Stonewall Columbus Executive Director Karla Rothan speaks out on our behalf in the press and to students in classrooms.
In the Press: (excerpt from Columbus Dispatch, April 17)
A recent article appeared in the Columbus Dispatch discussing President Obama’s directive to extend hospital visitation rights to gay partners and to honor their choices about who may make their health care decisions. Obama’s order, which must be written into rules by the Department of Health and Human Services, seeks to remedy the discrimination that same-sex couples can face when one of them – or one of their children – becomes ill.
Advocates say some hospitals have barred them from intensive-care units, which might permit only family visitors, and haven’t always respected their right to make medical decisions for an ill or injured partner. In Columbus, which has a large gay population, most hospitals are fairly progressive, local gay-rights organizations say. Still, family conflicts can make for terrible snags.
Karla Rothan, Executive Director of Stonewall Columbus, agreed that most doctors and hospitals here are cooperative. But it still isn’t easy.
“Gay and lesbian people go to great lengths to have all their paperwork together,” she said.
Sometimes, Rothan said, if a partner dies and there is an autopsy, they find that the coroner can’t release the body to them because of strict next-of-kin rules.
“There’s about a thousand different rights that we don’t have,” she said, “because we can’t legally marry.”
Read the Columbus Dispatch article in its entirety here
In the Classroom:
Karla Rothan, Executive Director of Stonewall Columbus, speaks to Ohio students about LGBT issues. As it turns out, many of the students have some surprising and challenging ideas of what it means to be an LGBT person. Produced by In the Life TV a PBS show. Also watch their profile on Ohio.
[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xY7wx5PZO28[/youtube]
