HRC Blog

Over the years, HRC has taken great strides in making progress towards equality—while doing our important work, we have also worked to protect the environment. Here are some ways we have made a big impact while reducing our impact on the environment:

Saturday, April 16, is National Healthcare Decisions Day. This annual event exists to inspire, educate and empower the public and healthcare providers about the importance of advance healthcare directives. In times of emergency, you may be unable to make medical decisions or state who you want to visit you. That is why it is important to have these directives in place. Take a moment to learn about protecting your hospital visitation and decision-making rights.

As we posted back in March, the real funding battles for fiscal year 2011 and 2012 were looming. Last week, the federal government was nearly shutdown over FY 2011 issues that have absolutely nothing to do with funding our nation but rather political ideology. Fortunately, the doors were not closed, the lights stayed on and today, we learned that many critical programs for people with HIV/AIDS were spared significant cuts, or even received new funding.

There’s plenty of blame to go around for the silence surrounding the growing AIDS crisis in New York in the early 1980s. This pivotal time in the LGBT movement is depicted in Larry Kramer’s play, The Normal Heart, which will premiere on Broadway this spring.

Today the Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) announced the results of an internal review of ways they could address additional LGBT healthcare issues. HHS announced many recommendations today, including a commitment to collecting LGBT health data through federally-funded surveys, guidance to states regarding access to federal welfare programs for LGBT families, guidance to states regarding protection of a same-sex partner’s assets when his or her partner uses Medicaid for long-term care, and expanded outreach regarding the range of HHS funding opportunities for organizations that serve the LGBT community.