Obama Signs LGBT Hospital Access Memo President Calls Lesbian Denied Access to Partner Page 8 by Tracy Baim
THE VOICE OF CHICAGO’S GAY, LESBIAN, BI AND TRANS COMMUNITY SINCE 1985 April 21, 2010 • vol 25 no 29 www.WindyCityMediaGroup.com Gender JUST rally Obama signs LGBT hospital access memo President calls lesbian denied access to partner page 8 BY TRacY Baim “I’m sorry.” Those two little words are what Janice Lang- behn has been waiting to hear since February 2007, when her partner of 18 years, Lisa Pond, just 39 years old, died separated from Langbehn and their children. But the apology did not come from Jack- son Memorial Hospital in Florida, where Pond lay dying from a brain aneurysm suffered Feb. 18, 2007, hours after the family boarded the R Family Cruise. Instead, President Barack Obama said those words to Langbehn in a phone call April 15, 2010, when he phoned her in Olym- pia, Wash., from Air Force One, ironically while it circled over Miami, where Jackson Memorial is Chicago located. Obama called Langbehn to explain a memo he Red Stars page 22 had signed that day to address discrimination LGBT families face from healthcare facilities. The Obama memo directs the Secretary of Health and Human Services (HHS), Kathleen Sebelius, to move forward on steps to address hospital visitation and other related LGBT healthcare access issues. The resulting regula- tion is expected to require hospitals that receive Turn to page 6 Janice Langbehn (left) and Lisa Pond in 1996. Dan Choi sounds off at Boston gala BY CHUCK COLBERT What should the president do? Choi insists that the president include repeal language in the Mario In the nearly six weeks since his arrest for civil Defense Authorization Act of 2010.
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