Heather MacAllister was "a fucking sexy fat wicked smart intense and funny fierce femme." She died February 13th in Portland, Oregon after battling ovarian cancer for several years. She was 38 years old. Memorial events were held all over the United States, including in San Francisco. On Saturday, February 24th the 7:00pm Goddess Rosary service was in memory of Heather, at HerChurch, 678 Portola Drive, SF. Heather had attended this church. On Sunday, February 25th, a Funeral/Mourning/Goodbye ritual was held at 1:30pm at Precita Park, corner of Folsom and Precita, followed by a procession up Precita to El Rio. A wake was held at El Rio at 3:00pm ( Report). She will be remembered by communities that she inspired and helped to create through her performances and community organizing. Heather requested that, in lieu of flowers, donations be made to a trust, which will be used to help fat college students to afford fabulous fashions.

Ms. MacAllister was the founder and artistic director of Big Burlesque and the Fat Bottom Revue, the first burlesque act exclusively featuring large-sized performers. Her performance name was "Reva Lucian." Tours included the midwest, Canada, and the east and west coasts. She had a degree in Anthropology and worked for several non-profit groups, such as Triangle Foundation, Michigan's statewide civil rights organization for the gay, lesbian, bisexual, transgender, and allied communities. She was committed to anti-racism training. She also helped to inspire the anti-size discrimination law that was passed in San Francisco in June 2000. At the Fat-Bottom Mama's Benefat, a fundraiser for her health expenses, Heather MacAllister told the crowd that she had learned how important it is for all of us "to learn to love the bodies we live in, and to truly occupy them, and to take good, good care of them."

A community member wrote, "She made her body at once both sacred and profane- the way many women who work in the sex trades do and when you are fat and do this you are, let's not kid ourselves for a second- full of a kind of chutzpah that is remarkable. She was making a revolution that Emma would have delighted to dance at and perhaps might have gone on stage, in all her anarchist glory to shake a booty with- Heather made for that kind of space in the world. She did this with a consciousness that connected the struggles of trans people with fat people with people with disabilities as people who were challenging system of normalcy. She did it with style and she laughed as she did it... I am thinking that the world did not need another dead lesbian, who died far too young from cancer- another dead fierce, outrageous political femme."

Tribute to Heather MacAllister | Leonard Nimoy's photos of Heather and her dance troupe (Heather is on the right in the clothed picture) | Big Burlesque | Rainbow Network's Article About Heather
More about Fat Activism: Fat Liberation Archives | May 6th: International No-Diet Day | October 17th: Love Your Body Day | National Association to Advance Fat Acceptance | The Council on Weight and Size Discrimination