THEGAYUK WINTER 13 /14 Issue 1
INTERVIEW
SHANE
BITNEY
CRONE
Before the run up to the film’s
release, (Oprah’s Own Network
premiered the film at the end of
October 2013 in the United States,
whilst Netflix has made the film
By Jake Hook
!
Last year Shane Bitney
Crone’s ‘It Could Happen To
You’ video became a viral
phenomenon. His
heartbreaking video, a
tribute to his late partner
Tom Bridegroom, was
posted on the one-year
anniversary of his death.
Tom Bridegroom fell from a
4th floor rooftop, whilst
taking photos of his best
friend and never regained
consciousness.
your partner to be involved in the
decision making process should you
become ill.
!
Recently Janice Langbebn and her
three children became
innocent
victims
of
this
discrimination
in
the
saddest
way
possible
when
her
partner
of
17
years,
Lisa
Pond,
became
suddenly
ill
with
a
brain
aneurism
whilst
on
holiday
in
Florida.
Janice
and
the
couples’
children
were
refused
access
to
Lisa
in
her
last
moments
because
she
was
told
from
a
social
worker
at
the
hospital
that
Florida
is
‘an
anti-‐gay
state’.
!
Lisa died the next day without
seeing either her partner or her
!
Shane and Tom, practically
inseparable, had met in Los
Angeles, after leaving their
respective small towns in
the states of Montana and
Indiana. They were together
for 6 years before Tom’s
tragic passing. Both Tom
and Shane had difficulties
coming to terms with their
sexuality in small town
America, being victim to
homophobic abuse, which is
an all too familiar story for
many young gay teens. The
available worldwide), I had a
draw of the big city, somewhere
moment with Shane to ask him
where they’d feel more accepted was
about the making of the initial ‘It
something that attracted them both.
Could Happen To You’ video and
the subsequent Bridegroom
‘The day I left Montana I felt much
documentary. I wondered what had
more free’, recounts Shane.
made him want to make that first
YouTube video about Tom?
‘I was just so excited about my life. I
spent so many years just wanting to
‘It was a couple of months before
get away and finally there was that
the anniversary of Tom’s passing
moment where I could move away
and I was just dreading the date. I
and find someone who could love
just wanted to do something to
me – and I did.’
honour him and to generate
awareness of what happens when
One year on from the ‘It Could
people don’t have the same rights.’
Happen To You’ video, Shane and
Tom’s story has been turned into a
There are still twenty-five states in
full-length documentary film.
the US, in which many hospitals
have policies in place that don’t
Heartbreaking, but inspirational,
allow non-married partners in to see
poignant and arguably one of the
their stricken loved ones, regardless
most important films of this
of legal documentation that prove
generation, Bridegroom isn’t just a
your power of attorney or papers
story about marriage equality.
that verify the implied consent from
!
!
!
!
!
!
children, despite legal documents
the pair had drawn up to protect
themselves in case something like
this tragedy were to ever happen.
!
The problem is that as the current
laws stand, regardless of the legal
documentation you can try and put
in place to assert your rights as a
partner, a hospital’s administration,
it seems, can overrule those
protections. The only legal
documentation that carries any
weight is a marriage certificate.
!
Gay marriage is legal in only 16
states at the time of writing this
interview, leaving many same-sex
partners completely unprotected
and just like in Janice’s and Shane’s
story the surviving partner is left in
the dark about their loved one’s
condition or health decisions.
!
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