Archive for September, 2009
Hospital Forces Lesbian to Die Alone; Judge Gives Stamp of Approval
U.S. District Judge Adalberto Jordan dismissed a lawsuit yesterday, essentially finding that the Jackson Memorial Hospital was within its rights to leave a dying woman alone while denying her present and immediate family permission to visit her, be updated on her condition, or even to provide the hospital with medically necessary information.
Named in the now-dismissed suit were Jackson social worker Garnett Frederick and attending physicians Alois Zauner and Carlos Alberto Cruz, who made the decision not to allow Janice Langbehn, Lisa Pond’s partner, to have standard family access to information, even after receiving durable Power of Attorney and a Living Will naming Janice as legal guardian with authority to make end-of-life decisions.
Jennifer Piedra, spokesperson for Jackson Memorial, released this statement after Judge Jordan said they could continue to turn [lesbian and gay] people away from their dying family members:
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. At Jackson Health System, we believe in a culture of inclusion. For more than 90 years, the institution has taken great pride in serving everyone who enters its doors, regardless of race, creed, religious beliefs or sexual orientation. We also employ a very diverse workforce, one that mirrors the community we serve.
Jackson will continue to work with the gay, lesbian, bisexual and transgender community to ensure that everyone knows they are welcome at all of our facilities, where they will receive the highest quality of medical care.
Yes, that sounds perfectly reasonable. If only there were a way to judge their words against their actions. Oh wait, there is, and guess what! They’re completely and plainly full of it! In March, Janice told the story of Lisa’s final hours:
On February 18, 2007, Lisa Pond, my partner of nearly 18 years and 3 of our 4 adopted children: Danielle, David and Katie were on board the Rfamily cruise preparing to set sail. Before leaving port, Lisa suddenly collapsed while watching the children play basketball. The kids were banging on the stateroom door saying, “Mommy was hurt!” I opened the door, and took one look at Lisa and knew the situation was very serious. As a medical social worker for many years, I have seen people in critical condition. I knew that my life partner was gravely ill. As the ship was about to leave, we had no choice but to seek medical help in an unfamiliar city. After local medics arrived, we hurried off the ship to the closest hospital in Miami, Ryder Trauma Center at Jackson Memorial Hospital.
As Lisa was put into the ambulance I had no idea when she signed “I love you” to the kids and I it would be the last time I would see her beautiful blue eyes. We arrived at the trauma center minutes before her ambulance. I tried to follow her gurney into the trauma area and was stopped by the trauma team and told to go to the waiting room. The kids and I did as we were told.
We arrived shortly after 3:30 in the afternoon, around 4pm, a social worker came out and introduced himself as Garnett Frederick and said, “you are in an anti-gay city and state. And without a health care proxy you will not see Lisa nor know of her condition”. He then turned to leave; I stopped him and asked for his fax number because I said “we had legal Durable Powers of Attorney” and would get him the documents. Within a short time of meeting this social worker, I contacted friends in Lacey, WA, our hometown, who went to our house and faxed the legal documents required for me to make medical decisions for Lisa.
I never imagined as I paced that tiny waiting room that I would not see Lisa’s bright blue eyes again or hold her warm, loving hands. Feeling helpless as I continued to wait, I attempted to sneak back into the trauma bay but all the doors to the trauma area had key codes, preventing me from entering. Sitting alone with our luggage, our children and my thoughts, I watched numbly as other families were invited back into the trauma center to visit with loved ones. I was still waiting to hear what was happening with Lisa, realizing as the time passed that I was not being allowed to see her and if the social worker’s words were any indication it was because we were gay.
Anger, despair and disbelief wracked my brain as I tried to figure out a way to find out what was going on with Lisa. I finally thought to call our family doctor back in Olympia (on a Sunday afternoon at home) to see if she could find out what was happening. While on the phone with our doctor in Olympia, a surgeon appeared. The surgeon told me that Lisa, who was just 39 years old, had suffered massive bleeding in her brain from an aneurysm.
