Thursday, March 30, 2006
NO "HUSBAND" ON TOMBSTONE
Dom has linked this story at Bettnet.
CRANSTON, R.I. - The Catholic Diocese of Providence is refusing a gay Rhode Island resident’s request to place the word "husband" on his late spouse’s mausoleum plaque at a church cemetery.
Cemetery personnel told Rick Paolino March 20 that they would not allow him his choice of wording at the mausoleum at St. Ann’s Cemetery. Paolino’s husband Justin died Feb. 5.
So, were they both "husbands" or is one of them a "wife"? And if the cemetary is sued and forced to allow "husband" in this instance, would they also have to allow "wife" on the marker for a man in the future?
I'm trying to imagine some archeologist digging in the burial grounds three centuries from now, and coming upon a tombstone with the name "Rick" and the word "wife" on it. Would he conclude that in the American culture "Rick" was also a woman's name, or that the word "wife" could refer to male or female? Or would he conclude there had been some grave marker rearrangement and the markers could not be relied upon to give information about the body inside the grace, since the body inside this grave was male?
