Not everyone has control over their death care, especially those in at-risk and marginalized communities.
That’s why an associate professor at the University of Cincinnati and a graduate of the Cincinnati College of Mortuary Science are seeking more inclusive death care for members of the LGBTQIA+ community.
"A member of the LGBTQIA community is driving through the city they live in and they see all these funeral homes — generally, they're not going to see a pride flag, they're not going to see a symbol at the front door that says all are welcome," said UC Associate Professor Jennifer Wright-Berryman.
Wright-Berryman and Kat Vancil-Coleman created the Equal Deathcare database for members of the LGBTQIA+ community to find inclusive and affirming end of life and death care.
“If you're someone living in California or New York or Ohio or Indiana or Kentucky, you click on your state and you can find resources that we have vetted," Wright-Berryman said.
That includes trans people worried they might not be memorialized properly by their families or funeral homes. Issues with ceremonies include deadnaming and dressing the person in the wrong clothing.
"We want to narrow the gap and bring that information to the community so that they do not have to cold call funeral homes and say, 'I'm a trans person' or 'We're a gay couple,' or 'We're a lesbian couple and we're looking to prearrange our death care,' and be treated in a way that feels badly at the high level or discriminatory at the worst level," Wright-Berryman said. "So we're trying to really help bring these resources to people so that they can search safely and find those safe spaces."
Wright-Berryan said the site was largely inspired by an inclusivity study she conducted of over 90 randomly selected funeral homes. The initial research process was funded by a UC Pivot grant of $15,000.
“We were surprised — and not surprised at the same time — to find that none of the websites, no matter where they were from, demonstrated any inclusivity,” she said.
Wright-Berryman presented her findings to funeral home owners, directors and other individuals involved in the provider side of death care.
"I had a very interesting range of folks in the audience. I had mortuary science students who were very eager to hear my messaging, and then I had long term owners who didn't seem to be quite as interested in my presentation. So there was a mixed reaction," she said. "But after the talk, I had a few people come up to me and introduce themselves to me and say, 'Thank you. I really want to be involved, I'm grateful for this message. What can we do? How can we support moving this forward?"
The site soft-launched in June 2024. But Wright-Berryman said more work still needs to be done on the Equal Deathcare database.
"The first stop for Kat and I is this website will help people find providers without putting themselves at risk," she said. "The second aim is to work with individual providers. And we have had some funeral home owners and other funeral directors reach out to us directly through the website, which is very encouraging."
