BOISE, Idaho (AP) — 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 Craig 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."
Todd Dvorak, a spokesman for Idaho Attorney
General Lawrence Wasden, said Wasden hasn’t reviewed the lawsuit and
couldn’t comment on the case. Idaho Gov. C.L. "Butch" Otter’s spokesman
Jon Hanian also declined to comment.
Taylor’s lawsuit contends
that Idaho’s anti-recognition laws violate the due process and equal
protection guarantees of the U.S. Constitution, and that Idaho’s refusal
to recognize her marriage tells the world that her relationship is
unworthy of recognition.
Taylor wants a judge to order the
cemetery to allow her ashes to be interred in a memorial wall along with
those of Mixner, who died in 2012.
The case was filed as Taylor’s
health is deteriorating. She has serious heart and lung problems and
uses a cane, walker or scooter to get around. She laughs easily at her
predicament, though, joking that she expects to win the case before she
has the heart attack that "could happen any day now."
Her ready laughter may have been what attracted Mixner when the two met on a blind date in 1995.
Taylor,
for her part, was captivated by Mixner’s blue eyes. The two hit it off
and it wasn’t long before Mixner moved from her Kansas City home to join
Taylor in Nampa, Idaho. They soon married in a religious ceremony
during a church retreat in Oregon.
They filled their days with
work, church and volunteering — Taylor as an emergency medical
technician and Mixner running a support group at their home for
transgender people. They bought a home and remodeled it together.
"I
taught her how to use power tools and she taught me how not to cuss
when I hit my thumb," Taylor joked. "She turned out to be the queen of
mud and tape — she could do a wall up just beautifully."
They took
care of aging relatives, and they retired at the usual age, traveling
from campsite to campsite in a 33-foot RV. When the California ban on
gay marriage was struck down in 2008, they had a civil ceremony so their
marriage would be legally binding.
When Mixner got emphysema, they made a promise: Whoever went first would be cremated then later buried
when the other.
"Whichever
one went first is supposed to wait by the eastern gate," said Taylor,
glancing up at the beige ceiling of her attorney’s conference room. "So
she’ll be up there by the eastern gate waiting for me now."
They
chose the veterans cemetery because they knew it would be well
maintained and decided on cremation and interment in a wall so their
names and spot wouldn’t get covered over with weeds or grass.
They wanted to be in Idaho, where their family could come to pay respects.
Taylor
is represented in the case by the National Center for Lesbian Rights
and Boise attorneys Deborah Ferguson and Craig Durham. It’s the same
legal team that successfully sued earlier this year to overturn Idaho’s
ban on gay marriages. That ruling remains on hold while the state
appeals the case to the 9th U.S. Circuit.