Plans for a gay section in an Atlanta cemetery are dead.
A spokesperson for Service Corporation International based in Houston, which owns Crest Lawn Memorial Park cemetery in Atlanta, said today there were never plans to partition off a section of the cemetery for gay people and families. SEI is “North America’s largest single provider of funeral, cremation and cemetery services,” according to its website.
“The information was pretty much incorrect,” said Jessica McDunn, corporate spokesperson for SEI. “We are not planning a segregated section.”
The news contradicts what John Suggs of H.M. Patterson & Son - Oglethorpe Hill told GA Voice on April 4. SEI owns H.M. Patterson and Son-Oglethorpe Hill.
Suggs, who is gay, said April 4 he was speaking as a spokesperson for the planned project of sectioning off part of Crest Lawn for gay people. Suggs provided detailed information, including that an architect was currently working on plans for the section. He also emailed photos of the cemetery to go with the story.