A short while later, two more surgeons appeared and explained the massive bleed in Lisa’s brain gave her little chance to survive and if she did it would be in a persistent vegetative state. Lisa had made me promise to her over and over in our 18 years together to never allow this to happen to her. I let the surgeons know Lisa wishes, which were also spelled out in her Living Wills and Advance Directive. I was then promised by the doctors that I would be brought to see Lisa as “soon as she was cleaned up”. At that point all life saving measures ceased and I asked that she be prepared for organ donation.
Yet, the children and I continued to wait and wait. A Hospital Chaplain appeared and asked if I wanted to pray and I looked at her dumbfounded as if I hadn’t already been doing that for over four hours. I immediately asked for a Catholic Priest to perform Lisa’s Last rites. A short time later, a Catholic priest escorted me back to recite the Last Rites and it was my first time in nearly 5hrs of seeing Lisa. After seeing her I knew the children needed to see her immediately and be able to say their goodbyes and begin the grieving process. Yet the priest escorted me back out to the waiting room. Where I was faced with the young faces of our beautiful children to explain “other mommy” was going to heaven.
Lisa Marie Pond
1967 - 2007
I continued to assert myself over the ensuing hours again that we needed to be with Lisa. I even showed the Admitting clerk the children’s birth certificates with both Lisa and my name on them… and said if you won’t let me back, let her children be with her. I was told they were “too young”. I thought how old do you need to be to say goodbye to your mother?
In nearly eight hours, Lisa lay at Ryder Trauma Center moving toward brain death – completely alone and I continue to this day to feel like a failure for not being there to hold her hand to tell her how much we loved her, to comfort her and to sign in her hand “I love you”. All my pleas fell on deaf ears.
Lisa’s sister arrived driving straight from Jacksonville as soon as I knew Lisa would not survive. She announced who she was and I was at her side staring at the same person who had been denying me access all those hours. It was only then that I was told Lisa had been moved almost an hour earlier to ICU… and the hospital just kept the children and I waiting in the same waiting room, where Lisa was not even at.
On Monday February 19, 2007 at 10:45am, Lisa was officially declared Brain Dead. It was then that individuals from the Organ Donation Agency became involved (who I must point out are completely separate professionals from Jackson Memorial Hospital) that I finally was validated as Lisa’s spouse. They asked me which organs she wanted donated.
The Langbehn-Pond Family
Explain to me again how a straight couple would have been split like this even for five minutes, let alone hours. Explain to me how three children would have been kept from their straight mother’s side, how a dying straight person would be treated in such an cruel, vicious, I-don’t-have-enough-words way.
Tell me again why the word “marriage” doesn’t matter. Tell me again that we should just be patient and not rock the boat.
Better yet, tell it to Lisa Pond’s partner and children.
Yesterday a judge shrugged his shoulders and left LGBT victims unprotected. When will Americans demand better? Will Americans demand better?
Kevin Jennings Cleared by the Rest of Brewster’s Story
Posted by Matt in Christianity, News, Politics, Safe Schools on September 29th, 2009
The Religious Right has been part of the Obama Czar Witch Hunt for some time now. Their most recent victim is Kevin Jennings, Assistant Deputy Secretary (not czar) for Safe and Drug-Free Schools. Sec. Jennings has been a prominent advocate for LGBT teens, founding the Gay, Lesbian, and Straight Education Network (GLSEN) in 1990.
The attacks actually began in June, when Family Research Council posted supposedly shocking quotes from Jennings. You can read about it at Holy Bullies and Headless Monsters and Good As You, and more recent iterations at Media Matters and Right Wing Watch.
The biggest allegation, and most relevant to Jennings’ job in the Department of Education, is that he failed to report a case of statutory rape. The evidence that supposedly proves their case is a speech Jennings gave to the Iowa chapter of GLSEN in 2000.
