I was puzzled a few months ago by headlines stating that president Obama had been heckled and drowned out by LGBT protesters since it had been scarcely a week since the administration had made a rule change which significantly affected my life as a member of a same-sex couple. Although in our decade-long relationship, during which my partner and I have had a handful of hospitalization experiences, we have never been deprived visitation rights or ever found ourselves being undermined by the other's physicians and hospital staff during these moments of critical importance to us. Yet, until the Obama administration empowered domestic partners, we were always at the mercy of the whims of our respective families potentially imposing their rights over ours, which until then had little legal standing here in the state of Texas.
Even more puzzling to me was the lack of coverage of these new rulings in the press at the time, and the endless blogs and articles written over the Obama administration's betrayal within LGBT-osphere. If a major accomplishment is achieved and it is totally ignored by the administration's detractors and by the media in general, then a patently unfair image of the administration's record is the consequence. Whether the omission is deliberate or accidental, it makes me, as a gay man, more skeptical of honesty or competence of those claiming to fight the good fight for my rights.
The truth is that there is this major accomplishment that until now I have not heard any recognition from the screaming hecklers. My parents and siblings cannot march into my hospital room to take control and marginalize my partner as they could have before the administration ruling. My partner is now my spouse, at least in the hospital room. This is a major gay right for us. This is change we can believe in.
It tells me this administration is serious about our interests as a same-sex couple, and personally, although I respect others who feel otherwise, I suspect that micro-managing this administration after electing this president as to exactly the path it should take to bring about these changes for me creates too many cooks in the kitchen. I voted for this president; I have enough evidence of his intentions. As for the intentions of those who have either accidentally or willfully overlooked this accomplishment and yet claim to struggle for my rights, I am not all too sure.