Idaho officials have denied a
74-year-old gay Navy veteran from being buried with her partner in
the Idaho State Veterans Cemetery.
Madelynn Taylor, who served six years
in the Navy, married her wife Jean Mixner in California six years
ago.
Mixner passed away in 2012 and Taylor
kept her ashes so the pair can be buried together when she
passes away.
Citing the state's ban on gay marriage,
officials last year denied Taylor's request.
“I thought they'd say okay because in
any federal cemetery it is okay, in any national cemetery,” Taylor
told KTVB. “I could take the same documents and get buried in
Arlington if I needed to, with no problems. But here they said it's
a state veterans cemetery, not a national cemetery. So we have to go
by the state laws. So, we gotta change the state laws.”
“I just feel that it's the right
place for me,” she added. “You know, I'm a veteran. So they
should let me … in fact they would let me alone, be in that crypt.
But I don't want to alone. I want Jean with me.”
“Eventually I'm going to be there.
They might as well give up and let us go now,” she said of her
wishes for someone to keep the couple's ashes together until they are
allowed to be buried together in the Idaho State Veterans Cemetery.