“Equal Deathcare”: New group insinuates that funeral directors, funeral homes are places of “Exclusivity”

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“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.”

I read that statement, which is about funeral home websites, somewhat in astonishment.  You see, I’ve been in the Death Care business for over 40 years and never thought my business was “exclusive” of anyone.  We answered the phone call when it came and responded to the death scene without asking if the person was Caucasion, Black, Asian, male, female, Lutheran, Roman Catholic, or any other identity trait.

We simply responded to a human need and then worked as hard as we could over the next couple of days to care for that need. . . and we never turned anybody away— whether for their beliefs, lifestyle, or their inability to pay.  We took care of all individuals in the best way possible.

The quote comes from this article that I came across titled “UC (Cincinnati) professor advocates for equal death care“.

The article touches on two people who have started what they call the “Equal Deathcare” database.  The two people, Professor Jennifer Wright-Berryman and Kat Vancil-Coleman explain what “Equal Deathcare” means:

“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.  So we’re trying to really help bring these resources to people so that they can search safely and find those safe spaces.”

According to Professor Wright-Berryman the website “will help people find providers without putting themselves at risk“.  You can access the “Equal Deathcare” website here.

Tom Anderson
Funeral Director Daily

Funeral Director Daily take: I question how one can make an assumption that one is “Inclusive or Exclusive” from a website, but that is probably a question for another day.

What I can take from the “Equal Deathcare” movement is that for many the reason one selects a funeral home is changing from the days of the 20th century.

That’s probably a good reason why we should never lose sight of change happening in society that affects how we do business in the Death Care world.  It’s also a good reason why we should continue to be immersed in the communities that we serve so we know what the needs of that community are.

Related — Here is a quote from Albert Schweitzer that I’ve always felt held true for those in Death Care work:  “The purpose of human life is to serve, and to show compassion and the will to help others”

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