I believe this allegation is false — and I have proof.
Below is a snippet of the speech (I don’t know what that sound is either):
And a transcript from Media Matters:
And I said, “Brewster, what are you doing in there asleep?” And he said, “Well, I’m tired.” And I said, “Well, we all are tired and we all got to school today.” And he said, “Well, I was out late last night.” And I said, “What were you doing out late on a school night?” And he said, “Well, I was in Boston.”
Boston was about 45 minutes from Concord. So I said, “What were you doing in Boston on a school night, Brewster?” He got very quiet, and he finally looked at me and said, “Well, I met somebody in the bus station bathroom and I went home with him.”
High school sophomore, 15 years old. That was the only way he knew how to meet gay people.
I was a closeted gay teacher, 24 years old, didn’t know what to say. Knew I should say something quickly, so I finally — my best friend had just died of AIDS the week before — I looked at Brewster and said, “You know, I hope you knew to use a condom.” He said to me something I will never forget. He said “Why should I, my life isn’t worth saving anyway.”
The point of Sec. Jennings’ speech seems to have been that LGBT high school students don’t have a built in way to meet other LGBT people, increasing the likelihood that they will enter into dangerous situations in an attempt to understand their difference from everybody they know and feel normal.
Seems spot on to me, and it illustrates the need to create Gay Straight Alliances and GLSEN Safe Spaces to give LGBT students a fighting chance. Jennings hopes to decrease the probability of dangerous situations by addressing the underlying problem.
But let’s move back to the question of age. In this speech, Kevin Jennings quite clearly said that the boy was 15 years old. The age of consent in Massachusetts is 16. Therefore, Jennings clearly should have reported what Brewster told him, right?
Not so fast, kemo sabe. What if we had another account of Brewster’s story that contradicts the motivational speech Jennings was giving in 2000?
Kevin Jennings: Protecting Kids, Not Hurting Them
I remember Brewster, a sophomore boy who I came to know in 1987, my first year of teaching at Concord Academy, in Concord, Massachusetts. [...] Toward the end of my first year, during the spring of 1988, Brewster appeared in my office in the tow of one of my advisees, a wonderful young woman to whom I had been “out” for a long time. “Brewster has something he needs to talk with you about,” she intoned ominously. Brewster squirmed at the prospect of telling, and we sat silently for a short while. On a hunch, I suddenly asked “What’s his name?” Brewster’s eyes widened briefly, and then out spilled a story about his involvement with an older man he had met in Boston. I listened, sympathized, and offered advice. He left my office with a smile on his face that I would see every time I saw him on the campus for the next two years, until he graduated.
It’s clearly the same story that Jennings told in 2000, right? Same kid, same situation. He didn’t mention the condom here, but it wasn’t quite the point that section. In this case, Brewster’s story is an illustration of the Don’t Ask Don’t Tell attitude that people expect of LGBT people. Jennings does say that he “offered advice”, and I’m guessing that’s what he was talking about.
Seven paragraphs later is something that most people miss. Jennings mentions Brewster again.
I remember April 3, 1993, when I went to Club Cafe, a gay restaurant in Boston, for the annual awards dinner of the Coalition for Lesbian and Gay Civil Rights. An organization I had helped found, GLSTN (the Gay, Lesbian, and Straight Teachers Network), was being honored that night, and I had come to accept the award on our behalf. I sat with some friends, my back to the center of the room, and soon got engaged in conversation. From behind me, I heard a familiar voice. “Care for a drink, sir?”
I turned and it was Brewster. Shocked, we were both speechless for a moment, before we hugged each other and caught up. He was now twenty-two, taking time off from college, and living with his boyfriend. His smile showed that he had found his way to a happy adulthood. In that moment, I remembered why I had gone into teaching in the first place.
Did you catch it? In April 1993, Brewster was 22 years old. That means that in spring 1988, when the beginning of the story takes place, he was not 15 years old, but 17. Even assuming a spring birthday, he would have been 16, which if you’ll remember, is the legal age of consent in Massachusetts.
