nessus2 wrote:

When Mansell’s family members objected to Gorley’s visit, hospital staff called the police, who arrested Gorley and escorted him out of the hospital.



That's usually the source of these problems.  Family's who don't accept that someone is homosexual block those they've chosen to have in their lives, and the law and hospitals generally back them on this.  The next of kin is the next of kin, as the fundies discovered in the Schiavo case, and when there isn't a marriage than parents or siblings are the next of kin.  Not the partner with a piece of paper.

That's why same sex marriage is good policy.  It might have been possible back when jraeyre was first advocating for it to have civil unions that gave the same protections and benefits as marriage, but that ship sailed a long time past and the fundies have mostly themselves to blame.