Queer Death Salon is a virtual community space for all 2SLGBTQIA+ people to come together to discuss death, dying and grief.
It is a facilitated drop-in discussion space, with the purpose of building connection, skill, and resources for 2SLGBTQIA+ people navigating end of life in our personal lives and in our communities.
Attendees are welcome to come with questions, stories, or special objects to share with the group.
Grieving Spiritual Wounds
Facilitated by hospital chaplain and writer JS Park, join us for a care-full and open space where we can talk about losing faith and the grief of how it changes due to tragedy, crisis, and church harm.
Come as you are, and connect with others who understand what it’s like to navigate faith and identity in difficult times. Participants are welcome to come with questions for our facilitator and stories of their own experiences to share.
J.S. Park is a hospital chaplain, published author, and online educator. For nearly eleven years he has been an interfaith chaplain at a 1000+ bed hospital that is designated a Level 1 Trauma Center. His role includes grief support, attending every death, trauma, and Code Blue, and end-of-life care.
J.S. has been interviewed by CNN, NPR, CBS News, Good Morning America, and The Today Show, among others, for his work in death and dying. He is the author of As Long as You Need: Permission to Grieve, published by W Publishing of HarperCollins Christian Publishing, and an upcoming book on contending with our family-of-origin and family dynamics, published by Tarcher Books of Penguin Random House.
J.S. served for three years as a chaplain at one of the largest nonprofit charities for the homeless on the east coast. J.S. is a board certified chaplain and has a MDiv completed in 2010 and a BA in Psychology. He also has a sixth-degree black belt.
Follow J.S. on Instagram, Substack, and Facebook
Misery Vessels
Come along for a hands on workshop where Tricia Enns shares an accessible process of creating misery vessels, objects made of paper pulp, meant to decompose when you are ready to let go.
Misery vessels not only carry your grief, but they release it, when you are ready, into the wild land, by disintegrating, when placed outside in the wind and the rain. Misery Vessels speak to our desire to off load miseries from our hearts and shoulders. As the vessel decomposes, so do the miseries, becoming nutrients for something new to grow.
This playful, and slightly witchy, session offers a tool, and perhaps a ritual, for letting go of the miseries held inside. Together, with the artist (and sometimes goblin) Tricia, who will guide the group through the making process of forming your own sculptures out of pulp infused with your miseries and maybe a little magic.
In order to create your own misery vessel please bring:
- a piece of paper,
- pen/pencil,
- bowl of water,
- towel, and
- [optionally] organic fragments (dried flowers, twigs, etc.).
Tricia Enns (she/they) is an artist, educator and student based somewhat regularly in Tiohtià:ke (Montreal, Canada). Their work is heavily rooted in walking, participatory, and playful low- and high-tech practices that bring people together to create, discuss, and critique what it means to care for ourselves, each other, and the world around us.
Besides creating misery vessels with others, they have established the Ventology Association International, built a chatbot for finding answers to loneliness, rendered 3D models of caring objects, created soundscapes of streets, made trash maps, and has created countless zines.
Their work has been shared at, and/or supported by, Summer of Ludd (Manhattan, 2026), La Centrale Powerhouse (Montreal; 2026), Articule (Montreal, 2026), Sound Art Lab (Denmark, 2026), Eastern Bloc (Montreal, 2026), MUTEK (Montreal, 2026) and Walking As Practice (Sweden, 2025).
Website: www.triciaenns.com
Patreon: patreon.com/triciaenns
Intimacy At End Of Life
Tuesday September 8 at 7 p.m. EST
Medical interventions, hypersensitivities, decreased capacity for verbal communication, and pain can all contribute to a sense of isolation for both the dying and those attending to them. A dying person may experience an aversion to touch, cognitive changes, unclear capacity for consent, and even expressions of unexpected sexuality. The challenge of a partner or family member’s transition into a caregiving role often goes unacknowledged.
How do we support people facing these issues with compassion, confidence, healthy boundaries, and kindness? How do we navigate these issues if they arise with our own loved ones?
With tenderness and curiosity, we will reflect on our own experience, boundaries and values, and build more skill to confidently navigate the challenges of intimacy at the end of life, so that we can receive its gifts.
