WOW – What a tragedy and horrific  story.

The husband of a British man who died while honeymooning in Australia says the moment he was told his partner’s death certificate would read “never married” was the “most humiliating” of his life.

David Bulmer-Rizzi, 32, died after falling down the stairs at a friend’s house in Adelaide — the last stop on his holiday with husband Marco.

Because South Australia does not recognise same-sex marriages from overseas, their marriage was not initially recorded on David’s death certificate and Mr Bulmer-Rizzi was not recognized as next of kin.

South Australian Premier Jay Weatherill has since said the certificate will be changed to remove the “offensive description of ‘never married'”, and has made a commitment to put measures before State Parliament to stop a similar incident from happening again in the future.

“A man’s just lost his husband, someone he loves, someone he’s legally married to and treated with disrespect in my state,” he said.  (see more  at  ABC)

It gets  worse….

Trying to make his  way home, he was forced to hand over the ashes of his husband by officials at Hong Kong airport during his flight home from Australia.

He said an official spotted the ashes when they passed through the X-ray scanner and began to question him before confiscating them.

“I was taken to one side and she said, ‘What’s in this box?’” he told BuzzFeed.

“She wanted to open the box. And I said, ‘These are human remains. It’s my husband. My husband died while we were in Australia.’ She just looked at me and said, ‘I need to take this away.’”

Mr Bulmer-Rizzi said the guard did not immediately take the container and asked again about the identity of the deceased.

“She said, ‘Who did you say died?’” he said. “I said, ‘My husband. And this is his passport.’ And she said, ‘No. I’m gonna take this [the ashes] away.’”

Mr Bulmer-Rizzi said he went into a “meltdown” and put his hand on the container to prevent them being taken. He asked to see a supervisor, who asked to see documentation and eventually let him retrieve the ashes and fly to Britain.

“I felt like I was losing him again,” he said. “All I wanted was to be able to travel with David’s ashes on me so he wouldn’t have to travel back by himself.”

Mr Bulmer-Rizzi  had his late husband’s passport and a note from the funeral home but did not have official documentation from the British consulate.

He said he had asked British diplomats for documentation because he was worried about travelling through countries where same sex-marriage is illegal.

“The government could have simply issued me a letter saying I was David’s next of kin,” he said.

(source – The Telegraph)