Cemetery Rejects Gay Couple’s Headstone Design Celebrating Marriage Equality

A Kentucky Archdiocese Says Depiction of Supreme Court, Interlocking Wedding Bands Conflicts with Church Teaching

The Archdiocese of Louisville has refused a same-sex couple’s headstone design featuring the U.S. Supreme Court building and interlocking wedding bands, saying it conflicts with the teachings of the Catholic Church. 

Greg Bourke and Michael De Leon, a couple of 34 years who are raising two adopted teenagers, were plaintiffs in a lawsuit challenging Kentucky’s same-sex marriage ban, which was among the cases decided by the U.S. Supreme Court in Obergefell v. Hodges. 

After purchasing a joint burial plot at St. Michael Cemetery in Louisville, Bourke and De Leon, both Catholic, submitted their headstone design:  

But Javier Rajardo, executive director of Catholic Cemeteries for the archdiocese, wrote in a letter to the couple dated March 30 that the cemetery is a “sacred place … where the signs and symbols of our Catholic faith are displayed with pride and reverence.” 

“Having reviewed your proposed gravestone inscription please note we can approve your shared stone with both your names and dates of birth and of course the religious symbol of the cross,” Rajardo wrote. “Inscriptions on grave markers are permitted so long as they do not conflict with any teachings of the Church. Your proposed markings are not in keeping with this requirement. Determination as to the appropriateness of any inscription or symbol is the judgment of the Executive Director of Catholic Cemeteries in consultation with proper church authority.” 

Bourke and De Leon plan a “freedom to bury” press conference on Wednesday to respond to the archdiocese’s decision. 

Bourke and De Leon, who’ve been members of Our Lady of Lourdes Parish for 28 years, were named persons of the year by The Catholic Reporter, a progressive independent newspaper, in 2015. But this is not the first time they’ve had a run-in with the local archdiocese. 

Several years ago, the couple was thrust into the spotlight when Bourke was removed from a leadership role in a Boy Scout troop sponsored by their parish due to his sexual orientation. After the Boy Scouts of America lifted its ban on gay adult leaders, Bourke reapplied for the troop in 2015, but was rejected based on guidance from Archbishop Joseph Kurtz, who called the high court’s ruling in Obergefell “a tragic error.”

 

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