Vanessa Carlisle, PhD (they/them) is a graduate of the Going With Grace death doula training program and certified by the National End of Life Doula Association. Vanessa brings experience with in-home caregiving, DWD/EOLD, navigating hospital and hospice services, dementia care, and the complex family/community dynamics that arise with deaths due to violence, suicide, and overdose.
As a queer person with a background in harm reduction, they have a passion for supporting those who may not always feel safe in the medical, mental health, or other institutional systems. Vanessa’s work has been covered by NBC, they have presented at the GWG Doula Alumni Summit, the NEDA Doulapalooza Conference, and the Guaranteed Hospice Education series, and they offer guest lectures for therapists, social workers, and other people who will be caring for the grieving and the dying.
Vanessa authored the novel Take Me With You (Running Wild Press) and co-authored Awaken Your Sexuality: A Guide to Intimacy and Connection after Addiction and Trauma with Dr. Stephanie Covington (Hazelden Press).
More at vanessacarlisle.com
What is remembered, lives
Tuesday October 20 at 7 p.m. EST
You are invited into an experiential gathering to honour y/our beloveds who have passed, sending a thread forward to y/our queer descendants and anchoring into y/our current aliveness.
With ritualized practices, a guided meditation and space for sharing, this QDS is held near many celebrations of death such as Samhain, All Souls Day, Dia de los Muertos, Hallowe’en.
It is also the time of year when death is all around, the land begins to rest for winter before composting for spring. So, let’s follow that cycle of birth-alive-death-birth…..
Everything is optional and there will be multiple ways to engage, including listening/witnessing.
Sharon Pink (she/her) is a portuguese / polish queer leatherFemme witch who lives her time on the territories of the Squamish, Musqueam, Tsleil Waututh and Stó꞉lō peoples.
For the past 15+ years in witch and kink communities, she has led rituals, planned leatherQueer gatherings and much more. She is a Scorpio stellium who has been talking to spirits since childhood and looks forward to Samhian every year.
Using humour, awe, depth and care, Sharon aspires to be in ways that are anti-white supremacy, fat liberatory, gender affirming, leatherQueer celebratory, Elder & crone honoring and sex worker positive.
CLICK HERE TO REGISTER FOR UPCOMING QUEER DEATH SALONS
Participants are encouraged to bring their own questions, stories, and complexities to share.
As always, I’m interested in having meaningful discussion groups that engage participants. If there is a question, theme, topic, or guest speaker you are interested in, please take a moment to fill in this anonymous suggestion form. You can submit as many ideas as you like.
Setting and Access:
Queer Death Salons take place monthly, online over Zoom on Tuesday evenings at 7p.m. (Eastern Time) and are regularly attended by participants from all over the world. They are hosted in English with captions available and last about 90 minutes. Attendees are welcome to participate to their level of comfort. This means cameras can be on or off, people can unmute to speak, raise their hand to be called on, participate through chat, or simply listen in after the intro portion. Queer Death Salons are not recorded.
Pay What You Can:
The suggested donation is $30 and you’re encouraged to select a price that’s accessible to you, including $0. No one will be turned away for lack of funds. By paying the highest amount that you’re able, you make it possible for others with less access to resources to join this event.
Agreements for participation:
This is a space where we intentionally come together to discuss all aspects about death, dying, and grief. Global events, personal histories, and intimate details of our lives may come up and may bring up strong emotions. Participants are encouraged to do what they need for themselves in these situations.
Racism, homophobia, xenophobia, transphobia, antisemitism, islamophobia, ableism, and any other form of prejudice against a person or way of life will not be tolerated. Anyone engaging in prejudice towards another group member will be subject to immediate removal.
We are curious, open, and respectful – We assume good will, ask questions, and allow space for different experiences and points of view
We take care of ourselves – We stretch, take a break, eat, mute for a bit, drink, use restroom, connect with a friend, rest, call it a night, etc. as needed for our own well-being as individuals.
We keep confidentiality – We speak from personal experience and take home learnings while taking care not to identify anyone other than oneself. If we want to follow up with anyone regarding something they said during a session, we ask first and respect their wishes.
We use inclusive language – We speak using plain language and ask clarifying questions when we aren’t sure what someone means. We make effort to use gender-neutral language as appropriate.
We are all here because we want and choose to be here – We are free to leave at any time, for any reason.
Queer Community Deathcare 