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| Vanessa Coulier, far left, with her wife and little girls. |
Courtesy of the
Denver Post:
Hundreds of Vanessa Collier's friends and family gathered Saturday at New Hope Ministries, sitting before an open casket that held the woman they loved, when suddenly the minister overseeing her funeral stopped the service.
The memorial could not continue, Pastor Ray Chavez said, as long as pictures of Collier with the love of her life, the spouse she shared two children with, were to be displayed.
Chavez said there could be no images of Collier with her wife, Christina. There could be no indication that Collier was gay.
Outraged, those who loved Collier, 33, picked up programs, flowers and eventually the dead woman's casket itself, moving the service to a mortuary that — thankfully, they say — happened to be across the street.
"It was humiliating," said Victoria Quintana, Collier's longtime friend. "It was devastating."
And here I thought that President Obama did away with "Don't Ask Don't Tell."
I guess it is still alive and well, pardon the pun, in the funeral biz.
Can only imagine the effect this must have had on those two little girls to recognize that even in death the church went out of its way to disrespect their mother.
I think somebody better alert this New Hope Ministries that progress is coming, and they can only hold it off for so long.
