Honoring Jeffery's Last Wishes

This GoFundMe campaign is being organized by Julia Velson, Robert Brownstein and Ron Renz.  We are sending it out on Jeffery Lactaoen's page so we can reach as many of his friends and community as possible. Our beloved friend, Jeffery Lactaoen passed away unexpectedly on May 14, 2015.  Jeff was a proud gay man and a long term HIV survivor.  Jeff took care to leave a valid will and Advance Directive for Health Care. In these documents, he left his entire estate to his former partner, Rob Brownstein.  Jeff also directed that Rob have the right to handle Jeff's cremation and to scatter his ashes with his beloved dog, Joey, at sea near Fort Point in San Francisco.  Unfortunately, members of Jeff's immediate family have refused to honor his Last Will or his Advance Directive.  They have taken objects from Jeff's estate that were important to Jeff and they have illegally obtained his ashes and are going ahead with plans to dispose of them without the involvement of Rob and consequently of Jeff's friends and community.   Although Jeff loved certain members of his family, he had a very difficult  and problematic relationship with them.   In his last documents, he specifically disinherited his family.  He did not want them making decisions about his estate or his remains.  Jeffery's estate does not have much monetary value.  But, we believe that honoring his wishes has great value and is very important. We are deeply pained by this and are seeking to engage an attorney to stop the family from dishonoring Jeff.  But as you might imagine, doing so is very expensive and we need the help of his friends and community to make sure this travesty is stopped.  This is a very time sensitive matter, so if you'd like to make a donation, please do it TODAY as our attorney must act quickly if we are to be successful.  If we raise more money than we need, we will donate it to a non-profit(s) that Jeff cared about. Please help us  honor Jeff's life and beautiful spirit by making a donation.