Update: Clay Greene Vs. Sonoma County

Back in April, we reported on the story of Clay Greene Vs. Sonoma County as an example of why marriage equality is an important goal for the gay community. For those of you who don't recall, Clay Greene and Harold Scull were two elderly gay men who lived together for many years, without marriage or domestic partnership, here in Sonoma County California....yet they had drawn up powers of Attorney and all neccesaary documents naming each other as benificiaries of each others estate, clearly defining their relationship to each other. Yet, when an incident occured in which Harold Scull fell from his front steps, requiring 911 to be called....all that documentation came to naught as the county ignored their relationship to each other. Clay Greene maintains that it was accident....that Harold lost his footing. The county however, claims that it was domestic abuse,siting an april 12th police report, and immediately removed both men from their shared home and involuntarily placed them into separate nursing homes....claiming that it was to protect Harold from Clay. The county then proceeded to assume control of Harolds finances, sold their home, and auctioned off their shared belongings. Harold eventually died a few months later apart from his longtime partner Clay Greene. Clay and Harolds cause was eventually picked up by attorney Anne Dennis and the National Center for Lesbian Rights, who now advocates for Clay Greene. They sued the county on the basis that the counties actions were based off homophobia and that a similar scenario would not have occured had the individuals involved been a heterosexual couple. It was a hard road for Clay Greene that has finally come to completion....

Greene Vs. Sonoma County....Why Marriage Equality Is Important

What would you do if, in your golden years, you found yourself suddenly without you life long partner or spouse? Now add to that, county officials swooping in to claim your home and belongings because they do not recognize your relationship as valid even though you drew up all those "iron clad" documents meant to protect against such events. Would you feel rage? Would fight to protect what is yours by right? Who would stand with you?

That is exactly what happened here in my home of Sonoma County to Clay Greene and his partner of 20 years Harold. When faced with a health crisis, the county swooped in, confined them both in separate nursing homes, assumed control of both of their finances, sold all their combined property, and surrendered their home back to the landlord. All the while trying to explain away their relationship to each other as "roommates", even though they all appropriate legal documents naming each other as beneficiaries should something happen to the other. All this resulting in Harolds death three months later leaving clay little more than memories of their life together. Their lives together where very nearly erased....and it happened in my back yard.

My City Gets A LGBT Retirement Community

Yup, you read that right. A few years ago it was announced that My City.....Santa Rosa was considering building an LGBT retirement community...a most rare of beasts.

The project was initially announced five years ago and immediately saw resistance from the surrounding community in which it was to be built. Since that first anouncement, I had heard nothing more and had assumed that the protest it recieved from the community had overwhelved the developer...Aegis...who packed up and moved somewhere else. Well....I did a double take when I saw in my Edgewire news widgit a story called, "California city Approved Gay Retirement Community". Looking a little further I noticed Santa Rosa was mentioned....I was shocked...Just a few days before I had been thinking about that project and why we had heard nothing more about it. I had assumed it was dead. Not so, it seems.