Obama to Hospitals: Grant Visiting Rights to Gay Couples

Last night, President Obama issued a memo that will change hospital visitation rights around the country. The administration will draft new rules declaring that any hospital participating in the government's Medicare and Medicaid programs—which is most of them—will no longer be allowed to bar visitors that patients desire to have access to them. This has been a particular hardship for gay Americans, who have been turned away from visiting sick loved ones because of policies that allow visiting rights solely to spouses or family members. They aren't the only ones, either, Obama argues.