NY Provides Limited DP Protection

August 12, 2004

The New York State Senate Thursday approved guaranteeing same-sex and opposite-sex domestic partners the same rights as spouses and next-of-kin when taking care of loved ones in hospitals, nursing homes and health-care facilities.

Winning the same access rights as spouses in emergency rooms, intensive care settings, and after visiting hours in hospitals has been a goal of the gay community for almost a quarter of a century, since the time HIV/AIDS made its first appearance in the United States and same-sex partners were routinely denied access to each other in health-care facilities, even during the last moments of life.

The Senate vote was 59-0. The Assembly approved an identical version, on June 3 by an equally lopsided vote of 141-1.

Empire State Pride Agenda, New York's statewide gay, lesbian, bisexual and transgender civil rights organization, hailed passage of hospital visitation rights and said it was eager for Governor George Pataki to sign the bill into law.

This moment has been almost twenty-five years in the making for our families, said Alan Van Capelle, Pride Agenda Executive Director. Same-sex partners who love and care for each other have a fundamental right to be together when one of them is sick and hospitalized. These historic votes in the Assembly and State Senate affirm this fundamental human right and illustrate the values all of us share in New York about what it means to be a family.

We thank Senate sponsor Nicholas Spano (R-Yonkers) for his support for all families and we thank every Senator who voted for passage, continued Van Capelle. We thank the Senate Minority for their steadfast support for equal treatment of our families and we again thank lead Assembly sponsors Deborah Glick (D-Manhattan) and Sam Hoyt (D-Buffalo) for their work to pass the identical Assembly version this past June.

Governor Pataki in the past has taken action to recognize the equality of our families and we trust he will do the same here again. We are eager for him to sign this bill into law. said Van Capelle.

The legislation defines domestic partner as: a person who has formally entered into a domestic partnership or similar relationship; a person who is recognized or covered as a beneficiary under the other person's employment benefits or health insurance; and, a person who is dependent or mutually dependent on the other person for support. The bill lists ways mutual dependence can be proved.

This session is the first one where this issue has been voted on in either chamber of the Legislature. It is one of some 700 or so state-based rights and responsibilities New York automatically provides to any couple that receives a marriage license.

A statewide poll on same-sex marriage conducted in March and commissioned by the Pride Agenda revealed that 85% of New Yorkers believe extending hospital visitation rights to same-sex couples is important. New Yorkers in the same poll also supported extending other rights to same-sex couples, such as medical decision-making and spousal health insurance, by similarly high percentages.

Currently in New York State, the only jurisdictions that provide domestic partners hospital visitation rights are New York City, in city-owned hospitals, and Westchester County, in both public and private hospitals.