A 74-year-old American Navy veteran has been told she can’t be laid to rest with her late wife at a veteran’s cemetery.
All Madelynn Taylor wants is to have the ashes of her spouse, Jean Mixner, interred with her at the Idaho Veterans Cemetery.
Taylor told KBOI 2News that her health was fading and that “I’m a stroke waiting to happen.”
The cemetery, however, refused her wishes because the state of Idaho does not recognise same-sex marriages.
“I don’t see where the ashes of a couple old lesbians is going to hurt anyone,” Taylor said wryly.
Taylor, who served in the Navy in the 50s and 60s, was discharged from the military because she is lesbian.
She commented that she wasn’t surprised by the latest act of petty but tragic bias against her.
“I’ve been discriminated against for 70 years, and they might as well discriminate against me in death as well as life,” she said.
Taylor was with Mixner for 17 years until the latter passed away in 2012. The two met in 1995 on a blind date and were described as inseparable. They were legally married in 2008 in California where same-sex marriage is legal.
Taylor is determined to be interred with her wife at the cemetery. She said that she hopes the law will change before she dies and if not she’ll ask someone to hold on to her and Mixner’s ashes until it does.
One Response
Well said.
“She said that she hopes the law will changebefore she dies and if not she’ll ask someone to hold on to her and Mixner’s ashes until it does.”