Vet sues after burial plot with gay partner denied (xpost from Veterans)

[unhappycamper]

Source: The Associated Press

http://hamptonroads.com/2014/07/vet-sues-after-burial-plot-gay-partner-denied



Madelynn Taylor, 74, looks at a 2011 photo of herself (in red) with her wife Jean Mixner, in Boise, Idaho on July 7, 2014. Taylor has filed a lawsuit seeking the right to have her deceased wife interred with her at the Idaho State Veterans Cemetery. Idaho state law allows only married couples who are legally recognized by the state to be buried together at the cemetery; the state has refused to recognize Taylor’s legal marriage to Mixner in California as valid.

Vet sues after burial plot with gay partner denied
By Rebecca Boone
The Associated Press
© July 8, 2014

BOISE, Idaho

A U.S. Navy veteran filed a civil rights lawsuit Monday after the Idaho State Veterans Cemetery refused to allow her to be buried with the ashes of her late wife.

Seventy-four-year-old Madelynn Taylor filed the lawsuit in U.S. District Court in Boise after she tried to make advance arrangements last year to have her ashes interred with Jean Mixner, whom she met on a blind date in 1995 and married in California in 2008 when gay marriage was briefly legal.

Though federal veterans cemeteries allow the spouses of gay veterans to be interred with their loved ones, Taylor said she was surprised to find the Idaho cemetery — which is owned and operated by the state — does not.

Taylor's situation is "among the most extreme examples of the harm caused by state laws that deny respect to the marriages of same-sex couples," said Christopher Stoll, a senior attorney with the National Center for Lesbian Rights, which is representing Taylor. "Denying these important protections to committed couples is not simply unjust, it is needlessly cruel."

Read more: http://hamptonroads.com/2014/07/vet-sues-after-burial-plot-gay-partner-denied

[Third Doctor]

1. My god...

When will this country grow up? I still wonder why this is the only wealthy western country that still has a problem with this subject? It's the same reason why we still have a for profit healthcare system. I blame it on conservatives. The fact that this is in Idaho underscores my point.

[RKP5637]

2. Jesus, they even want to persecute people after death. Just WTF is wrong with this backward

country, what a joke of a place!!!

[happyslug]

3. Sounds like a made up case for litigation

Remember the Federal Courts can only hear cases involving litigates who have a legal disagreement. If they agree, no one can file in Federal Court.

This sounds like a Federal Test Case on the issue of how much "full faith and credit" does Idaho have to give to a marriage made in California, but that is illegal in Idaho.

In these made up cases, many times the sides actually oppose each other. On the other hand in many cases both side wants the same ruling but to get a court ruling one side has to take the position of opposing the other side.

The advantage of such made up cases is the issue gets narrowed down to what both sides wants decided thus other issues do NOT come into play. For example in the ruling on California's ban on Gay Marriage, the issue of standing kept coming up and the case ended up being decided on that issue not on the validity of California's ban (Thus the lower Federal Court ruling that it violated the Federal Equal Protection Clause was permitted to stand, something the dissent objected to and the dissent included at least 3 of the more liberal Justices who all wanted to rule Gay Marriage was something up to each state NOT to the Federal Government).

Just a comment that this sounds like a made up case, the issue is to clear to be a factor in an actual case. Looks like the parties looked for a case to litigate and this one was one they decided on. The underlying case may be real, probably is, but this case was picked for it reduced the issues to the single issue of having a veteran's wife buried with her spouse, even when the State if Idaho does NOT recognize the marriage.