Barbara Findlay Rest in Peace and Power

 Barbara Findlay Rest in Peace and Power

Barbara Findlay — What Kind of World Are We Creating?

I didn't know Barbara Findlay personally.

But I have been reading about her death, listening to her words, and learning about the life she lived — and I understand why so many people are reeling.

Barbara was a young lesbian when homosexuality was still considered a mental illness. She was locked in a psychiatric institution because she was attracted to women. She experienced firsthand what happens when society decides that there is something wrong with you simply because of who you are.

She survived that.

And she didn't just survive it. She became a lawyer and spent decades fighting for equality, dignity and the rights of people who had been pushed to the margins.

Then I watched her talking about ageism.

About growing older.

About how elderly people can be warehoused and forgotten. About how queer people who grow old without children can become especially vulnerable. About what happens when people lose independence and the systems around them fail to provide the dignity and care they deserve.

And now we learn that Barbara has died through MAID, after a long disabling illness.

I didn't know her, so I don't pretend to know what she experienced privately, or what led her to make that decision. I would never take away a person's autonomy or presume to know their suffering.

But I am deeply uncomfortable with the questions her death raises.

Because what happens when someone is living with disability, aging, isolation, inadequate care or the feeling that they have become a burden?

Can we truly say, “This person wants to die,” without also asking:

Why has living become so difficult?

Where is the good housing?

Where is the home care?

Where is the companionship?

Where is the accessible healthcare?

Where is the dignity?

Where is the assurance that an older or disabled person is still wanted, still valuable and still has a place in this world?

Barbara spent her life fighting against systems that told marginalized people that something was wrong with them.

She knew what it was like to have institutions make decisions about her life.

And now, at the end of that extraordinary life, we are left with questions that are bigger than Barbara herself.

I don't know whether MAID was the right decision for Barbara.

But I know we need to be absolutely certain that every person who asks for death has first been given every genuine opportunity to live with dignity.

Not because disabled people are less capable of making decisions.

Not because older people don't have autonomy.

But because a society should never make death easier to access than a life worth living.

Barbara Findlay fought for a better world.

Maybe the most respectful thing we can do now is keep asking whether we have actually built it.

Rest peacefully, Barbara. 🧡

And thank you for fighting for people who needed someone to stand up and say:

There is nothing wrong with us.

#BarbaraFindlay, #RestInPeaceAndPower, #LGBTQ2S, #HumanRights, #DisabilityRights, #Ageism, #MAID, #DignityInAging, #QueerHistory, #SocialJustice