Protecting Your Visitation & Decision-Making Rights

In these situations, hospitals may restrict visitation rights to a narrow interpretation of family that excludes those not legally or biologically related to the patient (read our Hospital Visitation Guide for LGBTQ+ Families for more information on your visitation rights). Similarly, state laws around medical decision-making often limit these rights to a patient’s legal or biological family members when no documentation designates a surrogate decision-maker.

Regardless of your marital status, you can designate a person of your choice to make medical decisions for you if you cannot. See below for resources to help you do this.

The LGBTQ+ community needs to take steps to ensure that the people we choose may visit us and make medical decisions on our behalf in times of emergency.

1. Complete advance healthcare directives and visitation authorization forms.

• Advance healthcare directives are legal documents that allow you to designate someone else to make medical decisions on your behalf if you are incapacitated (health care proxy) and to make clear your preferences for life-saving procedures.
  • Download the LGBTQ+ Advance Care Planning Toolkit from SAGE [PDF]
  • Download Tools for Protecting Your Health Care Wishes from Lambda Legal [PDF]
    This document from Lambda Legal defines terms related to decision making in healthcare settings and answers FAQs for LGBTQ+ community members looking to protect their rights.
  • Learn More from National Healthcare Decisions Day 
    April 16th is National Heathcare Decisions Day and this site includes answers to frequently asked questions on advance healthcare directives and state-specific resources.
  • Download Your State's Forms
    This resource from Caring Connections, a program of the National Hospice and Palliative Care Organization (NHPCO), directs you to your state's advance directives forms.

2. Talk with your primary care physician about your preferred visitors and advance healthcare directives.

3. Work with your local hospitals to get these completed forms on file.

4. Carry information related to your advance healthcare directives and visitation authorization forms in your wallet or other readily accessible area for emergencies.

• Read "Put It In Writing" from AHA This brochure from the American Hospital Association provides basic facts about advance healthcare directives and encourages patients to explore their preferences for care at the end of life. It includes a template for a Wallet ID Card that alerts healthcare workers of directives.