Home Healthcare for a Lesbian Legend
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On Jan. 6, 2021, historic lesbian activist, author, and musician Madeline Davis suffered a stroke.
Over the last 3 months, Madeline has traveled from hospital to rehab center and back again. She has struggled to see her needs met in medical centers overburdened by a global pandemic. Madeline’s primary support is her wife Wendy Smiley, but due to COVID-19, most medical centers won’t admit Wendy at all, and those who do permit family to stay for only short periods of time. Because of this, Madeline’s condition has worsened. At the end of March, the decision was made to bring Madeline home, where she could receive home hospice care and be looked after by Wendy, assisted by home healthcare aides.
Under the U.S. health “care” system, Madeline’s home hospice care is covered, but her home healthcare aide service is not. That service costs $16,800 per month. Madeline needs the service because she needs the help of home healthcare aides to turn, sit up, and transfer out of bed. And she needs to receive care at home, where her wife is a stabilizing presence, and where she can be prevented from falling out of bed.
Madeline Davis is a living legend. Amongst her many accomplishments: she was a founding member and leader of the Mattachine Society of the Niagara Frontier, Buffalo’s gay liberation organization. In 1971, she released “Stonewall Nation,” the first gay liberation record ever written. A year later, she became the first openly gay delegate to a major political party convention, and made history when she petitioned the Democratic National Convention to include gay rights in its platform for the first time. In 1994, she cowrote Boots of Leather, Slippers of Gold with Liz Kennedy: the most complete account we have of pre-Stonewall lesbian bar culture. And beginning in 2001, she began collecting the Madeline Davis Archives: one of the biggest LGBTQ archives in the United States. As LGBTQ community members who have benefited from Madeline’s work, we want to make sure that this next stage of Madeline’s life is as free from fear and full of love as our whole lives have been because of her.
Please help our community raise the funds Madeline Davis needs to receive home health care for the next 6 months. Together, we can help her get the care she needs at home, where she feels safe and loved.
(Photo: Madeline Davis, left, poses with her wife Wendy Smiley on the steps of Buffalo City Hall for Pride 1994. Photo: Carol Speser)
Over the last 3 months, Madeline has traveled from hospital to rehab center and back again. She has struggled to see her needs met in medical centers overburdened by a global pandemic. Madeline’s primary support is her wife Wendy Smiley, but due to COVID-19, most medical centers won’t admit Wendy at all, and those who do permit family to stay for only short periods of time. Because of this, Madeline’s condition has worsened. At the end of March, the decision was made to bring Madeline home, where she could receive home hospice care and be looked after by Wendy, assisted by home healthcare aides.
Under the U.S. health “care” system, Madeline’s home hospice care is covered, but her home healthcare aide service is not. That service costs $16,800 per month. Madeline needs the service because she needs the help of home healthcare aides to turn, sit up, and transfer out of bed. And she needs to receive care at home, where her wife is a stabilizing presence, and where she can be prevented from falling out of bed.
Madeline Davis is a living legend. Amongst her many accomplishments: she was a founding member and leader of the Mattachine Society of the Niagara Frontier, Buffalo’s gay liberation organization. In 1971, she released “Stonewall Nation,” the first gay liberation record ever written. A year later, she became the first openly gay delegate to a major political party convention, and made history when she petitioned the Democratic National Convention to include gay rights in its platform for the first time. In 1994, she cowrote Boots of Leather, Slippers of Gold with Liz Kennedy: the most complete account we have of pre-Stonewall lesbian bar culture. And beginning in 2001, she began collecting the Madeline Davis Archives: one of the biggest LGBTQ archives in the United States. As LGBTQ community members who have benefited from Madeline’s work, we want to make sure that this next stage of Madeline’s life is as free from fear and full of love as our whole lives have been because of her.
Please help our community raise the funds Madeline Davis needs to receive home health care for the next 6 months. Together, we can help her get the care she needs at home, where she feels safe and loved.
(Photo: Madeline Davis, left, poses with her wife Wendy Smiley on the steps of Buffalo City Hall for Pride 1994. Photo: Carol Speser)
Fundraising team (2)
Adrienne Fabu Lous
Organizer
Buffalo, NY
Wendy Smiley
Beneficiary
Ana Grujić
Team member
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