Protect Your Decision-Making Rights on National Healthcare Decisions Day

Post submitted by Marcos R. Garcia, Senior Manager, Health and Aging Program

In some healthcare emergencies, you may be unable to make decisions about the healthcare you receive or the visitors by your side.  Today, April 16, we pause for National Healthcare Decisions Day (NHDD), a day to inspire, educate and empower the public and providers about the importance of advance care planning.  NHDD is an initiative to encourage patients to express their wishes regarding healthcare and for providers and facilities to respect those wishes, whatever they may be.

Advance Healthcare Directives are legal documents where you can assign your surrogate (someone who will make your healthcare decisions for you), confirm what visitors you’d like by your side and express your wishes for the type of care you would like to receive in certain situations. Federal regulations require hospitals to defer to the surrogate of your choice—including same-sex partners—in the case of incapacitation (when you can’t do it yourself). However, if you do not have the appropriate healthcare directives in place, hospitals will turn to “default surrogate selection priority lists” (which vary state-to-state) and assign a surrogate for you.  

Advance care planning is so important, particularly for the LGBT community. We have all heard terrible stories of our loved ones being shut out of our care, but now, thanks to the ruling by the Supreme Court in Obergefell v. Hodges in 2015, marriage equality is in all 50 states. This is important because a patient’s spouse is always at the top of state default surrogate lists.  However, for unmarried LGBT individuals, advance healthcare directives provide healthcare providers with your healthcare decision wishes and your visitation requests, when you need them most.

We encourage you to visit this page to find a variety of resources to help you get started on protecting your visitation and decision making rights.  In addition to encouraging individuals to make their wishes known, HRC works with hospitals and healthcare facilities around the country through our Healthcare Equality Index to implement policies and practices to ensure that the facilities staff understands that LGBT patient care wishes must be respected.

Take advantage of Nationals Healthcare Decisions Day today to make sure, incase of an emergency, that your patient healthcare wishes are known.

www.hrc.org/blog/protect-your-decision-making-rights-on-national-healthcare-decisions-d?utm_source=rss&utm_medium=rss-feed

HRC Statement on 2017 NBA All-Star Game

Today, HRC released the following statement on the 2017 All-Star game in Charlotte. In a statement today, the NBA reaffirmed its opposition to H.B. 2, noted that NBA owners are unanimous in opposing the bill, and made clear that the league has not ruled out moving the game.

“Today the NBA reiterated its opposition to H.B. 2 and made crystal clear this law threatens the 2017 All-Star Game in Charlotte,” said HRC President Chad Griffin. “We thank the NBA and Commissioner Silver for standing strong in support for the equal dignity of all North Carolinians and for continuing to advocate for the repeal of this hateful and draconian law.”

The momentum against H.B. 2 continues to grow. Today, HRC announced 160 major corporations have signed an open letter urging Gov. McCrory and the North Carolina General Assembly to repeal the radical provisions in the deeply discriminatory law. PayPal and Deutsche Bank, have stopped investments in North Carolina because of H.B. 2 and last week Bruce Springsteen cancelled a concert in Greensboro to stand in solidarity with LGBT people across North Carolina and the nation. Basketball players including Charles Barkley and Jason Collins have called on the NBA to move the 2017 All-Star Game from Charlotte if the law is not repealed. The NCAA has also said that future NCAA events in the state of North Carolina are in jeopardy as the result of H.B. 2.

www.hrc.org/blog/hrc-statement-on-2017-nba-all-star-game?utm_source=rss&utm_medium=rss-feed

U.S. Department of State Releases 2015 Country Reports on Human Rights Practices

On Wednesday, the U.S. Department of State released the 2015 Country Reports on Human Rights Practices, which once again included extensive information about the human rights of LGBT people worldwide. A compilation of the information from the report regarding sexual orientation and gender identity can be found here, which includes information about new anti-LGBT legislation as well as the ongoing persecution and violence facing LGBT people around the world.

“While there has been progress for LGBT people in some countries, in too many other countries around the world LGBT people still face tremendous discrimination, persecution and violence,” said David Stacy, HRC Government Affairs Director.  “This report is yet another reminder of how much still needs to be done in the global struggle for LGBT equality.”

In his remarks on Wednesday, Secretary of State John Kerry focused on the need to respect and prioritize human rights worldwide. 

“Respecting human rights isn’t just a moral obligation; it’s an opportunity to harness the full energy of a country’s population in building a cohesive and prosperous society. And it doesn’t jeopardize stability; it enhances it,” he said. “In country after country where human rights are respected, people are happier, people are freer to pursue their own designs, happier and freer to be artistic and creative, to be entrepreneurial, to make a difference in the building of the community.”

As in previous years, each country report includes a section on LGBT rights. Some examples include:

• In Egypt, LGBT people continued to face discrimination and arrest on charges like “debauchery,” “prostitution” and “violating the teachings of religion.” LGBT people are often harassed by police and forced to pay bribes or provide information about other LGBT people in order to avoid arrest. In 2014, 26 men were arrested for “practicing debauchery” and “indecent public acts” and although they were acquitted in 2015, 21 of them were reportedly subjected to forced anal examinations by the authorities following their arrests. Moreover, authorities used social media and apps to target and arrest people suspected of being LGBT.
• LGBT people continued to feel the effects of Russia’s anti-LGBT propaganda law. LGBT people, especially gay men, were often subject to violence and there were reports of killings motivated by sexual orientation bias this past year. The police often failed or refused to respond to anti-LGBT violence and harassment and there were reports that authorities were specifically targeting LGBT NGOs and activists. Furthermore, homophobic campaigns by the state-controlled media continued and Moscow authorities prevented a gay pride parade from being held for the 10^th consecutive year.
• In Uganda, sex between people of the same-sex is criminalized and in January 2015, nine men who helped organize an HIV & AIDS testing clinic were arrested for “carnal knowledge against the order of nature” and subjected to forced anal exams. In July, a group of local LGBT rights NGOs released a report highlighting 89 LGBT human rights violations in 2014, over half of them committed by state actors.
• In Indonesia, where conditions have dramatically worsened for LGBT people this year, local regulations criminalize same-sex sexual activity, and a local ordinance in Jakarta automatically identifies all transgender people on the streets at night as sex workers. In Aceh, the local government passed a new criminal code in 2015 that punished same-sex acts with 100 strokes of the cane.

The findings of this report, which includes more information on LGBT rights than even just a few years ago, once again underscore the need for continued focus on the plight of LGBT people around the globe and serve as useful tool for combating violence and discrimination against people everywhere in the world, regardless of who they are or whom they love.

Through HRC Global, HRC will continue to advocate for LGBT equality around the world through public education, advocacy, fellowships, partnerships, and research.

www.hrc.org/blog/u.s.-department-of-state-releases-2015-country-reports-on-human-rights-prac?utm_source=rss&utm_medium=rss-feed