Walter Reed, Healthcare Facilities in the South Earn HRC Award for LGBT-Inclusive Policies

Walter Reed National Military Medical Center, the storied healthcare facility of U.S. presidents and wounded warriors, is making history again, becoming the first U.S. active military medical facility to earn the HRC Foundation’s Leader in LGBT Healthcare Equality designation.

The world’s largest military hospital is joined this year by a growing number of healthcare facilities in the South in embracing LGBT-inclusive policies and practice, according to  a report released today by the HRC Foundation.

“We are thrilled that a record number of healthcare facilities — from Walter Reed National Military Medical Center to an increasing number of hospitals in the South — have committed to providing fully LGBT-inclusive healthcare for the patients they care for each year, as well as to protecting their LGBT workers from discrimination,” said HRC President Chad Griffin. “Over the last several years, our nation has made substantial progress on LGBT equality, including historic gains in the availability of full-inclusive healthcare.”

“I commend leaders of these inclusive facilities for using HRC’s Health Equality Index as a roadmap, and for advancing equality in health care for our nation’s LGBT patients, their families, and for medical providers and caregivers,” Griffin said. “We still have much work to do to achieve full equality, but today we have a record number of leaders setting an example for other healthcare facilities across our nation.”

A record 2,061 healthcare facilities are rated in the HRC Foundation’s 2016 HEI survey, up 37 percent from the last survey. And an unprecedented 496 healthcare centers from all regions of the U.S. earned the Leader in LGBT Healthcare Equality designation this year, with substantial gains in the South — including in Alabama, where three major Birmingham-area facilities were awarded leader status for the first time.

While every region of the country saw an increase in the number of medical facilities earning HEI leader status this year, the South stepped up with the second highest number of new leaders. It now ranks second only to the Northeast region in the number of hospitals and healthcare facilities committing to LGBT-competent and inclusive care.

Walter Reed, which admits more than 13,000 service members annually to its facilities and treats nearly 30,000 each year in its emergency department, joins the nation’s system of veterans hospitals as a Leader in LGBT Healthcare Equality. The U.S. Veterans Health Administration and an overwhelming majority of its hospitals began participating in the  Healthcare Equality Index (HEI) in 2013.

To earn healthcare leader status, facilities must have established LGBT-inclusive patient non-discrimination policies, as well as employment non-discrimination policies that are fully LGBT-inclusive. They also ensure equal visitation rights for LGBT people, patients and families; and their staff members participate in training in LGBT patient-centered care.

“Walter Reed joins diverse healthcare facilities across the U.S. that are making tremendous strides toward LGBT patient-centered care,” said Tari Hanneman, author of the HEI and Deputy Director of the HRC Foundation’s Health and Aging Program. “In unprecedented numbers, they are committing to fully LGBT-inclusive policies for both their patients and their employees.”

Leadership shown by Walter Reed, the nation’s veterans hospitals, and other medical facilities embracing LGBT inclusion is sorely needed. While a record number of healthcare centers earned leader designation this year, too many continue to fall short in providing vital patient and employee non-discrimination protections.

Nearly half of the facilities that were independently researched by HRC Foundation staff performed poorly, particularly in the area of non-discrimination policies: only 58 percent have patient non-discrimination policies that include both sexual orientation and gender identity; and just 53 percent have LGBT-inclusive employment non-discrimination policies.

And four states have no facilities earning leader status this year: Alaska, Idaho, Oklahoma, and Wyoming.

The HEI’s findings demonstrate the patchwork of protections nationwide for LGBT patients and their families, as well as LGBT healthcare facility employees, underscoring the need for uniform federal non-discrimination protections. LGBT Americans are facing a harsh choice between healthcare facilities that have policies that guarantee them equal care, and those that have consistently failed to take steps to ensure all patients receive inclusive, compassionate and respectful care.