Good storytellers embellish a little here and there, sometimes for the particular audience and sometimes because it just makes a better story. Sometimes because it’s been awhile and some of the facts have gotten fuzzy. Maybe that’s what happened with Jennings’ 2000 speech.
Now, if you ask me, this is a secondary issue. To out a gay 15-year-old to her/his parents in 2009 is horrifying. To do it in 1988? Brewster could very easily become one of the many LGBT teens who don’t have a home because their parents found out. Or worse, he could have become one of the many LGBT suicide victims.
Kevin Jennings is not dangerous. He is not unfit to serve the Department of Education. He is not, as Bob Ellis of the Dakota Voice put it today, “The Fox Guarding The Hen House”. (That analogy would, of course, render Jennings a rapist. Classy!)
Quite frankly, I dare you to find one who is better qualified than Secretary Kevin Jennings. He is doing what he’s been doing for nearly two decades: Protecting our students, providing safe learning environments, and helping a new generation of students not learn to hate themselves. For that, he deserves our gratitude, not lies and slander.
By the way, I do recommend that you read that entire excerpt from One Teacher in Ten.
Resources from Yesterday’s Committee Hearing on ENDA
The House Education and Labor Committee heard testimony yesterday on Resolution 3017, the Employment Non-Discrimination Act. I failed to mention it here because, well, I didn’t have access to the live feed and details in text were hard to come by.
But that’s all taken care of now, as the Committee has made available an archival video of the hearings. Click here to view the full three hours. (Opens in Windows Media Player, at least for me.) Alternatively, you can check out the Department’s youtube channel for shorter snippets of testimony and flickr account (yes, really) for pictures from the hearing.
Witnesses in yesterday's hearing, via flickr
Witnesses before the committee were:
- U.S. Rep. Tammy Baldwin (D-WI)
- U.S. Rep. Barney Frank (D-MA), last mentioned on this blog last month
- Hon. Stuart J. Ishimaru: Acting Chairman, U.S. Equal Employment Opportunity Commission
- William Eskridge: John A. Garver Professor of Jurisprudence Yale Law School
- Vandy Beth Glenn: Trans victim of legal discrimination
- Camille Olson: Partner, Seyfarth Shaw LLP
- Craig Parshall: Sr. VP, National Religious Broadcasters Association (who has the funniest glasses in the history of mankind)
- Rabbi David Saperstein: Director The Religious Action Center
- Brad Sears: Executive Director Williams Institute, UCLA School of Law
Thanks to Committee Chair George Miller (D-CA) for making these impressive and forward-thinking resources available.
I Hate Defending My Enemies
…but that’s just what I need to do. It’s a good thing too, because I learned something about them in the process, something that we might be able to use to finally defeat them.
Remember last week when I told you about Elaine Donnelly’s insipid article declaring that it was Lt. Col. Fehrenbach being falsely accused of rape was his own fault? Remember how I linked you to her original article and quoted from that?
It seems that the folks at American Family Association (AFA) propaganda site OneNewsNow have much lower standards. Last week, ONN reporter Chad Groening decided to try to pass their spin of Ms. Donnelly’s words off as her words sans spin. Apparently her prose just wasn’t biting enough. (Screencap of Donnelly article and AFA distortion)
Here is a comparison between the two. First, from AFA, in red:
“The third party was a criminal justice student. He had actually been contacted or contacted Victor Fehrenbach on a gay website,” Donnelly explains. “They got together to engage in activities unbecoming an officer — and later on in the evening there was a report of sexual assault.”
I’ll piece together as much from Ms. Donnelly as possible, in yellow:
Now we know that the “third party” was Cameron Shaner, a criminal justice student claiming Air Force authorization to investigate alleged “HIV parties” involving military personnel. (The Air Force Office of Special Investigations denied Shaner’s claims.) Shaner told the Boise police that he met Victor Fehrenbach through a gay website, and he had gone to the aviator’s home on May 12, 2008, after Fehrenbach sent him a text-message invitation and “stud” photographs.
