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Gay & Lesbian Issues Examiner: EXCLUSIVE: California lesbian couple allege discrimination at Fresno hospital.

Before anybody starts making arguments based in the government’s failure to provide marriage equality, we need to consider whether the women are actually legal partners. If they’re not, which I suspect they’re not because otherwise the articles would have said as much, then this is no longer about what rights the state gives, and is now about the actions of the hospital – because these women would likely have been treated the same even if they had full marital recognition by the state. Given that the two women were wearing Marriage Equality shirts, odds are the nurse probably assumed they *were* legal partners, and *still* wouldn’t let her in – hence the “no visitor zone” claim instead of the classic “family only” argument. Discrimination, pure and simple.

It doesn’t make the rest of us look great to be throwing a hissy fit about marriage equality in this particular case. Instead, let’s talk about discrimination at the hospital level, where the split-second decisions of individually hateful people can have horrific consequences when people’s lives are at stake.

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