Ark. Christians Turn Backs on Family By Refusing to Bury Gay Son

Church and local officials in the city of Mountain Home, Ark., showed their meaning of "Christian Charity" last week by refusing family requests to hold the funeral for their gay son. The body of 32-year-old James Stone was laid eventually laid to rest with a gravesite funeral.

Dallas Voice reports Stone's husband John A. "Jay" Hoskins tried to find a church to memorialize his partner since his January 19 death from Sjogren's syndrome, a genetic autoimmune disorder. According to the obituary posted on Legacy.com, Stone was buried on January 31. Raw Story notes that although the Dallas Voice claimed that Stone died of Sjogen's syndrome, his husband says he took his own life.

"He died a tragic death of suicide where his poor mother and myself found him hanging from a ceiling fan. I tried unsuccessfully to revive him, but it was too late," Hoskins said.

After the funeral, as a local tradition, Stone's family turned to the local firehouse, that Stone's father helped to build, to host a fellowship. Their request was denied.

Hoskins and Stone were married in August 2014 in New Mexico on the 10th Anniversary of their relationship as a couple. The pair resided in Texas.

Of the town's treatment of Stone's family, Hoskins said "I have never experienced such hate and bigotry in my life,"

According to ChurchFinder.com, there are over thirty Christian churches in Mountain Home, a city of 41,000 located in the Ozark Mountains of northern Arkansas.