Brokeback Family Values.

[JimboDem]

I read this and I hate them even more. WTF is wrong with this country?


Partner's death ends happy life on ranch
2 decades together mean nothing in Oklahoma law
By Jessie Torrisi
Columbia News Service
December 31, 2005


On the face of it, Sam Beaumont, 61, with his cowboy hat, deep-throated chuckle and Northwestern drawl, is not so different from the ranch hands in Ang Lee's critically acclaimed film "Brokeback Mountain," which opened in Indianapolis on Wednesday.
More "Romeo & Juliet" than "Rent," "Brokeback Mountain" challenges modern perceptions of what it means to be gay in rural America.
"Listen," the character Twist says to del Mar as part of a dream that goes unrealized. "I'm thinking, tell you what, if you and me had a little ranch together -- little cow and calf operation, your horses -- it'd be some sweet life."
That pretty much describes the life Beaumont had. He settled down with Earl Meadows and tended 50 head of cattle for a quarter-century on an Oklahoma ranch. "I was raised to be independent. I didn't really care what other people thought," Beaumont said.


http://www.indystar.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?Date=20051231&Category=LIVING&ArtNo=512310342&SectionCat=&Template=printart

[swimboy]

1. God-damn.

The fuckers are suing him for back rent. What good people. Shit!
















Welcome to DU, JimboDem.

[samhsarah]

2. Goddamn F*&#ING HYPOCRITICAL SCUM!!!

Family values my fucking ass. Words just can't express how much I hate these people.:mad: :mad: :mad: :mad: :mad: :mad: :mad: :mad: :mad: :mad: :mad:

[BOSSHOG]

3. Thanks JimboDem and welcome

Truly amazing how loving and caring "traditional American values" are. What happened to the survivor is at the heart and soul of today's christian conservative compassionate movement. They hate in the name of Jesus Christ and in a tax exempt status. "Christians" are what is wrong with America today.

[samhsarah]

7. Could not have been said any better, BOSSHOG

And welcome, JimboDem!!!:toast:

[TechBear_Seattle]

4. Bookmarked

This is EXACTLY why equal marriage is so damned important.

[sui generis]

5. the ironic and worst part

is that his own children have fewer rights to the property than his fucking cousins.

Oh, but it's not illegal. That makes it okay.

What it means to those cousins:

1. My faggot cousin wasn't a real person and therefore his property didn't REALLY belong to him.

2. Fags can't really love or have a life, so he was just a sinner deserving of god's punishment with a lot of help from us.

3. We're his next of kin even though we probably never talked to him because he was a fag and we woulda spit in his face anyway.

4. That person he lived with in sin and disgrace for a quarter century is going to hell and we're going to help him get there.

And this can EASILY happen in any of 44 states in this country, by the way. Let's not single out Oklahoma for special treatment.

[chalky]

20. It's GREED, pure and simple.

I suspect those cousins really, deep down didn't give a DAMN about Meadows' lifestyle. If he'd left Beaumont with just a '76 Pinto and a Naugahyde sofa do you really think they'd have launched this battle?

No. That so-holy, righteous indignation of theirs is a convenient front for flat-out GREED.

And the state of Oklahoma (AND the other 44, including my lovely home state of Texas) has made it legal for those greedy bastards to STEAL.

[sui generis]

28. legally speaking if when he became ill he had formally

adopted his partner and children his cousins would be shit outta luck.

It's just annoying as hell to have to go through these machinations just to preserve our families.

A friend of mine here in Dallas whose partner died some years ago after moving in with him had his family (from Oklahoma) send an attorney to tell him to vacate his own house and provide receipts for anything he wanted to claim was his, and give him the key to let the guys cousins come and clean out the house undisturbed. He said he would show up with a court order and peace officers otherwise.

I was there when the guy knocked on the door and invited him to bring a Dallas peace officer or a court order just as soon as he could arrange it, which of course he couldn't. I also suggested that if THEY could prove that he had anything with a receipt to please furnish said receipt and we would agree to return those items to the family. Finally the guy's gap toothed slack jawed methbrained cousins DID show up, and we had an old black and white TV and some of his personal effects out on the porch (he really didn't have much else anyway); they wanted to do a "walk through" of the house and even tried to get threatening. It's funny how skeert those little homophobic freaks get when you don't back down, and I personally believe the only solution to threats of violence is greater violence, especially when the police don't give a damn anyway. They left in a hurry.

