Gay Man Excluded From Partner's Obituary

Terence James says he's spent a lot of time at Riverside Park, thinking about life and looking for answers in the White River.

"I think it (the river) has a lot to say to people about time, about continuation," James said. "I like the fact that a river has essentially no beginning and no end, too."

James, an openly gay man, just lost his partner of 10 years to spinal meningitis. He says he met John Millican in Georgia and "kidnapped" him back to Batesville.

"He was an awesome, incredible and exceptional person," James said.

Still numb from the shock of his partner's sudden death, James was hit by another surprise.

"My mom actually called me and asked me if I'd seen it," James said.

"It" was the obituary in the Batesville Daily Guard. James wrote it, but says his name was cut from the final draft.

"They saw fit to print the names of his deceased parents and three siblings... but not the person who shared 10 years of his life. Not the person who was entrusted to make the decision when to remove life support," James said.

James says the Guard discriminated against him because he's gay, but attorney Oscar Jones says that wasn't the case.

"It has nothing to do with his sexual orientation at all," Jones said.

Jones says his family has run the Batesville Daily Guard for more than 80 years. He says the paper publishes dozens of free obituaries every week, and it's always been their policy to only include the names of legally-wedded spouses.

But times change, Jones said, and maybe it was time for the Guard to do the same.

"I think it certainly is something, a policy, that should be reviewed," Jones said.

Jones said it wasn't likely the newspaper would apologize, but James says the glaring omission deserves a correction.

"Why you would refrain from printing the name of the most important person in someone's life?" James said.