The family of a gay Missouri man who was denied hospital visitation rights when trying to see his sick partner and subsequently arrested has set up a legal defense fund.
Roger Gorley was arrested after he refused to leave the bedside of his partner, Allen Mansell, at Research Medical Center in Kansas City, Mo., on April 9. Gorley's daughter, Amanda Brown, claims the Kansas City police mistreated her father and that the hospital is guilty of discrimination. Research Medical Center has denied discriminating based on sexual orientation.
Brown set up a fund for donations on GoFundMe.com.
"Roger Gorley was arrested and forcibly removed from his husband's bedside at Research Medical Center in Kansas City Missouri," reads the petition. "Please help support Allen Mansell and Roger Gorley cover their legal fees and medical bills due to this action on GoFundMe.com to collect money for her father's legal defense."
Around $2,000 has been collected thus far, halfway to the goal of $5,000.
In her blog on We Are Atheism, Brown alleges that Gorley -- who is in a civil union with Mansell and has Power of Attorney to make medical decisions -- was asked to leave the hospital by Mansell's brother, Lee Mansell. The two began to fight and then a nurse demanded Gorley exit the room. When he refused, she called security to escort him out, even though Allen requested his partner stay. Hospital officials claimed that it was this fight that led to Gorley's removal.
She also claims that the Kansas City Police "responded with [brute] and excessive force" when they were attempting to apprehend him. A spokesperson for the police department previously denied the allegations to The Huffington Post.
But Brown told the New Civil Rights Movement that Gorley suffered cuts on his ring finger, a swollen wrist and back pain. He also needs to have his hearing aids repaired.
In her blog post, she claimed they are currently working with the American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU). Still, hospital officials continue to deny the allegations against them.
“When the nurse went in to ask them to please quiet down and please stop this and they continued, and every time they stepped out it would get escalated, so she stepped back in and asked them to remove themselves for the sake of the patient at the moment,” Rob Dyer of Hospital Corporation of America, parent company of Research Medical Center, told Fox's WDAF. “He [Gorley] and the patient’s brother were fighting in the patient’s room very loudly, very crassly, inappropriate language."
Lee has since been called a homophobe and received death threats. He admitted that the fight did get "heated," but insists that he loves Gorley like his own brother.
"I was kind of scared for him, and I was upset for Allen," he told NBC station KSHB. "I love Roger like I do my brother... it's heart-wrenching for me to see my brother's husband being taken away."
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