Sonoma County CA separates elderly gay couple and sells their home

[nahemaraxe]

Clay and his partner of 20 years, Harold, lived in California. Clay and Harold made diligent efforts to protect their legal rights, and had their legal paperwork in place--wills, powers of attorney, and medical directives, all naming each other. Harold was 88 years old and in frail medical condition, but still living at home with Clay, 77, who was

Comments

[simeonrun]

i'm still completely horrified about this entire thing. i signed the petition and passed it on last night, but still.

RAGE.

[nahemaraxe]

I can't believe that we call ourselves 'civilized'

[simeonrun]

i tried explaining it to my mother today and i couldn't even get the words out because i was so completely dumbfounded that something like that happened.

[untilsally]

That's so fucking sinister

[tempore]

This is horrible, but not at all surprising to me. The thing is, to a degree, the fact that they were gay is only the "in" they used to do this; I've heard so many horror stories about homes and things doing this to legally married hetero couples, to non-married hetero couples, to the children of an elderly parent, etc. All for the money.

They didn't try to separate them, but they did take all of my grandparents' assets from us, or tried. They forced the sale of the house, and I'm not sure of all the legal wrangling, but my mom and uncle turned around and sold the house for a measly $15,000 rather than let the state home take everything.

And all the protections they tell you, and that you think you have don't do shit. That's something that really needs to be addressed too, with health care reform.