Anti-gay whine: patients should have NO say in visitation and medical decisions

If you want an example of how meanspirited and anti-gay some members of religious right groups are, check out this bit.

From the Huffington Post:

In a move hailed as a step toward fairness for same-sex couples, President Barack Obama is ordering that nearly all hospitals allow patients to say who has visitation rights and who can help make medical decisions, including gay and lesbian partners.

The White House on Thursday released a statement by Obama instructing his Health and Human Services secretary to draft rules requiring hospitals that receive Medicare and Medicaid payments to grant all patients the right to designate people who can visit and consult with them at crucial moments.

The designated visitors should have the same rights that immediate family members now enjoy, Obama's instructions said. It said Medicare-Medicaid hospitals, which include most of the nation's facilities, may not deny visitation and consultation privileges on the basis of race, color, national origin, religion, sex, sexual orientation, gender identity or disability.

The move was called a major step toward fairness for lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender Americans.

Now what's wrong with that allowing patients to be allowed to have a say in regards to visitation and medical decisions?

In reality, nothing is wrong with that? But in religious right land, the lgbt part seems to bring out the nastiness.

And one of the main purveyors of anti-gay nastiness, Liberty Counsel's Matt Barber just had to put in his two cents:

Barber considers the new rules political theater in trying to create the disingenuous idea that people based on their so-called "sexual orientation" are roundly discriminated against. Faith-based hospitals are not exempt from the rule.

"Certainly there are Catholic hospitals and Baptist hospitals that recognize homosexual behavior as sinful behavior," he points, "and they do not want to take part in affirming homosexual sin under the strong arm of the government."

Some religious hospitals may have to make a decision as to whether to conform to the rules or not accept Medicare patients. Barber says what the Obama administration is doing is casting liberty of conscience aside and forcing acceptance of homosexuality.

Seems to me that regardless of religious beliefs, a hospital's first priority would be the patient's well being.

 I would sincerely hope any hospital wouldn't be so coldhearted to feel that there has to be a choice between beliefs about homosexuality and allowing an lgbt's partners to make crucial decisions in regards to care - especially if that decision is the difference between the life or death of the patient.