The good news? The number of active HEI participants continues to grow, and their leaders are striving to meet HRC’s criteria for equal treatment of LGBT patients, as well as employees, and are succeeding. Many are going well beyond the survey’s criteria to do right by all their patients and workers by adopting additional HRC-recommended best practices, including offering employees trans-inclusive health insurance coverage.

Read the full HEI report here.

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NC Governor Signs Radical Bill Into Law Attacking Trans Students & Overturning LGBT Protections

Tonight, HRC lambasted North Carolina Governor Pat McCrory for signing into law an outrageous and unprecedented anti-LGBT bill passed in rapid succession today by the North Carolina House and Senate. The appalling new law eliminates existing municipal non-discrimination protections for LGBT people; prevents such provisions from being passed by cities in the future; and forces transgender students in public schools to use restrooms and other facilities inconsistent with their gender identity, putting 4.5 billion dollars in federal funding under Title IX at risk.

The bill was rushed through the North Carolina House today, and then passed the Senate 32-0 after Senate Democrats walked out of the chamber in protest. Without even bothering to consult with businesses and real North Carolinians who will be adversely affected by the measure, Gov. McCrory quickly signed it into law in the dark of night after a one-day special session called for the sole purpose of pushing this discriminatory bill through. The heinous measure came in response to the Charlotte City Council passing local LGBT non-discrimination protections last month.

“Governor McCrory’s reckless decision to sign this appalling legislation into law is a direct attack on the rights, well-being, and dignity of hundreds of thousands of LGBT North Carolinians and visitors to the state,” said HRC President Chad Griffin. “This outrageous new law not only strips away the ability of local jurisdictions to protect LGBT people from discrimination, but it goes further and targets transgender students who deserve to be treated equally at school — not harassed and excluded. Governor McCrory’s action will be judged sorely by history and serve as a source of deep shame, remorse, and regret. North Carolinians throughout the state, business leaders, and those who believe in basic human dignity, fairness, and equality must stand up and demand that lawmakers repeal this new law before it inflicts tremendous damage on the state and thousands of citizens and visitors.”

Discrimination is a persistent problem for the LGBT community in North Carolina. The state is one of 32 states that lacks a fully inclusive statewide non-discrimination law that includes sexual orientation and gender identity. The National Center for Transgender Equality and the National LGBTQ Task Force reported that in a survey of transgender people living in North Carolina, half of respondents had been harassed or discriminated against in public places like hotels, restrooms, restaurants and other public services. The nearly 30,000 transgender students in North Carolina shouldn’t have to suffer the consequences of a discriminatory law that will lead to even higher rates of harassment, bullying, and even suicide. A new academic study recently found a direct correlation between high rates of suicide in the transgender community and lack of equal access to public spaces.

In the hurried, single-day session convened today, public comment was extremely limited and members were given very little time to give this extraordinary bill the kind of scrutiny it deserved.  In an attempt to rush the bill through, the House Committee limited speakers to two minutes and legislators only had five-minutes to review the bill. Contrast that with two years of deliberation by the Charlotte City Council, which heard hours of public comment from constituents on both sides and in fact campaigned on the issue during elections this past fall.  The actions of the state legislature are insulting to the Charlotte City Council, Charlotte residents, the Mayor, and all local governments whose decisions are subject to irresponsible second-guessing at the taxpayer’s expense.

The debate may have been rushed, but it didn’t escape notice of businesses who decried the measure: Dow Chemical, the NCAA , RedHat, the League of Municipalities, and Biogen all spoke out against the bill.

North Carolina is now the first state in the country to enact such a law attacking transgender students, even after several similar proposals were rejected across the country this year — including a high-profile veto by the Governor of South Dakota on a very similar bill.  North Carolina school districts that comply with the law will now be in direct violation of Title IX, subjecting the school districts to liability and putting an estimated $4.5 billion of federal funding at risk.  This section of the law offers costly supposed solutions to non-existent problems, and it forces schools to choose between complying with federal law — plus doing the right thing for their students — or complying with a state law that violates students’ civil rights. Read more about how this bill puts federal funding at risk here.

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