Legal Matters ...From 30
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legal matters ...from 30 which expresses your end-of-life treatment Some changes include, but are not limited 18 years old (or at least that we still look that desires) is a legal document that allows you to, the changing of beneficiaries, the addi- way) and that we are going to live forever. you. Unless you have prepared an end-of- to distribute your property to those whom tion of new property to the trust, the taking Unfortunately, the cemeteries around us life document in the proper form that your you choose. This document will even allow of property out of the trust or the termination are full of people who thought that very state requires, your wishes amount to ab- you to designate beneficiaries to receive of the trust entirely. Think of a trust as a same thing! Sickness and accidents hap- solutely nothing! While this is probably specific items from your property and other jewelry box in which you have placed all of pen when we least expect it and can occur shocking news whether you are straight or beneficiaries to receive everything else, if your property. With a trust you can manage at any age. Regardless of the amount of gay, it should especially be disturbing news you so desire. An advantage: They are your property before and after your death, property you have when you die, whether to members of the LGBT community who relatively inexpensive to create. Disadvan- as well as provide how those assets and the it fits in a small box or is a huge estate, it is live in states that do not recognize same- tage #1: The court’s processing of a will income earned by the trust, are distributed property that you probably worked pretty sex relationships - states like Louisiana. If (called succession) can take months or after your death. If you should become darn hard to obtain. Shouldn’t it be you who you think for a second that the state of even years, delaying for some time the incapacitated or disabled, the trust is in gets to decide where it goes, and not the Louisiana is going to give your property to distribution of property to your loved ones. place to manage your financial affairs. government? your partner in the event of your death, you Disadvantage #2: The court costs of a Advantage #1: Joint living trusts are pos- (Nothing above is intended to be legal are sadly mistaken. That is why it is so succession can be quite expensive, eating sible. They simply combine the assets of advice of any kind. I invite your comments important to have a will or a trust drawn up into the very property you intended to leave partners into a single trust and are gov- and questions at by a competent attorney. And while it is to your loved one. erned by a single trust document. For ex- [email protected].) important to do this regardless of the state “Revocable Living Trusts” are ex- ample, it would be called “THE JOHN DOE Born in Baton Rouge, Louisiana, Mr. that you live in, it is especially important in tremely popular these days. While a will AND BILLY BOB LIVING TRUST.” Advan- Tureau obtained his Bachelor of Arts from states where the law provides no comes into play only after you die, trusts tage #2: They do not have to go to court, Louisiana State University in 1987 with a acknowledgement or protection for same- can actually start benefitting you while you so your loved ones get your property quickly, major in Broadcast Journalism and a minor sex couples. are still alive. A “living” trust is simply a trust inexpensively and privately (all trust provi- in Political Science. He obtained his Juris So what is the difference between a established during your lifetime. A “revo- sions remain private). A disadvantage: They will and a trust? A “Final Will” (as opposed cable” trust means that you can make are more expensive than a will. to a “Living Will” or “Medical Directive,” changes to it after you have created it. Now, I know we all think that we are still [continued on 32] GayMardiGras.COM • NOLAPride.ORG • August 6-27, 2013 • Facebook.COM/AmbushMag • The Official Mag: AmbushMag.COM • 31 a community within communities spotlight feature by The Rev. Bill Terry, Rector St. Anna’s Episcopal Church by Frank Perez Email: [email protected] E-mail: [email protected] A Decade of Witness 14%), bequests ($24.41 billion/8%), and Secret Labs, Monkey Viruses, corporations ($14.55 billion/5%). NEWSFLASH! July 20, 2003 Pony- Other odds and ends mark this de- and Lee Harvey Oswald tailed priest ordained in eccentric church! cade: Chilean Miners rescued 2010; On July 20, Loyola University hosted a one-day symposium on the legal and medical Yes, I have enjoyed ten years of ordained “Miracle on the Hudson” plane landed 2009; implications of the mysterious 1964 murder of New Orleans physician Dr. Mary Sherman. ministry as a Priest of the Church. The Michael Phelps sets records; Human Ge- Sherman’s murder was the subject of author Edward T. Haslam’s underground classic Feast Day of that ordination is, of course, nome draft released 2003; and Atripla for book, Dr. Mary’s Monkey. The book explores how Dr. Sherman’s medical research into The Feast of St. Anna. As with many life HIV released. Yet these did not make the cancer causing monkey viruses, conducted at a secret laboratory in New Orleans, and “events” like reunions, anniversaries, and top ten stories of the decade. her subsequent murder may be related to the John F. Kennedy assassination as well as certain birthdays, I have tried to look back What is our story? the current cancer epidemic. over the past decade of service and to In New Orleans since 2007 St. Anna’s Haslam, who participated in the symposium, noted, “The timing of this symposium make an inventory of what it looked like. Church has diligently recorded and prayed is significant since we are approaching the 50th anniversary of the murders of JFK, Lee The past decade has been fraught for murder victims numbering over 2,200, Harvey Oswald, and Mary Sherman. Today we have witnesses who confirm that Mary with dramatic headlines and if you do an BUT in response have provided after school Sherman knew Lee Harvey Oswald, and that connection raises a lot of questions, internet search these are only some of the work and arts enhancement for over 300 especially about the reported effort to secretly weaponize cancer for assassination items that come up: children in three years. During the past purposes.” Mass Shootings – 12/12 Newtown; 8/ several years St. Anna’s has provided food The symposium featured two sessions. The first focused on Dr. Sherman’s murder 12 Sikh Temple; 7/12 Aurora, CO; 4/12 for over 50 families on any given quarter, and the government’s response to the revelations set forth in Dr. Mary’s Monkey. The Seattle Café; 9/11 IHOP Shooting; 1/11 largely funded by LGBT Community; has second session focused on medical issues, such as the unintended side effects of Gabby Gifford; launched an LGBT-Faith Based Confer- vaccines grown on monkey kidney cells and the emergence of epidemics, such as the Weather played a role: 2013 OK Tor- ence; continued to educate immigrants at a increase in soft tissue cancers in the U.S. and around the world. Ultimately, the symposium nados; 10/12 Sandy; 8/05 Katrina; 12/04 rate of 100 adult students per quarter since raised the larger question of whether the case of Dr. Sherman’s murder, which remains Tsunami 230,000 die; 2006; has seen an average of 2,000 unin- unsolved, should be re-opened. World events took shape: 6/13 sured-underinsured patients for health The story of Dr. Sherman is fascinating and adds yet another layer to the complex Snowdon Scandal; 2/13 Pope Benedict screenings; and issued about 150 free flu web of associations New Orleans has with the Kennedy assassination. Sherman resigns; 11/08 Obama elected first Black shots per year for the past five years. St. received her medical degree from the University of Chicago in 1943 and moved to New President; Lehman Bros collapse 9/08; 3/ Anna’s has performed the first authorized Orleans in 1952 to direct the bone pathology laboratory at the Ochsner Clinic Medical 03 Invasion Iraq; 9/11/01 WTC; since 2011 Blessing of A Same Sex Partnership, joined Foundation. She also taught at Tulane University’s medical school and served as the – 100,000 killed in Syrian civil war; the SCLC and Urban League, and partici- senior visiting orthopedic surgeon at Charity Hospital. And the law of the land is changed as pated in the remembrance ceremonies of On the morning of July 21, 1964, Mary Sherman was found brutally murdered in her well: DOMA eliminated; Voting Rights Act the UpStairs Lounge fire. Your community apartment on St. Charles Avenue. She had been stabbed several times and her right arm eliminated; Proposition 8 eliminated; church has grown from 12 parishioners in was missing, apparently being burned off. Half of her rib cage was also burned. On the Trayvon Martin Trial – not guilty; on August September 2005 to an average Sunday same day, the Warren Commission (the panel appointed by President Johnson to 28th, the fiftieth anniversary, the great march attendance of 118 in 2013. This little church investigate the Kennedy assassination) was scheduled to hear testimony about Lee on Washington and MLKs “I have a dream has baptized at least five children from Harvey Oswald’s activities in New Orleans.