Another reason we need marriage equality

[redbird]

As roadnotes put it, spreading this story because it's terrifying:

Sonoma County officials deliberately ignored a twenty-year relationship between two men, despite their having mutual powers of attorney and medical directives naming each other. They were forced into separate nursing homes, their property seized and sold, and their lease nullified.

One evening, Harold fell down the front steps of their home and was taken to the hospital. Based on their medical directives alone, Clay should have been consulted in Harold’s care from the first moment. Tragically, county and health care workers instead refused to allow Clay to see Harold in the hospital. The county then ultimately went one step further by isolating the couple from each other, placing the men in separate nursing homes.

The county workers told the judge the two men were just "roommates."

The article notes that this happened in relatively liberal Sonoma County. But without that legal status, "safety" is the luck of the draw: is the county or city worker who happens to get your case a decent, accepting person, or are they homophobic?

Right here, right now, I'm safe from this kind of oppression: I'm legally married to someone of the socially acceptable gender. And I'm still feeling both angry and a little bit scared.

Comments

[adrian_turtle]

Right here, right now, I'm safe from this kind of oppression: I'm legally married to someone of the socially acceptable gender. And I'm still feeling both angry and a little bit scared.

Need I point out that you hold a health care proxy for a person whom MA, NY, and the federal government do not recognize as a member of your family?