This is just a follow up to my previous blog in September titled, "Why should you care about national equality rights?" I'm posting the story as written by the Ventura County Star.

Find more of the story on their website;
http://www.vcstar.com/news/2009/nov/21/though-suit-dismissed-hospital-staffers-to-not/?partner=RSS

By Steve Rothaus

McClatchy Newspapers

(MCT)

MIAMI - Several Jackson Memorial Hospital nurses in Miami personally apologized to Janice Langbehn, a Washington state lesbian who said a Jackson social worker wouldn't allow her to be with her dying partner in 2007.

"We certainly are sorry for the pain and suffering she felt," said Martha Baker, a registered nurse and president of SEIU local 1991, the union representing about 5,000 doctors, nurses and other healthcare professionals at Jackson.

"I apologize," said registered nurse Norberto Molina, chairman of the union's gay Lavender Caucus. "I can't imagine what you went through."

The apologies came at a town hall-style meeting Thursday night at Unity on the Bay church in which Langbehn returned to Miami as a speaker. Baker, Molina and two other Jackson nurses, Jim Nicholson and Diane Poirier, along with 60 other people, attended the meeting.

Langbehn, whose lawsuit against Jackson was dismissed in September by a federal court in Miami, graciously welcomed the nurses' personal gesture. But she still wants the hospital to apologize formally.

"The management has to do it," Langbehn said.

She tearfully told the audience of her final moments with longtime partner Lisa Pond, who suffered a fatal brain aneurysm on Feb. 18, 2007, shortly before they were to sail with their three children on a Caribbean cruise for gay families.

At Jackson, Langbehn said, a social worker would not let her visit Pond because Florida is "an anti-gay state." Pond, 39, died the next day.

Langbehn, with the help of Lambda Legal, sued the hospital. The case, which received publicity around the country, was dismissed without a decision whether Jackson discriminated against Langbehn because she is gay. The court determined Jackson had no legal obligation to allow anyone to visit a patient.

"It's my duty to speak out, that this should never happen to another family of ours," said Langbehn, seated next to her attorney, Beth Littrell of Lambda Legal in Atlanta, Stratton Pollitzer of Equality Florida and Miami attorney Elizabeth Schwartz, who specializes in nontraditional-family issues. C.J. Ortuno, executive director of SAVE Dade, moderated.

From the beginning, Jackson has said Langbehn was not discriminated against and defended social worker Garnett Frederick, who denied making the offensive comment.

"We have always believed and known that the staff at Jackson treats everyone equally, and that their main concern is the well-being of the patients in their care," Jackson spokeswoman Jennifer Piedra said in a news release after the case was dismissed in September.

So I'm here in the capitol, and I just left a meeting with Chip Arndt, political big whig with the Democratic party for the LGBT community, and I'm going tomorrow morning to meet up with some other activists to get my press rights so that I can cover and report on everything that's going on here in the capitol.

I'm going to try my best to get a feel for what's really going on here... I've talked to dozens of people already tonight that are feeling the march and are in support of what we're doing! Score! I've also met some pretty unfriendly indfividuals that had some colorful words to say about what was going down this weekend.

No matter.

I'm going to try and get my way into the nitty gritty of the events, and I'll be writing an article for QVegas for the November issue, so stay posted here for updates, go to my Facebook page and my Twitter acounts (go my social stream page) for more to the minute updates on the efforts on the ground here in the capitol.

This is truly a momentous occassion and I'm humbled to be here reporting on it and participating in history.

God bless America.

PS
The religious right is going to protest the President's dinner with the LGBT community tomorrow and they're also going to be alongside us at the march on sunday so keep us in your thoughts as we go against the biggots!

"That's gay!" ... why is this normal for people in our day and age to say? It's used to describe something that's dumb, stupid, or lame, so is that what the LGBT community has been reduced to?

It's about taking ourselves out of our comfort zones and speaking out when we hear someone we do or don't know saying it... people know that it could be seen as offensive but they say it anyway because nobody has told them otherwise. Think about it, most conversations you'll have regarding this phrase or others will likely end up with, "I didn't know you felt that way" or "I didn't think it was a big deal, you never said anything?" They're right! if we allow ignorance to fester, guess what... it will.

It can be uncomfortable to have to actually do something on behalf of yourself or perhaps even other people, but our society has to get to the point where ignorance is not tolerated any longer. "Everybody says it" is another one that you'll hear, but just tell them that nobody that knows YOU should be saying, plain and simple. This argument crosses gender, race, orientation, ethnic, and political lines; I was forwarded a video by a friend today that really made me think about the words that I hear and the words I personally allow to be said around me. Here it is.

