Idaho Veteran Offers Burial Plot So Lesbian Vet Can Be Buried Next To Her Wife

Last week we reported on Madelynn Taylor (above), a 74-year-old U.S. Navy veteran from Boise, Idaho, after the Idaho Veterans Cemetery refused her request to be buried with her wife Jean Mixner, who died in 2012. Taylor, who served in the Navy for six years, says this is her home state and the only place she wants to be buried, next to her wife, whom she legally married in California in 2008.

Barry Johnson, a fellow veteran, heard about Taylor's story, and is offering her his burial plot.

Taylor writes in the Idaho Statesman:

As a lifelong Idahoan and a 27-year Army veteran of two wars, I've worked beside heterosexuals, gays, lesbians and bisexuals. I've really never wanted to hear about anybody's sex life or sexual preferences, one way or another. Besides, everybody more or less knew who is who regardless, and I don't recall anybody in the military ever saying a thing about it. Never.

Frankly, the only thing traumatic about the policy change for our armed forces of allowing gays to openly serve our country was all the media making a big deal about it. It didn't change a thing for any of us doing the job. Serving in uniform has always been about earning trust and has never been about sexuality.

Johnson says "the right word escapes [him]" for the injustice and discrimination Taylor is facing:

Then we have Madelynn Taylor, who seems like one heck of a lady. She cared for another person with all her heart and had to watch that person die. She is a veteran. She loves her country. She wants her partner by her side and she wants to eternally rest among veterans in the state she made home.  

Madelynn, you deserve that.

I'll tell you what. I will donate the plot I earned in the Idaho State Veterans Cemetery to you and Jean. I am happy to give my fellow veteran that small peace of mind. And I do it to honor all the great Americans I've served with along the way - gay, straight, whatever. (I don't know whether it is possible to donate my plot, but I am quite sincere about my willingness to do so.)

Read Johnson's full editorial HERE.