D.C. gay rights pioneer Frank Kameny died a year ago today. You might think his ashes would’ve been buried long ago. But not so, the Washington Blade reports.

Instead, Kameny’s ashes are still in storage at Capitol Hill’s Congressional Cemetery. The ashes were meant to be buried in a plot there, but a dispute between his heir and a gay group that owns the plot has left the gay icon’s remains sitting in a vault for almost a year.

The dispute between the group, Helping Our Brothers and Sisters, and the head of Kameny’s estate, Timothy Clark, boils down to how the estate can gain ownership of the plot. The group wants to be paid for the plot, but an attorney for the estate tells the Blade that they should hand the property over. Kameny’s heir is also concerned that the group could bury other people in Kameny’s plot, according to the paper.

As a result, it’s not clear when Kameny’s ashes will eventually be buried.

Photo by Flickr user dbking used under a Creative Commons license