Nicole Johnson

In the Oct. 20 Washington Blade’s “Lesbian activist awarded Presidential Citizens Medal,” Chris Johnson writes about a lesbian activist who helped secure hospital visitation rights for gay couples across the country.

According to Johnson, President Obama hosted a ceremony at the White House to award Janice Langbehn, one of 13 recipients the 2011 Presidential Citizens Medal. Langbehn was denied hospital access to her partner of 18 years, who suffered from a brain aneurysm.

“As a father and husband, I can’t begin to imagine the grief that they must have felt in that moment — their anger and their sense that the world was not fair,” said Obama. “But they refused to let that anger define them. They each became, in Janice’s words, an ‘accidental activist.’ And thanks to their work, there are parents and partners who will never have to go through what they went through.”

I was touched by the words of President Obama, and I still can’t phantom the hatred that people have toward the LGBT. Who cares who people fall in love with these days? As long as they are happy, that should be enough. I wasn’t raised to discriminate, no matter what the race or gender may be. People are people and they deserve to be treated as such.

According to Johnson, President Obama’s inspiration to issue a memorandum, directing hospitals receiving of Medicare and Medical funds to allow patients to designate whomever they choose to visit them in the hospital, including a same-sex partner, last year is credited to Langbehn.

“It is my hope that my family’s loss, this medal, and the attention it brings to the discrimination our families have faced during the most difficult moments, will help ease suffering and ensure that no family has to go through what my family went through,” said Langbehn.

I applaud this woman for standing up for what she believes in. If it weren’t for her, the change with the hospital visitations probably would have never happened. In my opinion, Langbehn has shaped history for the LGBT community and has helped them get one more step closer toward having equal rights.

According to Johnson, Joe Solmonese, president of the Human Rights Campaign, commended Langbehn in a statement for her work and said her actions secure one of the most fundamental needs for gay families. Her story inspired Obama to address one of our community’s most critical needs, and for that she earned the nation’s second-highest civilian honor.