Calif. Hospital Criticized for Denying Same-Sex Couple Visitation

A nonprofit hospital in central California has come under fire for refusing to allow a lesbian woman to see her partner in the emergency room, reports the Associated Press.

Kristin Orbin said Fresno’s Community Regional Medical Center did not let her girlfriend of four years, Tereza Rowe, visit her when Ms. Orbin was rushed to the hospital after collapsing during a pro-gay-marriage march. “All kinds of other people had visitors,” Ms. Orbin said.

A spokeswoman for Community Medical Centers, the nonprofit system that runs the hospital, said Ms. Orbin received good care and the institution followed proper procedures. Lawyers with the American Civil Liberties Union and the National Center for Lesbian Rights urged the hospital to change its policies.