[{"@context":"https:\/\/schema.org\/","@type":"BlogPosting","@id":"https:\/\/equallywed.com\/funeral-home-refuses-to-take-gay-mans-body\/#BlogPosting","mainEntityOfPage":"https:\/\/equallywed.com\/funeral-home-refuses-to-take-gay-mans-body\/","headline":"Funeral home refuses to take gay man’s body","name":"Funeral home refuses to take gay man’s body","description":"A lawsuit is underway after Mississippi funeral home refuses to take gay man's body despite previous arrangements having been made. ","datePublished":"2017-05-05","dateModified":"2017-05-05","author":{"@type":"Person","@id":"https:\/\/equallywed.com\/author\/emilyrochotte\/#Person","name":"Emily Rochotte","url":"https:\/\/equallywed.com\/author\/emilyrochotte\/","identifier":5619,"image":{"@type":"ImageObject","@id":"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/2f3a3d93cba6196f7aeb50eff060379dae87a7bab7b12983b5dbf60b5cc535f4?s=96&r=g","url":"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/2f3a3d93cba6196f7aeb50eff060379dae87a7bab7b12983b5dbf60b5cc535f4?s=96&r=g","height":96,"width":96}},"publisher":{"@type":"Organization","name":"Equally Wed","logo":{"@type":"ImageObject","@id":"http:\/\/equallywed.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/08\/equally-wed-lgbtq-weddings-logo.jpg","url":"http:\/\/equallywed.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/08\/equally-wed-lgbtq-weddings-logo.jpg","width":218,"height":60}},"image":{"@type":"ImageObject","@id":"https:\/\/equallywed.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2017\/05\/Funeral-home-refuses-to-take-gay-mans-body.jpg","url":"https:\/\/equallywed.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2017\/05\/Funeral-home-refuses-to-take-gay-mans-body.jpg","height":445,"width":757},"url":"https:\/\/equallywed.com\/funeral-home-refuses-to-take-gay-mans-body\/","video":{"@context":"http:\/\/schema.org\/","@type":"VideoObject","@id":"https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/watch?v=llHLuCQNY3Y#VideoObject","contentUrl":"https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/watch?v=llHLuCQNY3Y","name":"Dishonored in Death: Jack's Story","description":"Jack and Bob were together for more than 50 years. When Bob died, the funeral home refused to accept his body after learning he was married to Jack. Can you imagine a crueler time to discriminate against a person than when they\u2019re grieving the loss of a spouse? Lambda Legal is suing the funeral home \u2013 please share this video and help us fight for Jack and Bob.","thumbnailUrl":["https:\/\/i.ytimg.com\/vi\/llHLuCQNY3Y\/default.jpg","https:\/\/i.ytimg.com\/vi\/llHLuCQNY3Y\/mqdefault.jpg","https:\/\/i.ytimg.com\/vi\/llHLuCQNY3Y\/hqdefault.jpg","https:\/\/i.ytimg.com\/vi\/llHLuCQNY3Y\/sddefault.jpg","https:\/\/i.ytimg.com\/vi\/llHLuCQNY3Y\/maxresdefault.jpg"],"uploadDate":"2017-05-02T15:02:24+00:00","duration":"PT2M41S","embedUrl":"https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/embed\/llHLuCQNY3Y","publisher":{"@type":"Organization","@id":"https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/channel\/UCfRNrQvEOglQOp1K-AQ7Crg#Organization","url":"https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/channel\/UCfRNrQvEOglQOp1K-AQ7Crg","name":"lambdalegal","description":"Founded in 1973, Lambda Legal is the oldest and largest national legal organization whose mission is to achieve full recognition of the civil rights of LGBTQ+ people and everyone living with HIV through impact litigation, education and public policy work.","logo":{"url":"https:\/\/yt3.ggpht.com\/a57BE9WhZgk1fDK8rO25wVmDSmYeXTxYYRGKJJXzqVa6XQcHbSVRecdSkYeB3QuXyANTObVz=s800-c-k-c0x00ffffff-no-rj","width":800,"height":800,"@type":"ImageObject","@id":"https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/watch?v=llHLuCQNY3Y#VideoObject_publisher_logo_ImageObject"}},"potentialAction":{"@type":"SeekToAction","@id":"https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/watch?v=llHLuCQNY3Y#VideoObject_potentialAction","target":"https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/watch?v=llHLuCQNY3Y&t={seek_to_second_number}","startOffset-input":"required name=seek_to_second_number"},"interactionStatistic":[[{"@type":"InteractionCounter","@id":"https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/watch?v=llHLuCQNY3Y#VideoObject_interactionStatistic_WatchAction","interactionType":{"@type":"WatchAction"},"userInteractionCount":42632}],{"@type":"InteractionCounter","@id":"https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/watch?v=llHLuCQNY3Y#VideoObject_interactionStatistic_LikeAction","interactionType":{"@type":"LikeAction"},"userInteractionCount":160}]},"about":["Family","News"],"wordCount":393,"articleBody":"Just when you think you’ve seen it all, this happens. Gay man\u00a0Jack Zawadski is suing the funeral home that refused to take his partner’s body after he passed. You a read that right, a funeral home went and made a grieving person’s life even more difficult just because he was gay.\u00a0Robert Huskey, Zawdaski’s partner of over 52 years, passed away in May 2016. Zawdaski’s nephew made the funeral arrangements and chose the Picayune Funeral Home in Mississippi. When the the funeral home discovered Huskey was gay, they refused to pick up his body. To add to the sadness and inconvenience, arrangements had to be made with another funeral home, almost 100 miles away.\u00a0 A\u00a0complaint was filed with the help of Lambda Legal on May 2, 2017. Zawdaski is suing Picayune Funeral Home as well as Brewer Funeral Services, their parent company. The law suit sites breach of contract, negligent misrepresentation and intentional infliction of emotional distress.\u00a0\u201cI felt as if all the air had been knocked out of me,\u201d the 86 year-old Zawadski said in a statement on Tuesday. \u201cBob was my life, and we had always felt so welcome in this community. And then, at a moment of such personal pain and loss, to have someone do what they did to me, to us, to Bob, I just couldn\u2019t believe it. No one should be put through what we were put through.\u201dSadly, this isn’t the first time we’ve heard of someone being denied a service because they are a member of the LGBTQ community (but we’re always hoping it’s the last). Just this week a bakery in Ireland refused to make a woman a “Gay Marriage Rocks,” cake that she was ordering for her friends’ engagement. To make matters worse, this same Christian bakery faced legal action in 2014 for refusing to make a cake for an International Day Against Homophobia event.\u00a0Currently Mississippi has no laws in place to protect LGBTQ people from going through situations like\u00a0Zawdaski’s. House Bill 1523 grants companies the right to turn away patrons if they are doing so for religious reasons. Sadly, the United States may be seeing more discrimination like this in the future as Donald Trump signed the “Promoting Free Speech and Religious Liberty,” executive order yesterday allowing religious organizations more freedom of political speech."},{"@context":"https:\/\/schema.org\/","@type":"BreadcrumbList","itemListElement":[{"@type":"ListItem","position":1,"name":"Funeral home refuses to take gay man’s body","item":"https:\/\/equallywed.com\/funeral-home-refuses-to-take-gay-mans-body\/#breadcrumbitem"}]}]