President Obama mandated Thursday that hospitals receiving funding for medicare and medicaid must allow visitation rights to partners of gay and lesbian patients. The new policy will be enforced by the Department of Health and Human Services and  cover a vast majority of hospitals in the nation.

Currently, hospital policies typically require the visitor that he or she is related to the patient in either blook or marriage.

“Discrimination touches every facet of the lives of lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender people, including at times of crisis and illness, when we need our loved ones with us more than ever,” Joe Solmonese, president of the Human Rights Campaign, told the Washington Post.

Visit CNN to read the memo Obama sent out about the new policy. (pdf)

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