American Morning
Obama: Allow hospital visits for gays
(CNN) - President Obama has asked the Department of Health and Human Services to establish a rule that would prevent hospitals from denying visitation privileges to gay and lesbian partners.
The president's Thursday memo said, "There are few moments in our lives that call for greater compassion and companionship than when a loved one is admitted to the hospital. ... Yet every day, all across America, patients are denied the kindnesses and caring of a loved one at their sides."
Gay and lesbian Americans are "uniquely affected" by relatives-only policies at hospitals, Obama said, adding that they "are often barred from the bedsides of the partners with whom they may have spent decades of their lives - unable to be there for the person they love, and unable to act as a legal surrogate if their partner is incapacitated."
When Lisa Pond collapsed during a family vacation in Florida three years ago, her partner of 17 years was kept away from her hospital room.
Janice Langbehn begged and waited for hours to stand by Pond's bedside at Miami's Jackson Memorial Hospital, but it wasn't until her partner's sister arrived that she got any information. In the end, the person Pond was closest to was relegated to a waiting room as she died from an aneurysm. FULL STORY
From sex abuse victim to legal advocate
By Allie Brown, CNN
Vershire, Vermont (CNN) – Armed with a law degree, an SUV that serves as a mobile office and her own harrowing personal history, 58-year-old trucker-turned-lawyer Wynona Ward navigates the back roads of rural Vermont.
Her mission: to aid victims of domestic violence.
Ward is the founder of Have Justice Will Travel, a group that works to end the generational cycle of abuse by giving free legal representation and support services to isolated - and often desperate - low-income people and their children.
"For domestic violence victims in rural areas, it can be very devastating," Ward said. "They're out there on these back roads, with no access to in-town services. Many do not have telephones; some do not have a driver's license or automobile. So we go to them." FULL STORY
Do you know a hero? Nominations are open for 2010 CNN Heroes
Gut Check: Sen. Scott Brown still a Tea Party fave?
By Ronni Berke and Carol Cosetllo, CNN
(CNN) – Is the love affair over between Scott Brown and the Tea Party? Time for a gut check.
Brown, a Republican, won a special election in Massachusetts this year to fill the late Democratic Sen. Ted Kennedy’s seat, in part, because of Tea Party financial and political support. Yet, he was notably absent at the Tea Party rallies held this week. He told a local Boston radio station that he was busy – working.
“We have votes that we’re working on,” he said. “That’s my job and I’m here doing exactly what members of the Tea Party and others sent me here to do.”
Some political observers say Brown is tip-toeing away from the Tea Party, because it may cost him reelection in 2012.
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