free gathering
Queer Q&A
Grieving Queer Q&A
Grieving
An Open Conversation to understand the unique needs of the Queer and trans communities in death dying and grief.
Led by:
Dr. Melissa Delizia
(Doctor of Social Work, Licensed Social Worker & Certified Professional Coach)
& Lauren Carroll
(Funeral Director & End-of-life Educator)
june 23 at 2pm mountain time
Zoom — recording available
“For if we can’t inhabit the essentials of what it means to be a compassionate human being, we surely can’t be the people capable of inhabiting communities of trust, reciprocity, and care.”
― Cindy Milstein,
Rebellious Mourning
Your FACILITATORS
Melissa Delizia
Melissa Delizia, MSW, LSW, DSW (she/they) is a death doula, educator, professional coach and social worker whose work lives at the intersection of sacred care, transformative education, and social justice. With a Doctorate in Social Work, with a focus on Human Rights and Doctoral work focused on incorporating Queer and Trans Death, Dying, and Grief content into educational spaces. They also hold certifications in grief companionship, deathcare, and sacred ceremony, Melissa brings both clinical insight and spiritual depth to their offerings.
Their practice is rooted in ancestral connection, mediumship, and energy work, with a focus on holding space for queer and trans individuals navigating death, dying, and grief. Melissa approaches this work with reverence, tending to the liminal with embodied presence and a belief in the healing power of collective care and ritual.
As an educator and adjunct professor, they are dedicated to reshaping how death is taught and understood—centering marginalized experiences, challenging systems of harm, and cultivating spaces where grief and identity are honored in all their complexity. Whether teaching or learning, Melissa holds a deep commitment to equitable deathwork and heart-centered education.
Lauren Carroll
Lauren Carroll, co-founder of La Mort, is a Death Educator & Holistic Funeral Director who is passionate about weaving community and family back into the death space. Her work centers around re-aligning our culture with Mother Earth and helping humans remember how to love one another. She is a former board member for the National Home Funeral Alliance and co-founded The Deathwives. She lives on an urban farm at the base of a mountain where she tends to her animals, raises her two children, and dances around bonfires on the full moon with friends while listening to Nick Cave.
“And in death, trans women have become intrinsically associated with grief, yet with the kind of grief that objectifies and exploits us publicly while silencing our voices.”
– Kai Cheng Thom,
Your Grief is my Grave
Build an understanding of the queer and trans community, and how to support them.
Recording available for all registrants.
We can't wait to meet you.
LIVE community conversation
june 23 at 2pm mountain time
Our Teaching / Learning / Creating Style at La Mort
We leave behind the polished, gate-keepy approach to education. We teach in ways that carry story and experience. We listen. We laugh (a lot). We go off-script sometimes. We cry (with you)(for those you’ve loved)(for those we’ve loved). We like science and studies and logical frameworks, but also mysticism and poetry and all that stuff. We really love to honor history and those who came before. We move through some serious curricula, but don’t take anything too seriously. We dedicate ourselves to seeing you, and want you to feel seen. We deeply honor our intuition and yours. We lead with integrity (always). And we welcome the odd-balls and misfits, because it takes one to know one.