Jay, left, and James Stone-Hoskins wedding photo, August 2014
Jay Hoskins-Stone, who fought to have his marriage to his husband James recognized by Texas, died on Oct. 10.
Jeremy Liebbe, a friend of Stone-Hoskins, said Stone-Hoskins died in his sleep on Saturday morning between 4 and 10 a.m. at his home in Conroe. The death was sudden. Stone-Hoskins had a meeting scheduled this week with state Rep. Rafael Anchia to discuss LGBT issues and what Texas could do next to support the LGBT community.
After the U.S. Supreme Court extended marriage equality throughout the country, Stone-Hoskins sued to have his out-of-state marriage recognized by Texas for estate purposes. Attorney General Ken Paxton ordered the New Mexico marriage license should not be considered valid in Texas.
His case was filed as a motion in the Texas marriage equality case in Judge Orlando Garcia’s court. Garcia ruled that the marriage must be recognized by the state and ordered the attorney general to appear before him on contempt of court charges. He also asked Neel Lane, attorney for the marriage plaintiffs, if there were any other ways Texas was not upholding the Supreme Court’s ruling. Lane told the court the state was still not providing accurate birth certificates for children of same-sex couples.
The state relented and issued a new death certificate naming Jay as the surviving spouse.
After ruling in his favor, Stone-Hoskins spoke on news broadcasts across the state and also revealed he had an untreatable form of cancer and just months to live.
Stone-Hoskins was in the news earlier this year when his husband died. James Hoskins-Stone was from Mountain Home, Ark. When Jay called churches in Mountain Home, some pastors refused to do the service because he was gay and didn’t refer him to another church that might have performed the service. Instead, one church responded by attending the funeral to make a sad occasion even worse for the family, according to Liebbe, who performed the funeral service. Vicki and Jerry Oels, who described themselves as churchgoers, handed hate literature to James’ mom and husband after the service.