Man Arrested for Refusing to Leave Domestic Partner's Hospital Room

Image from source, TowleRoad

I've been following this story with a great deal of interest, though I will be upfront and say that there could be more to the story than we know. But what we do know sounds fairly damning. It is also heart-breakingly familiar. Surely happening down through the ages, but coming to light in the 80s during height of the AIDS crisis, the story of the "shunted aside gay life partner at the hospital bedsinde" has been told enough to become a cliché.

But that's all over now, right? Couldn't happen now, in 2013. Especially after President Obama signed an executive order to stop this sort of thing. And--much as conservatives are always suggesting--these guys had a power of attorney, so they could make each others' medical decisions. Didn't matter. A disagreeable brother was given the "next-of-kin" treatment, despite the patient's protestations, and the actual next-of-kin was thrown to the ground, handcuffed and removed from the premises.

Now, as I said, things could turn out to be less simple than that. The partner who was arrested was allegedly disruptive. But I tell you what, if my Other Half were in the hospital, and I was told to leave as though I were a stranger? I do believe I'd be disruptive too. Wouldn't you?

What this unfortunate incident illustrates (regardless of any further revelations) is that separate is not equal. A domestic partnership or civil union does not equal marriage in situations like this. As I said, this has happened so much in the past that it is cliché now. Isn't time to admit that marriage equality is necessary to right wrongs like this one?

[Excerpt]

Gay Man Arrested at Hospital for Refusing to Leave Sick Partner's Bedside



Roger Gorley was arrested at the Research Medical Center in Kansas City, Missouri on Tuesday after he refused to leave the bedside of his sick partner Allen, WDAF reports: He says when he got there, a member of Allen’s family asked him to leave. When Gorley refused, he says hospital security forcibly removed him from the property and put him in handcuffs.“I was not recognized as being the husband, I wasn’t recognized as being the partner,” Gorley said. . .

Read more at: TowleRoad