I was recently having a discussion with one of my straight friends about politics, and I found out some interesting things that I didn’t know before…

I was over at his house and like I had mentioned, we were discussing politics, something that I find myself doing quite often with almost anyone that will have me. Well, we began discussing how I thought President Obama was doing in office, and I’ve said it before that it is our right to disagree with the president if something he’s doing doesn’t rub us the right way. We may disagree on a few key items like gay rights, full disclosure terms, as well as national security; however, I still know that he’s doing a better job than McCain/Palin would have done. I’m a Democrat through and through. That’s fine, we discussed why I had my opinions of the president, and we both went back and forth on the wars, what happened there, why we’re still there, and why Afghanistan is going to keep getting worse/whether or not our allies will support our mission in that country.

We share similar ideas about politics and how it should work for the people instead of against, because we also went into great detail over the new healthcare legislation that President Obama is trying to get passed. We both agreed that people should be allowed to keep what coverage they have now if they want, that small businesses shouldn’t be overburdoned with having to provide their employees with benefits (price tag for small business benefits shouldn’t bee too high if possible), and that we should increase the taxes on the wealthy in order to help fund this project… sounds good to me so far.

Then we moved into my favorite topic… gay rights, the grand daddy of them all. Here, I was a little taken back that we differed in our views somewhat. When I discuss gay rights, I tend to take the argument back to the civil rights era of the late 50’s, 60’s and early 70’s, because that’s when the women’s lib movement captivated the national arena, blacks took the stage and demanded equality and an end to discrimination, and the gays began to make their move for a piece of the same pie. I discussed how blacks and women were treated as being inferior to white males in their respective ways; I brought up some of the large organizations that represented each of the groups and why they either were or weren’t successful…

We were together all the way up to this point, and then things went askew…

I went into the fact that women’s place in society was that of a subservient housewife, and that blacks were seen as inferior, second class citizens to whites… then he chimed in; “I honestly don’t think that gays are being treated as if they’re inferior.”

I took that in for a second…

How could someone see the current state that our community’s in and not think that we’re being treated unfairly and less than equals to the heterosexual majority? Like I said, I took that in for a second before responding… I then asked him if he thought it was okay for blacks to be forced to sit at the back of the bus, I mean, they at least got to ride didn’t they? He responded with a confused tone, saying that it wasn’t the same thing… I didn’t get upset because anger only makes a situation like that hostile and can damage friendships, so then went into the larger cases and key points that the gay community was fighting for, marriage and the rights that go along with it, don’t ask don’t tell, and the social change that needs to be accomplished in order for all of those to come to fruition.

In my personal opinion, our community is fighting for our civil rights, to get the same rights that all other Americans get to enjoy, the same rights that other minorities had been denied in the past. Interracial marriage was against the law at one point, women weren’t offered protection in the workplace, nor were they allowed the same job opportunities as men throughout history and the early 20th century. I bring up the other civil rights movements because I feel that we have to put everything into context of the time that these events occured… revolt was imminent. There was a social upheaval of the status quo that made the stage right for the civil rights movement to swing into full effect. The context where we find ourselves now is pretty unique, because in the new millennia, we find the attempted upheaval of the status quo being bogged down by special interest groups that tell the people what to think, and when to think it. That’s why our community hasn’t been able to break through to the national arena as effectively as other movements have… but, we’re also in drastic times, with the worst economy since the Depression, international tensions focused solely on us, political cobwebs grinding down the infrastructure of our country’s principles, and on top of that… people deplore discrimination, unless it’s against gays.

My friend and I discussed this part of the issue for quite some time before we were able to meet at a common ground of sorts… what did he honestly expect me to say? “Yea, that’s cool… gays don’t mind missing out on some rights, not worries.” Or, “Who needs all their rights anyway?” Something along those lines I’m sure… it’s fine to differ on opinions as long as there is room for communication and debate. There weren’t too many counterpoints on his part, so I’m pretty sure that he has been enlightened by education. I talked about the social change that needs to occur before we make our move onto the national stage, and I meant it… my friend for quite some time didn’t see this argument my way, and that was news to me. Doesn’t he know that I’m gay? It kind of made me laugh, out of disbelief really… we need to get people educated to the fact that homophobia is wrong, inequality is wrong, and discrimination, above all else, is wrong. I think I won one over for our team, go me!

Our move for equal rights has to take on a grass roots strategy as well as a large scaled one that works within the system… if regular people don’t change their minds about giving us equality, what’s going to make the government change its mind on the issue?

Talk to people that you care about first, and try to get them to see our side of the debate if possible; there aren’t any winners or losers, just people that are willing to share their points of view, regardless if they’re the same or not.

God bless America.