More U.S. Hospitals Now Guarantee Equal Care For Gay Patients
A Doctor's Visit City of Plano, Texas Basic gains We've seen a lot of changes in gay marriage in the U.S. recently, both in law and in culture. Here's another, more fundamental, place where rules and attitudes seem to be changing. Gay-rights advocacy group Human Rights Campaign published its annual analysis of American healthcare facilities last week and found that a greater number than ever have top-notch policies in place to protect gay patients and employees. Last year, the campaign found only 71 hospitals or hospital groups-which represent several facilities-had strong non-discrimination policies in place for lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender patients and employees. This year, 212 groups had strong policies, out of 309 groups that responded to the campaign's survey. (Last year, 122 groups responded to the survey.) There aren't really comprehensive nationwide studies of the health of different LGBT groups-the Institute of Medicine is working on it-but some preliminary evidence suggests...