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An hour earlier than President Joe Biden signed the primary U.S. legislation to enshrine homosexual and interracial marriage rights, Novato couple Beth Reed and Lolma Olson have been hoisting up a model new delight flag at Novato Group Hospital earlier than a crowd of cheering supporters.
The timing couldn’t have been extra serendipitous.
The 36-year couple had already been planning to lift the brand new flag for months after noticing the hospital’s former LGBTQ delight flag was light and tattered throughout Olson’s keep on the hospital in September. Working with the hospital workers, they landed on Dec. 13 because the date to lift the brand new flag donated by the couple.
Then final week, Congress permitted the Respect For Marriage Act to guard homosexual and interracial marriage rights below federal legislation. Biden introduced he can be signing the invoice on Tuesday afternoon on the White Home.
Olson stated the coincidence “was the frosting on the cake for us.”
“My coronary heart is simply full of gratitude and delight, and I imply that sincerely,” Reed stated.
Identical-sex marriage has been protected in the USA since 2015 after the landmark Obergefell v. Hodges choice by the U.S. Supreme Courtroom.
After the Supreme Courtroom’s choice in June to overturn abortion protections below Roe v. Wade, issues have been raised that the Supreme Courtroom would reverse the Obergefell choice. In his opinion supporting the overturning of Roe v. Wade, Justice Clarence Thomas wrote that the courtroom also needs to rethink its rulings defending homosexual marriage and entry to contraceptives.
Olson stated it was crucial that Congress and Biden didn’t wait to behave.
“They didn’t wait to surprise what was going to occur with the Supreme Courtroom since there was a risk,” Olson stated after the ceremony on Tuesday. “We’re simply happy with Congress and the Biden administration for sending it by means of.”
A crowd of LGBTQ+ residents in Novato raised a brand new delight flag at Novato Group Hospital on Tuesday that was donated by a Novato couple.
The ceremony was serendipitously scheduled on the identical day President Biden signed a invoice to enshrine homosexual and interracial marriage rights. pic.twitter.com/NxPJrz9n4d— Will Houston (@Will_S_Houston) December 13, 2022
Whereas Sutter Well being’s Novato Group Hospital beforehand raised the LGBTQ delight flag throughout Pleasure month in June, the hospital started to lift it every single day subsequent to the U.S. flag starting in 2020.
“We determined that it’s so vital to symbolize this neighborhood variety and inclusion that we determined to stick with it every single day of the 12 months,” stated Lisa Gammon, Novato Group Hospital chief administrative officer.
In 2017, the Human Rights Marketing campaign Basis, a nationwide LGBTQ civil rights group, acknowledged the hospital as a “chief in LGBTQ healthcare equality” for its insurance policies and practices referring to the inclusion and fairness of LGBTQ sufferers.
Among the many greater than 30 attendees at Tuesday’s flag-raising ceremony have been representatives of the Spahr Heart, a Corte-Madera-based nonprofit service for LGBTQ residents and everybody dwelling with HIV.
“We received’t cease working till everybody in our neighborhood has equal rights and experiences well being and social fairness,” stated Matt Easterwood, chief growth officer on the Spahr Heart. “None of us are free till all of us are free.”
Whereas they stated the homosexual marriage protections are a very good first step, Reed and Olson stated extra have to be completed, particularly within the wake of anti-transgender restrictions being handed in state legislatures all through the nation.
In response to the Pew Analysis Heart, at the least 21 states have handed some type of restrictions for transgender individuals referring to participation in athletics, gender transition medical take care of transgender youth, barring college districts from instructing about gender id in elementary faculties and excluding gender transitions from state Medicaid protection.
“Our transgender sisters and brothers and nonbinary individuals are proper within the thick of it proper now and we’re right here to assist them as properly,” Olson stated. “We don’t need to go away them behind.”
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