Shameful Sonoma County Separates and Evicts Elderly Gay Couple

The most hated place in the country right now might just be Sonoma County in California. And who could blame folks, given the story of gay couple Harold Scull and Clay Greene, and how the County forcibly separated these two elderly men and evicted them from their home.

It's a heart-breaking story, symbolic of everything that's wrong with policies like the Defense of Marriage Act, which continue to prevent gay and lesbian relationships from being recognized with the dignity they deserve.

Harold and Clay had been together 20 years, building a life and a house together. One day Harold had a terrible accident, and was forced to go to the hospital. Despite having all of their legal paperwork in order, Clay was denied access to Harold in the hospital. That meant that the person who knew Harold best in this world, Clay, wasn't allowed to consult with doctors about Harold's care. Clay wasn't allowed to hold Harold's hand in the hospital room, and he wasn't given information about Harold's condition.

It gets even worse. As Kate Kendall, Executive Director of the National Center for Lesbian Rights, points out, soon Sonoma County got involved in the ordeal. Only their involvement was far from good news. With Harold in the hospital, Sonoma County petitioned a court to be able to make financial decisions on Harold's behalf. They would soon forcibly evict the couple from their house, and auction off the couple's possessions. And then they would place both men in separate nursing homes, keeping Harold and Clay apart from each other for the first time in over 20 years.

It was in this separate nursing home where, after three months, Harold died, alone. He had no house and no life partner by his side. And it was all because of the actions of Sonoma County.

Clay, with the help of several California attorneys, is now fighting Sonoma County for the injustice they caused. A hearing is set for July 2010, where Sonoma County could be brought to justice for their appalling and atrocious actions in this case.

But it shouldn't take a lawsuit to convince Sonoma County that what they did in this case was abhorrent. Send a message today to Sonoma County, specifically their Director of Human Services (a defendant in the case), saying that you demand justice for what happened to Harold and Clay.

No couple deserves to be broken apart. But the ruthless way that these two men were separated, forced to be apart while government administrators auctioned off their belongings, is not only wrong, it's inhuman. Send a message today.

Stories like Harold's and Clay's make it all the more critical for federal-level action on items like repealing the Defense of Marriage Act. Indeed, last week's presidential memorandum by the Obama administration, ordering all federally-funded hospitals to grant equal patient visitation rights to same-sex couples, was a necessary start to help make sure stories like this are rare.

But in the end, last week's memorandum is just a memorandum. It won't stop entities like the Sonoma County government from destroying the lives of gay couples.

Imagine that the person you loved and lived with for 20 years was taken away from you in a moment's notice. How can we let something like this happen without demanding justice?

As Clay Greene's trial attorney, Anne Dennis, said: "Because of the county’s actions, Clay missed the final months he should have had with his partner of 20 years. Compounding this horrific tragedy, Clay has literally nothing left of the home he had shared with Harold or the life he was living up until the day that Harold fell, because he has been unable to recover any of his property or his beloved cats—who are feared dead. The only memento Clay has is a photo album that Harold painstakingly put together for Clay during the last three months of his life."

Nothing can compensate Clay for the pain of losing his partner in such a violent way.

But it shouldn't be above Sonoma County to apologize for what they did wrong, and work with Clay and his attorneys to achieve some measure of justice. Write the Sonoma County Director of Human Services today, and continue to share this story. Don't let the legacy of this couple stay silent any longer.

Photo credit: shutr