Odd thing, not a single person offered to talk about a funeral, or disposition of the remains, so we had him cremated, and he was sitting in a big cardboard box on the couch in the living room when they showed up.

Nasty ugly little people. You hated him when he was alive and were more concerned about his possessions than his body when he was dead. History repeats itself.

Well! That was a bright little trip down memory lane . . .

[Inland]

31. Or had a will, I assume. Of course, none of that

changes the problem of the intestacy law, which presumes that none of that stuff was done anyway for whatever reason. or that the will was lost.

[connecticut yankee]

6. And I'll bet

the "cousins" had nothing to do with them while Meadows was alive.

Welcome to DU JimboDem.

[Behind the Aegis]

23. You'd win that bet.

When I first read about this, I live in Oklahoma, the article, which I still can't find, says that the cousin is a 3rd cousin who hadn't spoken to his cousin since he came out! None of the family would associate with Meadows. The children didn't even know who the cousin was!

[patrice]

8. Shame on the Meadows family. n/t

[sweetm2475]

9. 5th rec. &KICK

Putrid bastards they are.

BTW - Welcome JimboDem, thanks for posting this!:toast: :kick:

[Mabus]

10. A similar thing happened to my great-uncle

after his lover died. It was back in the late 50's. After spending over 50 years together my great-uncle had nothing. He didn't even get to keep most of the pictures of the life they spent together. He moved in with his sister (my grandmother) for a while. He had planned to move with my family when we moved to another state but he didn't make it. He died. The thing that bothered him the most (according to what I've heard within the family) is that he couldn't be buried next to his lover. His lover's family took the body back east and wouldn't allow them to be buried together. My uncle is buried with our relatives.

Yeah, they didn't give two cents for their relative when he was alive but when he died he suddenly became a their favorite uncle. They stripped everything away from my uncle.

[Raster]

11. so when pepple wonder why gays want to get married...there you have it.

"Last year, Beaumont moved to nearby Wewoka, Okla., to a one-bedroom place with 350 acres for his horses, white Pyrenees and Great Dane to roam. He said he was continuing to fight the cousins, who are suing for back rent for the years he lived on the ranch.

[MadHound]

12. Sounds like the community is supportive of this couple

Perhaps when the ranch is auctioned they can do what we did here in the Midwest during the farm foreclosures of the seventies and eighties. Enforce the unspoken rules that no bid is greater than a dime, the final price will be a dollar, and that they well it back to the original owner for two. Then watch those asshole cousins shit their pants.

[DIKB]

13. Sick fucking bastards

It isn't enough that they take all he had helped build from him, they want to sue for back rent ?!?!?!

Soulless fucking scum, each and every one.

Why are we torturing Iraqis when there are heartless bigots here in this country that are FAR more deserving?

[JimboDem]

14. Thanks.

Remember being taught that a person's home is 'his castle'?
I guess that's still true, unless you're gay and the cousins want it.

And, a government of checks and balances, too. Scary times.


Thanks for the welcomes....DU's great place to be.

Jim

[Triana]

15. Meadows family are evil....

....what nasty, greedy people. And these laws should be changed - at the Federal level - but of course that won't happen until we have some progressive leadership. What a bunch of assinine Rednecks in Oklahoma. Ugh.

[Caoimhe]

16. How sad

This man gave their relative the happiest years of his life and saw him through his final illness that claimed his life. This family reminds me of circling vultures. Makes me sick. If there is a hell, there is a special spot in the front row for this viscious family.

And people complain about the "gay agenda" when these two men's only agenda was to raise those boys and live their lives. Shame on this despicable non-family, shame on all homophobic assholes, I hope instant karma gets you.

[slestak]

17. Thanks for reminding me

Why I left that god-forsaken state. There are some good folks in OK, but on the whole, it was not the type of culture I wanted to raise my child in.

[DarkTirade]

18. That is just fucking low.

There's no other words I can think of to describe it.

[newyawker99]

19. Hi JimboDem!!

Welcome to DU!! :toast:

[gauguin57]

21. A lot of people need to write letters to ed of that town's newspaper

... expressing their disdain for the medieval Okla. laws and how the family is treating their cousin's life partner.

