The basic story is that Janice, her partner, Lisa Marie Pond, and their family were in Miami, ready to board a cruise, when Lisa suffered an aneurysm and was taken to Jackson Memorial Hospital.
Even though Janice and Lisa had an advanced healthcare directive, the hospital kept Janice, and their adopted children, from seeing Lisa as she lay dying. All because they were not legally married, you know, because marriage equality is not legal all over. See, had they been legally married, and federally recognized as a married couple, Janice, and her children, would have been able to spend time with Lisa before she passed away just like any, heterosexual, couple.
Lambda Legal brought a lawsuit against the hospital on behalf of Langbehn, which was later dismissed, but by then her story had reached President Obama, brought to his attention by then-chief of staff, Rahm Emanuel. And on April 15, 2010, the president directed Secretary of Health and Human Services Kathleen Sebelius to issue rules prohibiting sexual orientation or gender identity discrimination in hospital visitation at hospitals that receive Medicaid or Medicare funding. Then he called Janice Langbehn to tell her the news.
In June, Janice Langbehn met with Obama, and he told the audience gathered for an LGBT Pride Month Reception on June 22, 2010, about Langbehn's story--calling the treatment she and her children had received "wrong [and] cruel." He also said the new rules would be put into place and that Sebelius would be asking hospitals to adopt the changes even before the rule went into effect.
In October 2010, at the Human Rights Campaign annual dinner, Obama again told the story of Janice Langbehn and Lisa Marie Pond, telling the crowd, I told her that we were going to put a stop to this discrimination....And you know what? We got it done."
And then just last week Janice Langbehn became one of 13 recipients of the Presidential Citizens Medal, recognized, by President Obama, for her role in that process, saying:"As a father and husband, I can't begin to imagine the grief that they must have felt in that moment--their anger and their sense that the world was not fair. But they refused to let that anger define them. They each became, in Janice's words, an 'accidental activist.' And thanks to their work, there are parents and partners who will never have to go through what they went through....They could have made excuses for doing nothing. instead, they chose to help."The citation for Langbehn states: "Janice Langbehn transformed her own profound loss into a resounding call for compassion and equality. When the woman she loved, Lisa Pond, suddenly suffered a brain aneurysm, Janice and her children were denied the right to stand beside her in her final moments. Determined to spare others from similar injustice, Janice spoke out and helped ensure that same-sex couples can support and comfort each other through some of life’s toughest trials. The United States honors Janice Langbehn for advancing America’s promise of equality for all."
Janice Langbehn said, in a press release from the Human Rights Campaign, "It is a great honor to receive the Presidential Citizens Medal. It is my hope that my family's loss, this medal, and the attention it brings to the discrimination our families have faced during the most difficult moments, will help ease suffering and ensure that no family has to go through what my family went through."
I would like to think, somewhere, that Lisa Marie Pond is smiling, and finally at peace. I know I feel like were getting there.
Kind of a happy ending, but not really, but will help other folks down the line.
ReplyDeleteA sadness becomes a noble sadness. These are the events and people that we all must be thankful for.
ReplyDeleteIt was very good of the president to take note of our plight, not caring if it could damage him politically, but moving on behalf of what is right...