barbara findlay | |
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Nationality | Canadian |
Education |
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Occupation | Lawyer |
Known for | LGBT rights activism |
Website | www |
barbara findlay [a] KC is a Canadian lawyer and a longtime LGBT rights activist. She is the subject of the documentary In particular, barbara findlay.
Findlay has a BA from Queen's University in Kingston, Ontario. She later studied at the University of British Columbia, obtaining both a Master of Arts in sociology and an LLB. [2] [3]
In the 1960s, findlay was admitted to a psychiatric ward against her will during her first year of university for admitting she was attracted to women. [4] [5]
Findlay was called to the bar in 1977. [3] She began practicing law soon after Canada's decriminalization of homosexuality. [6]
Findlay is a founding member of the Sexual Orientation and Gender Identity Conference (SOGIC), a queer lawyer group that is part of the Canadian Bar Association, and the December 9 Coalition. She is also a member of Alliance of Women Against Racism Etc. (AWARE). [7]
Findlay has a law practice in British Columbia specializing in family law for LGBT and child custody cases. [2] She has been involved in many cases centring around trans rights, including Kimberley Nixon v. Vancouver Rape Relief Society. [7] [8]
Findlay's life and career are chronicled in the documentary In particular, barbara findlay. [2] [4] The film was directed by Becca Plucer. [9]
Findlay has also led workshops at Room Magazine's literary festival, Growing Room. [10] She is featured in Making Room: Forty Years of Room Magazine in the photo essay "The Cancer Year" (with Dorothy Elias). [11]
Findlay lives with her partner, Sheila Gilhooly, in British Columbia. [4] She describes herself as "a white, cisgender, lesbian, activist lawyer with physical disabilities". [12] [13]
In 2001, findlay was appointed to the Queen's Counsel. [14] In 2005, she was given an award of merit from the Sexual Diversity Studies Department at the University of Toronto. [15] In 2013, findlay was awarded a Queen's Diamond Jubilee Medal. [7]
My name is spelled without capital letters. People make many assumptions about why that is. Here is the story. I have always signed my name without capital letters.
barbara findlay QC is a fat old white cisgender feminist lawyer with disabilities, raised working class and Christian who has been fighting for queer legal rights, organizing unlearning oppression workshops, and writing, for forty-plus years.