Gay Headstones?

Me standing over my two cemetery plots at Northwood Cemetery

As regular followers of this blog know, I am a long time member of FAG. For those of you who don't know what FAG is, it is Find a Grave.  I am a Find a Grave volunteer.  I take pictures of gravestones and post them to the Find a Grave website.

I am now at the point in my life where I am going to choose my own headstone.  However, I have a dilemma.  Do I order one of those dual headstones that so many married couples have?

In my cemeteries wanderings I have seen literally thousands of these "married" headstones.  I have wondered, what kind of headstones do gay couples have after they die?  Of course back "then" there were no gay couples.  "Back then", gay couples stayed in the closet, even in the cemetery.

Well, I think it is time for all of use to come out, even in the cemetery. Sure, one has to take into consideration that a headstone with two male names on it would be a prime object of cemetery vandalism.  Yes Virginia, gays are fair game for bashing even in the cemetery.

So it was with great interest that I came across this headstone this morning as I was posting my latest cemetery information to FAG.

So here we go folks.  I discovered this dual headstone of two men, approximately the same age and obviously not brothers.  I researched these names on Ancestry.com and discovered that Lester Webb was listed as "single" on the 1940 U.S.Census. He lived in his sister's house with her husband and family.  Could Lester be the gay uncle?  Ah ha!

The only information I could find on Joseph Hayward was that he lived in Sussex County, Delaware.  I could find no U.S. census information. I could find no wife.  I could find no family for Joseph Hayward.  Could it be that Joseph was Lester's "friend?"

Just this weekend, as Bill and I were looking for two FAG requests at the Odd Fellows' Cemetery in Milton, we discussed what type of headstone I should choose.

After my father's death in August of 2000 I purchased two cemetery plots at the Northwood Cemetery on a hill overlooking Downingtown, Pennsylvania.  At that time I was not ready to purchase a headstone for Bill or myself.  Bill always said he wanted one of those metal military plaques on his grave.  We both like those plaques and I had even briefly consider having one of those myself.  However, I have since decided that I want a more substantial headstone.  I am not one of those people who decided that I want no trace of myself when I leave this earth.  I want a remembrance for which I do not apologize.  

I like these military grave markers but I think I have decided what I'm going to do.  We're going to go the way of Joseph and Lester and have a dual headstone.  

What do you think?

My marker at Northwood Cemetery