#173 Gender‑Affirming Funeral Care for LGBTQ+ Communities with Poppy Mardall

What challenges are faced by people who are LGBTQ+  when accessing funeral care? This is a question I put to Poppy Mardall, founder of Poppy’s funerals. Poppy champions better after death care, and describes what this look like for people who are LGBTQ+, as well as sharing brilliant information and resources that you can access.

This episode has been kindly supported by the Living Well Dying Well Trust. The creation, development and content of the episode remains the responsibility of Clare Fuller.

Key messages

• The origin of Poppy’s Funerals in response to poor care, abuse in mortuaries, and manipulative sales practices

• Specific challenges and fears for people who are LGBTQ+ and especially trans and gender diverse people in funeral care

• The importance of respecting identity -  name, pronouns, presentation, chosen family, and gender‑affirming care

• What training and guidance is available such as  Being Ready Project, Hospice UK’s “I Just Want To Be Me”, and wider LGBTQ+ resources

• The dangers and harms when families or services erase identity after death or exclude partners/queer community

• Encouragement to be proactive, not passive, about death, funerals, and planning

Resource

• Find out more about Poppy’s Funerals

• Watch the Hospice UK I Didn't Want That - Dying Matters  video

• Find out more about the Being Ready Project

• Access info about LGBTQ+ funerals 

• Access What Matters to You?

Bio

Poppy founded Poppy’s in 2012, driven by the belief that funerals could and should be better - for grieving family and friends, for people who had died, and for the planet. Now, as Poppy's Chair, Poppy is a vocal advocate for improving standards in the funeral sector, and regularly speaks on TV, radio and in print to champion better death care - including the BBC, the Telegraph and The Week Junior.