackson Memorial Hospital in Miami, Florida. Langbehn and her partner, Lisa Pond, were vacationing with their three children when Pond suffered an aneurysm. At the hospital, nurses and doctors refused to let Langbehn or her children see Pond, and they did not provide them with adequate updates on her condition. Pond eventually slipped into a coma and died while her family members were trying to persuade administrators to let them into her room. Lambda Legal—a nonprofit organization that focuses on the lesbian, gay, bisexual, and transgender, or LGBT, community—then filed a lawsuit against Jackson Memorial on behalf of Langbehn. The case drew national media attention that eventually prompted the White House to address equal visitation and medical decision-making rights for same-sex couples. More hospital personnel are aware of this issue today, but gaps in this awareness still remain, leaving same-sex couples vulnerable to discrimination.

Suicide is the third leading cause of death among young adults from ages 15 to 24

Every time I hear someone making ignorant comments about the supposed 'evils' of homosexuality, I think about the true evil of the high suicide rates among gay and lesbian teens

Ironically, when I've asked my straight friends to join me in hanging a rainbow flag, they answer, 'But someone might think we're gay,' not realizing that is exactly the point. To be mistaken for the oppressed is to momentarily become the oppressed.

Every time I hear someone making ignorant comments about the supposed 'evils' of homosexuality, I think about the true evil of the high suicide rates among gay and lesbian teens.

Research suggests that sexual identities (including gender identity, gender-role behavior, and sexual orientation) develop in much the same ways among children of lesbian mothers as they do among children of heterosexual parents."

Are Children Who Are Raised by Gay Parents More Likely to Be Gay Themselves?

add $142 million to the economy.

Members of the LGBT community wish to marry for the same reasons we all wish to get married, and must undergo the same processes if they were allowed to marry.

People should not have their tax dollars used to support something they believe is wrong.

Legalizing gay marriage could lead down a "slippery slope," giving people in polygamous, incestuous, bestial, and other nontraditional…