Queer Rights Lawyer Barbara Findlay Dies at 77, Community Mourns Iconic Advocate

Barbara Findlay, a celebrated queer lawyer and activist, died this weekend at age 77 after a long illness, eliciting grief across British Columbia’s 2SLGBTQ+ community. Early in her life she was involuntarily committed for being gay and later required a “sanity certificate” before being called to the bar, experiences that fueled a lifelong fight for human rights. As a lawyer she led groundbreaking cases that secured rights for lesbian co-parents on birth certificates and secured accommodation for a transgender youth in a Catholic school, earning a Queen’s Counsel designation in 2001 and a Queen’s Diamond Jubilee Medal in 2013.

She co-founded Lawyers Against Transphobia, served the Rainbow Refugee Committee, and received a Canadian Bar Association of B.C. distinguished service award in 2020. Colleague Shantel Ivits highlighted Findlay’s refusal to conform, noting her signature lowercase spelling of her name and the symbolic thunderstorm that coincided with her passing. The loss is seen as the departure of a “force of nature” who helped shape modern LGBTQ+ legal protections in Vancouver and beyond.