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Unlawful Abuse/Hate Crime for Partner in Hospital
#1
Roger Gorley's Arrest For Refusing To Leave Sick, Gay Partner
(taken from AOL online news source)


The story of a gay man who was arrested for refusing to the leave his sick partner at a Missouri hospital made headlines across the nation earlier this week. Now, new details about the ordeal are painting a very disturbing picture of the alleged events.

Roger Gorley was handcuffed and forcibly removed from Research Medical Center in Kansas City, Mo., on Tuesday after he refused to leave his partner, Allen, who was receiving treatment for severe depression. Roger told Fox station WDAF that the hospital is guilty of discrimination. However, Research Medical Center denies the accusation, saying Roger was "disruptive and belligerent" and had to be escorted from the premises, according to a statement obtained by The Huffington Post.

But according to Amanda Brown, the 26-year-old daughter of Roger, there is much more to the story than hospital officials are letting on.

Speaking with John Aravosis of America Blog, the woman said Allen's brother, Lee, didn't want Roger at the hospital. Lee confronted Roger in front of a nurse, and the nurse allegedly had Roger removed, even though Allen had said he wanted his partner there.

Roger and Allen, who have been together for five years, are in a civil union and make medical decisions for each other through Power of Attorney.

“Lee was being more crazy than my dad, he was the one who was yelling,” Brown said.
Still, the nurse -- who supposedly was aware of Roger and Allen's status -- “directed her comments to Roger, ‘You need to leave the room.’ My dad said, ‘No, this is my husband, I’m going to stay with him," Brown added. Shortly after, the police arrived.

Amanda described the interaction between her father and law enforcement in a We Are Atheism blog post:
When the Kansas City Missouri Police Department arrived they asked my father to leave the room. He said to them, “No. This is my husband and I am going to stay with him.” The police considered that a violation of a direct order so they began to forcibly remove him from the room. My father held onto the rail of the gurney as well as his husbands hand with everything he had. The police responded with brut [sic] and excessive force. The office began karate chopping his wrist to get him to release the gurney. Then they wrestled him to the ground forcefully enough to knock his glasses off of his face, his hearing aids out of his ears, and nearly break his wrist while they took him down. To handcuff him they pushed a knee into his back and wrenched his wrists around.
She also says her father was cut in the process and began bleeding. She added that one of the officers seemed to be afraid Roger could be HIV-positive.

"One of the arresting officers was so offended by my father’s presence that he would not touch him with his bare hands," she said. "He wore gloves the entire time and to make matters even more humiliating he didn’t want his handcuffs back."

A representative for the Kansas City Police Department told HuffPost that hospital security dealt with Roger while he was in the room. She said police arrived to escort him out of the hospital.
As for the accusation that an officer was wary about Roger bleeding, she said wearing gloves is protocol.

"I don't know if that was a Kansas City officer," the spokeswoman told HuffPost. "I can't speak to that. The only thing I can speak to is the way we handle anyone when there is blood present. It's a protection of ourselves from any bodily fluids. What [Brown] described isn't unusual. It doesn't have to do with his sexual preference. We don't know -- when we come into contact with people -- what they have or may not have. We just try to be safe."

Not only is the American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU) working with Roger, but the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services (CMS) is also looking into the incident.

"All Americans are guaranteed the right to receive hospital visitors that they designate, and there are specific protections in our rules for same-sex couples across the country," a representative for CMS told BuzzFeed. "We take alleged violations of federal rules around hospital visitation very seriously."

In 2010, President Barack Obama extended hospital visitation rights to same-sex partners in a federal regulation aimed at hospitals participating in Medicare and Medicaid programs. Tuesday's events could be in direct violation of this ruling.

Still, Research Medical Center says there was never any discrimination based on sexual orientation.
"In accordance with HIPAA, all Research Medical Center can report is that this is NOT a Gay Rights issue but an issue of disturbance where the patient was not able to get the care he needed," the hospital responded in a Facebook post.



If you would like to send your commentary on this hate crime/abuse:

Mayor Sly James
29th Floor City Hall
414 E. 12th St.
Kansas City, MO 64106
Phone: 816-513-3500


Office of Governor Jay Nixon
P.O. Box 720
Jefferson City, MO 65102
Phone: (573) 751-3222


Or you can get on the Facebook/Twitter wall if they have one.

