Married Couple Together Over 50 Years
A Mississippi funeral home allegedly refused to provide service for an 86-year old man, Robert Huskey, because he’s gay. Huskey was married to John Zawadski, who is now 82. The couple met in 1965 and had been together ever since, for over 50 years. They married after the Supreme Court’s 2015 Obergefell ruling.
According to the complaint, the Picayune Funeral Home said they would “take care of everything.” They were all set to pick up Huskey’s body and cremate it until they learned from a signed form that he was married to a man. After Huskey died, the funeral home allegedly told the nursing home Huskey had been living in that they don’t “deal with their kind.”
The couple had lived in Mississippi for 20 years.Â
“Over the course of their life together, the couple made memories camping and prospecting in the Mexico desert and fishing in the rivers of Colorado,” the Clarion-Ledger reports. “They moved to Colorado after the death of Huskey’s father where they bought a restaurant they wished they hadn’t and then, ‘with 60 bucks in my pocket,’ to Zawadski’s native Wisconsin where they owned an apple farm.”
“We lived our lives quietly,†Zawadski told The Washington Post in an interview. “We didn’t hit the bars or anything like that.â€Â The Post says the couple “lived unassuming lives and were rarely open with their friends and neighbors about their sexual orientation.”
John Gaspari, the couple’s nephew, had made the arrangements as it became clear Huskey would soon pass away. He say he wanted to ensure all the details were set ahead of time. The Picayune Funeral Home was the only one in the area that offers cremation services.
After being refused, the family was forced to find another funeral home, then a cremation service, which was 90 minutes away.
“The turmoil and exigency created by Defendants in causing Plaintiffs to find alternative arrangements, as described above, permanently marred the memory of Bob’s otherwise peaceful passing,†the complaint reads.
The funeral home says it never discriminated against the family, and never said they don’t “deal with their kind.”
Lambda Legal, which is representing the family, says there’s sufficient evidence to dispute that.
“I am confident that we will be able to prove through witness, phone records and other means that what we claim in the lawsuit is in fact what happened,” attorney Beth Littrell said.
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