A 74-year-old gay veteran on Monday
filed a lawsuit challenging Idaho laws which block her from being
buried with her late wife in the Idaho State Veterans Cemetery.
Madelynn Lee 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 to be buried with her
wife.
“Idaho is where some of our best
memories together are and it's where I want to spend eternity with
Jean,” Taylor said in a statement. “I could be buried here
alone, but I don't want to be alone. I want Jean with me forever.”
Taylor is represented by the National
Center for Lesbian Rights (NCLR) and Boise attorneys Deborah A.
Ferguson and Craig Durham. NCLR and attorneys Ferguson and Durham
are also representing four couples in a case challenging Idaho's gay
marriage ban. On May 13, a federal judge struck down the ban as
unconstitutional. An appeal in the case is scheduled for September
8.
“It is inexcusable that the State of
Idaho refuses to honor the wishes of a veteran of our armed forces to
be buried together with her spouse,” said Ferguson. “The state's
disrespect for a veteran's honorable service to our country is one of
the clearest examples of the harm and indignity that Idaho's
discriminatory marriage laws inflict on same-sex couples throughout
the state. The state's treatment of Ms. Taylor and her late wife
violates the most basic principles of equality and respect for human
dignity enshrined in our Constitution.”