One small step in the right direction

It's small comfort, but when it is the comfort of family at the bedside of a patient, it matters.

President Obama mandated Thursday that nearly all hospitals extend visitation rights to the partners of gay men and lesbians and respect patients' choices about who may make critical health-care decisions for them, perhaps the most significant step so far in his efforts to expand the rights of gay Americans.

The president directed the Department of Health and Human Services to prohibit discrimination in hospital visitation in a memo that was e-mailed to reporters Thursday night while he was at a fundraiser in Miami.

I had previously written about the cruelty of denying same-sex partners visitation rights here, and my stand has not changed. This is one small step in the right direction, and while it should be celebrated, we should never stop pushing until DADT and DOMA falls.