In Florida, a woman and her three children were kept from her dying partner's bedside:
Despite the couple having the necessary legal forms, officials at Jackson Memorial Hospital in Miami allegedly prevented Langbehn and the couple's children from seeing Pond during her final hours. Hospital officials allegedly informed Langbehn that she was in an anti-gay city and state, and that they would not recognize her power of attorney authority.
Simply "having the right documents" isn't enough. Families are being kept apart - at the very moments that being together matters most. While civil unions are not the full equality that gay and lesbian couples and their families deserve - they would provide the basic legal rights and protections that these families so desperately need.
To quote Dan Savage:
Did keeping Langhehn from Pond's deathbed--did keeping Pond's three children from their mother's deathbed--save any straight marriages in Florida? Or was this act of almost unspeakable cruelty all for nothing?
Call your legislator and ask them to support the Illinois Religious Freedom Protection and Civil Union Act.