…. At 3 a.m. Shaner called Boise police to report a sexual assault. Fehrenbach asserted that the encounter was consensual and was cleared of the rape charge, but his admission of homosexual conduct triggered discharge proceedings.
You’ll notice that I skipped AFA’s “activities unbecoming an officer”. That’s because Ms. Donnelly never uses that phrase. The closest she gets is this:
The fact remains that despite provisions of the UCMJ (Article 131), which impose higher standards for “officers and gentlemen,” Fehrenbach showed very poor judgment.
Though I vehemently disagree with Ms. Donnelly’s assertion that sex is necessarily poor judgment, she doesn’t make the leap that AFA attributes to her. Ms. Donnelly’s “poor judgment” comment seems to refer to sex in general. AFA’s “conduct unbecoming” seems more strictly tied specifically to gay sex.
That distinction is made clearer in the second passage from AFA, again falsely attributed to Ms. Donnelly:
“As we saw with the Tailhook scandal, any kind of conduct unbecoming an officer would pretty much end someone’s career,” she points out. “Lt. Col. Fehrenbach was a victim of nothing else but his own poor judgment. But certainly the circumstances of his case should not be used to justify repeal of the law.”
And here are the actual quotes from Ms. Donnelly:
SLDN lawyer Emily Hecht told the Idaho Statesman, “Because of the criminal allegation, Victor confirmed the fact he was gay. That’s all the Air Force needed. Had his accuser been a woman, he’d have gone back to work with no further issue.” (Dozens of former naval aviators whose careers were ruined by the 1991 Tailhook scandal, even without evidence of misconduct, certainly would disagree.)
…Lt. Col. Fehrenbach is not a “victim” of anything but his own poor judgment. His admitted misconduct supports retention of current law, not its repeal.
Again, to Ms. Donnelly, any sort of sexual encounter, whether gay or straight, is “poor judgment”, and therefore homosexuality, which she defines solely through the sexual component, is necessarily bad.
AFA’s definition is different. To them, sex is bad, but if it’s two dudes it’s extra special bad.
I strongly disagree with both Ms. Donnelly and the AFA, but there’s a greater point here. This sometimes subtle distinction might be useful in addressing each of their attacks. By learning what’s behind the rhetoric, we can learn to attack each of their arguments with greater precision.
Oh, and you should never trust one word published by AFA or OneNewsNow. That too.
HIV-Affected Green Cards Held in Preparation for Final Rule
Posted by Matt in Immigration, News, Politics on September 23rd, 2009
An encouraging report from the Immigration Equality Blog this morning:
[U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services (USCIS)] has just issued a memo directing its officers who decide “green card” applications to hold applications in abeyance pending the final HHS rule. In other words, if someone has submitted a green card application and USCIS would deny it based solely on the fact that the applicant is HIV-positive, it will hold off on a decision.
For individuals who are eligible for waivers, USCIS will continue to adjudicate waivers and approve them where the standard is met. If USCIS finds that the applicant does not qualify for the waiver, it will hold the denial in abeyance — that is neither grant nor deny the application, pending the publication of the regulations.
Immigration Equality worked with the American Immigration Lawyers Association to press USCIS to release a memo on this issue and we’re very happy to see another step forward towards fairness under the immigration law for people with HIV.
This is great news for anyone who has filed for a green card hoping that the ban will be fully lifted before USCIS makes a decision on his or her application.
Here’s a pdf of the three page USCIS memo.
In 1987, a law was passed requiring the denial of immigration and even travel visas based on an applicant’s positive HIV status. President Bush signed a bill in 2008 reversing that law, but the Department of Health and Human Services has not yet removed HIV from its list of banned communicable diseases. HHS officials have indicated that removal may happen in the very near future.
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