Shame them till they crack.

This story needs to be picked up by the AP, and sent around the world. So even MORE people can write letters to the editor, shaming the a**holes.

[cynatnite]

22. Sam was in the documentary 'Tying the Knot'

I thought it sounded familiar when I read this. Those asshole relatives have broken into the place, too. Sam had to hide some personal belongings in order to keep those morans from stealing it.

Excellent documentary.

http://www.1049films.com/story_sam_&_earl.htm

[Behind the Aegis]

24. Won't someone think of the children?!?!

What these morons fail to see is that the three children Earl helped raise also got screwed by the greedy 3rd cousin who refused to even talk to his cousin after he came out, 25 some odd years ago!

G-d I want out of this state! (No offense to the fine democrats and liberals here, but this little gay boy wants OUT!)

Thanks JimboDem for posting this!!!!

[GrpCaptMandrake]

25. Will hit this hard

on the show tonight.

Outrageous.

And just think: Samuel Alito would go right along with all of it.

[NMMNG]

26. @#$%&!

And then people think gays are asking for "special rights" by wanting to be able to get legally married! There is nothing "special" about the right to get the same rights any other legally married couple has. This couple did everything together, put all that money into the ranch together, and now the surviving partner is getting bilked out of his work, his home and his money because of pure unadulterated bigotry. GAH!

[xchrom]

27. son. of. a. bitch. -- can you believe this shit?!?!

well yes actually i can --

fuck:mad:

[onager]

29. The cousins need to...

...have their faces plastered on every media outlet possible. Along with that good Xian charity they're extending by suing this man for back rent. Then let them enjoy their 15 minutes of infamy.

Somebody fill me in on the purpose of the civil laws again. Redress of grievances? Ensure equitable treatment of all citizens? I reckon not.

We probably all have some relatives like this lurking in the family album. I sure do, and they're already dropping hints about my eventual demise, since I have some property (but not much). I'm also childless and have been divorced for years, so these bungholes joke about me being gay (not true) or just weird (true).

Fuck 'em. Before I left on this work trip to Egypt I made sure that my will was in order and iron-clad. That side of the family gets nothing. If I outlive my current executors, my puny estate is going to the freedom FROM religion/skeptical/atheist groups.

I will do the same thing with my furniture that I do with old stuff while I'm alive--donate it to the thrift stores run by Out Of The Closet, a Los Angeles group that helps young, at-risk gay people. I'm straight myself but I feel sorry for those kids. And unlike some religious charities I could name, Out Of The Closet always seems grateful for any donation.

[sui generis]

32. isn't it funny how people think they have a right to your things

just by the good fortune of being related to you?

Sounds like you have a plan - that's good. Anyone who is waiting on your demise for your material possessions is just a vulture anyway, regardless of their "kinship".

And whatever happens you want people you care about to benefit from your leavings, and that's not always family, sadly.

[Inland]

30. Intestate laws good argument for gay marriage or unions.

All the intestate laws do is guesstimate how most people would be okay with their estate being distributed in the absence of a will.

It assumes that one would want their stuff to go to their legal spouse or to the children, or in the absence of those, blood relatives. Right or wrong in specific instances, it's right in general, EXCEPT where gay couples are concerned, because of the lack of marriage available.

The law on intestacy should simply follow what real people do in real life, generally, and in real life, gay couples live together for thirty years and would expect their estate to go to significant others. But the lack of a law acknowlegin their real life relationship thwarts those reasonable expectations. Same can be said for policies in medicine on who gets to make medical decisions.

Gay marriage and/or gay unions equating them to marriage for intestacy laws just legally acknowledges what people are actually doing with their lives. It doesn't change a thing except to prevent a travesty like the above.

[sui generis]

33. still, where the exercise of discretion can reasonably be made

by a probate court, it is made in favor of meanness and irrelevancy. Ceding property to those cousins because of there wasn't a signature from two disinterested witnesseses to his last will and testament means that the court intentionally ignored his last will and testament based on a technicality.

It was outright hatefulness, regardless of the sex or sexual orientation of the intended beneficiary.

[Inland]

34. I missed the will contest in the original article.

Still, I won't spank the judge. Wills are all about technicalities, and judges are bound by statutes. The cousins are a different matter. Nobody forced them to contest the will.