A Gay Warrior’s Win for Partner at National Cemetery

[DonViejo]

by Eleanor Clift Apr 12, 2013 4:45 AM EDT

Lt. Col. Linda Campbell fought for equal treatment for her late wife, who died of cancer after a long battle. Now she’s hoping the Supreme Court can extend burial rights to others.

Retired Lt. Col. Linda Campbell hopes the Supreme Court gives adequate notice of when it will hand down its rulings on same-sex marriage so she can snag a seat on a plane in time to be back in Washington for the historic decision. “I just have to be there. This means everything to me,” she says. “It’s the whole focus of my life. I don’t have Nancy anymore, I just have our marriage.”

After battling the U.S. military for almost a year, Campbell won a waiver for her deceased partner to be buried in a national cemetery, the first ever for a same-sex spouse, and she is looking to the Supreme Court to extend the right to others. She traveled to Washington, D.C. and stood in line in the cold to get just three minutes inside the court during last month’s oral arguments on marriage equality so she could lend her support—and demonstrate by her presence how much is at stake for people who for too long have had to settle for the watered-down version of marriage memorably dubbed “skim milk marriage” by Justice Ginsberg.

Edie Windsor is her champion, challenging the constitutionality of the Defense of Marriage Act (DOMA) and seeking equal treatment under the tax code after a 40-year partnership—just as Campbell fought hard to secure burial rights for Nancy. Together for 17 years, for 12 of those years, Nancy fought metastatic cancer. Knowing that her partner’s time was short, Campbell enlisted the help of Oregon Labor Commissioner Brad Avakian, who encouraged her to contact the Veterans Administration to seek a waiver, then wrote to the VA on her behalf and got Oregon Sen. Jeff Merkele to intervene. Nancy Lynchild passed away at age 64 on Dec. 22, 2012, and on Jan. 31, 2013, Campbell’s request was approved by Secretary Eric Shinseki. “I just fell on my knees,” she says.

Campbell was in line at 5 a.m. on the day the Supreme Court heard the oral arguments in Windsor’s case. She was wedged between a 12-year member of the Coast Guard and his partner, and a straight man with his 10-year-old daughter, Amy. It was cold, there were snow flakes, and the wind was bone-chilling. “We huddled together like penguins with Amy in the middle for five hours,” she recalled.

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http://www.thedailybeast.com/articles/2013/04/13/a-gay-warrior-s-win-for-partner-at-national-cemetery.html

[William769]

1. Highly recommended.