06/30/2025
Patty Berne has passed away to become one of our crip ancestors, and as they were a regular collaborator with the Longmore Institute, I’d like to briefly pay homage.
I first met Patty in 2013. We had a shared past employer in common, the Center for Genetics and Society, and shared our experiences and gratitude for their work to fight for anti-eugenics in emerging genetic science and biotech. Patty shared that they’d had to leave because they were depleted from the daily reminders that people like them weren’t supposed to exist in most people’s eyes. They left to create a space where it would be a given that q***r and trans BIPOC disabled people enrich our world. This drive led Patty to co-found Sins Invalid, a performance space grounded in the Principles of Disability Justice, that Patty had also helped dream up.
Our hearts at the Longmore Institute go out to the Sins Invalid family in particular, Patty’s closest friends, and all of the many (MANY!) people that Patty mentored as a director and colleague during her long leadership at Sins. I’d been a fan of the work of Sins Invalid for years, but I finally got to witness a live show this year, and the power of the space that Sins Invalid creates, directed by Patty, is unparalleled. Disability culture and resistance at its finest.
I took away so much from every chat I got to have with Patty, who wasn’t afraid to go to the messy places and talk about the challenges of bringing disability justice forward as leaders while working inside the systems of oppression that need to be brought down. Patty was lined up to speak to our Emerge Fellows this summer, and I’m heartbroken that they won’t have that opportunity because Patty’s open heart for mentorship would have been a deeply meaningful experience, particularly as several fellows who named Patty in their interviews or applications as a guiding voice leading them into their work of scholar-activism. Beyond this, And on a deeper level, I’m saddened because it means that our emerging leaders need to again watch one of the “emerged” disabled leaders in the field leave the community far too soon without growing into old age.
Yet, Patty’s wisdom will stay with us. Their leadership advocating for climate change conversations in q***r and disability spaces can be read in this phenomenal essay (https://www.yesmagazine.org/opinion/2019/07/31/climate-change-q***r-disabled-organizers) and videos of their many speaking engagements collaborating with the Longmore Institute are shared below. We must continue to ask ourselves Patty’s question for us all: “How can we ally with this Brown, q***r, disabled, femme planet to support her survival, and the survival of all who depend on her?”
With love to all who are grieving this incredible human being,
Emily Beitiks and the Longmore Institute Team
P.S. Please see the original post from Sins Invalid below and consider donating to them to support Patty's ongoing legacy if you have capacity.
DisabilityJusticeTransformations /Transformaciones de la justicia para las personas con discapacidad
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=375SjuKdu1M
Disability Visibility Justice
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qo8oVI7Jb5g
Future Past: Looking Ahead to Brave New Worlds
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=duFgYsWxAlU