When writing, you can use your name and city you live in, but dont put your address or post office box information on the letter or envelope. You can also send it in anonymously.
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#2
This looks like it will be a real mess. My condolences to the victims. The facilities damage control team is going to working overtime on this. There are video camera's everywhere but bets are that they will be shown to be not in operation at that moment in time. But I do pray that justice will prevail!
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#3
There is really only one side of the story being told here, and I don't think there is enough fact or truth in this sensationalised story to start protesting.
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#4
It really doesn't matter what side of the story is being told. In the United States, if the partner has active POA (power of attorney) then he has the same exact rights as the patient, by law. Some power of attorney agreements are only effective upon incapacitation. But an active power of attorney is effective immediately and can only be revoked by one person in the world- the patient! It doesn't matter what else was going on, whether the guy was a rip roaring ass, or whether the nurse was having a bad hair day! This man had the legal right to remain with the patient AND has the right to know ANYTHING and EVERYTHING about his medical treatment.

If the hospital felt that he was detrimental to the patient's care, then they had an obligation to respond by asking him to leave. But if he and the patient refused, then they had no legal right to remove him, end of story.

My partner and I have active power of attorney for each other and I highly recommend it for all gay and lesbian couples. I have run into similar situations in the past, where narrow-minded, bigoted individuals attempted to restrict my access to my partner at the local VA hospital. A hateful charge nurse tried to keep me off of the floor where my partner was admitted. I pulled out a copy of our signed POA (which is also already in their computer system) and she said, "So?" I said, "So, perhaps you are unaware of the law. So, let me educate you! So, this form is LEGAL documentation that gives me the right to act on this patient's behalf at ALL times! So, I am also a nurse! So, I also work in Quality Control! So, you WILL allow me to see my partner IMMEDIATELY or I will sue you and this facility so fast, AND bring down a rash of legal storm so severe, that it will make your head spin! So, either you open those damn doors, or you can call your supervisor and you can explain to them why you think that you are somehow above the law!" Needless to say, she turned ten shades of red... but she opened the doors.

Having said all of that, most health care workers are more than considerate of gay couples (in my experiences). But it only takes one person who thinks that their prejudice supersedes the law to screw up the system. In this case, the nurse was wrong...very wrong.
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#5
it really does matter what the whole story is, for all we know he could have been a belligerent fucker and threaten to kill his partners brother and beat up any nurse that asked him to leave.

We are only hearing from the man that was removed and his daughter.

People (In this particular situation) don't get treated badly solely because they are gay, there is something more going on behind the scene in this story, I think the fact that he is gay has been twisted in a way one can litigate...isn't that a full time career, looking for a reason to sue?
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#6
dfiant Wrote:it really does matter what the whole story is, for all we know he could have been a belligerent fucker and threaten to kill his partners brother and beat up any nurse that asked him to leave.

We are only hearing from the man that was removed and his daughter.

People don't get treated badly solely because they are gay, I think the fact that he is gay has been twisted in a way one can litigate...isn't that a full time career, looking for a reason to sue?


The mans daughter was there also, did you miss that part?

"Amanda described the interaction between her father and law enforcement in a We Are Atheism blog post:
When the Kansas City Missouri Police Department arrived they asked my father to leave the room. He said to them, “No. This is my husband and I am going to stay with him.” The police considered that a violation of a direct order so they began to forcibly remove him from the room. My father held onto the rail of the gurney as well as his husbands hand with everything he had. The police responded with brut [sic] and excessive force. The office began karate chopping his wrist to get him to release the gurney. Then they wrestled him to the ground forcefully enough to knock his glasses off of his face, his hearing aids out of his ears, and nearly break his wrist while they took him down. To handcuff him they pushed a knee into his back and wrenched his wrists around.
She also says her father was cut in the process and began bleeding. She added that one of the officers seemed to be afraid Roger could be HIV-positive. "

You dont beat someone until they bleed for wanting to stay with someone in the hospital!!!

