Interview with Janice Langbehn

This is my interview with Janice Langbhen (pictured here with her and the late Lisa Pond's children).I spoke with her last week, after a federal judge in Miami dismissed her lawsuit against a hospital there. Her story is heartbreaking and makes you realize it could be any of us, as we have few rights as gays and lesbians in this country. She and her partner Lisa Pond, both of Washington State, were vacationing in Florida, when Lisa fell fatally ill, having suffered a brain aneurysm.

Janice and her children were not allowed to visit the dying woman’s bedside, and a federal judge last week agreed, ruling that a hospital trauma center has no legal obligation to allow visitors. Of course, if those visitors are married heterosexual partners -- or brothers, sisters, and other relatives -- hospitals don't turn them away, as Janice explained to me. It was only when they realized she was a lesbian that they discriminated. Listen to the interview.