And yes, in the USA people DO treat you badly simply because you are gay. In fact, thats why they call it a "hate crime". Because you are committing a crime against someone solely because of your hate towards their group, race, color, or sexuality. There was a HUGE "rash" of gay killings, simply because they were gay, in the late 90's early 2000's. One boy was tortured to death and left strung up to a fence out in the middle of nowhere to die....JUST because his murderers thought he was gay.
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#7
dfiant Wrote:it really does matter what the whole story is, for all we know he could have been a belligerent fucker and threaten to kill his partners brother and beat up any nurse that asked him to leave. ?
If he had, then I think that it would have been reported, don't you?

dfiant Wrote:We are only hearing from the man that was removed and his daughter.
There have actually been several articles on this story. The fact that the man had active power of attorney has never been disputed. This fact alone is the reason that no other part of the story matters. Active Power of Attorney is one of the strongest and most powerful legal documents in the American judicial system, granting rights and privileges which are sacrosanct. The patient, who was not incapacitated, requested that his partner remain in the room as well.

dfiant Wrote:People don't get treated badly solely because they are gay,

Did you really just say that? Really? No...seriously, stop for a second. Really?! I can only assume that you have never heard of Matthew Shepard?

Statistically speaking, in 2008, 17.6% of hate crimes committed in the US were based on the victim's perceived sexual orientation. Of those crimes, 72.23% were violent in nature! 4,704 crimes were committed due to racial bias and 1,617 were committed due to sexual orientation. Of these, only one murder and one forcible rape were committed due to racial bias, whereas five murders and six rapes were committed based on sexual orientation.

Personally, I have been involved in numerous altercations with people trying to take advantage of, physically assault, or verbally demean gay and lesbian people at various times throughout my life. I really can't imagine ANYONE saying that these things don't happen.
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#8
Oh ok, so the both of you are looking for an arguement and twisting peoples words solely to get a reaction.

you know what that is called???

JOURNALISM

Quote:The mans daughter was there also, did you miss that part?

I'm sorry, you want to TRY and read my post PROPERLY

Prove to me without abusing me that this story is NOT sensationalised

Don't go throwing crap out there to get an emotive reaction like your use of Matthew Shepard, you know exactly what I meant by my statement.

Reporters, like polititians ONLY report of things that they WANT you to know, why let the truth get in the way of an emotive and sensational story that will sell magazines and newspapers over and over again?

Sorry, not buying this story. you have your opinions, I have mine and that gives neither of you the right to be rude and arrogant PIGS.

Have a nice day princess's Wink
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#9
dfiant Wrote:Oh ok, so the both of you are looking for an arguement and twisting peoples words solely to get a reaction.

you know what that is called???

JOURNALISM



I'm sorry, you want to TRY and read my post PROPERLY

Prove to me without abusing me that this story is NOT sensationalised

Don't go throwing crap out there to get an emotive reaction like your use of Matthew Shepard, you know exactly what I meant by my statement.

Reporters, like polititians ONLY report of things that they WANT you to know, why let the truth get in the way of an emotive and sensational story that will sell magazines and newspapers over and over again?

Sorry, not buying this story. you have your opinions, I have mine and that gives neither of you the right to be rude and arrogant PIGS.

Have a nice day princess's Wink



Sorry, my faux pas for not properly reading your statement. My head has been somewhere else today.

Wasnt trying to be Princessy at all, sorry if it came off that way.

Yes, journalists can be over dramatic, but then again, some of them are truthful to the facts.
No, we werent there so we dont know ALL of the facts, but this seems to be a cut and dry issue of what happened.

The reason I posted this is because hate crimes are getting more and more prevalent here in the USA from so-called "law enforcement" and government entities. I did not post this because of the journalistic integrity (or lack thereof).

There was an altercation between someone who had the legal right to be there with the person in the hospital, and the "law" took it upon themselves to ignore that fact and start physcially harassing and abusing someone who was not doing anyone any harm....as they are widely known for doing.
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#10
If the bloke laying in the hospital bed comes out and says 'This is what happened' it will add weight to the story.

Right now, the eject man and his daughter are telling a story and as far as I am concerned, that is one sided and sensationalised reporting.

I never at any point said 'Homophobia is good, there should be more of it', all I am saying is I have my doubts.

Your apology accepted, but I still think Lalo is a bit of a prick for his attack and use of useless info and stats. Smile
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