Mourning the Passing of Disability Rights Activist Lillibeth Navarro

NDY joins disability advocates in California and across the country in mourning the loss of disability rights activist and leader Lillibeth Navarro. The times I shared with Lillibeth are a treasured part of my life history. Remembering how deeply she touched people’s lives, I know that many would say the same thing.

Our story together began in 1987 when I returned to Los Angeles from my first national ADAPT action for accessible public transportation and decided to start an ADAPT chapter. Lillibeth was one of the first to join. Along with disability movement photographer Tom Olin, we rode in my van picking up fellow activists for meetings and protests, including the fall 1987 national ADAPT action in San Francisco. (I believe this action resulted in her first civil rights arrest.)

By next spring, Lillibeth helped organize a group of ten disabled people to join the national ADAPT action and carry our demands for accessibility to a North American transit conference being held in Montreal.

Our Los Angeles chapter also pushed the accessibility envelope at home, with street theater to get curb cuts on Hollywood’s Walk of Fame (aka “Walk of Shame”) and at least two arrest actions, one involving a sit-in at the Governor’s Office and one a protest at the Greyhound depot, among others. By the spring of 1989 when I left L.A., Lillibeth took over leadership of ADAPT Southern California.  

As Executive Director of the CALIF center for independent living she founded, many came to Lillibeth for help in their struggles for equal rights and opportunities. A short video interview when she was honored as a Filipino Champion captures some of her gentle but firm style as an educator and advocate for change.

Those who live in California know more about her work that followed than I do, as the many tributes show. (See, e.g., Disability Rights CA) Attorney Michael Allen who worked with Lillibeth on an important housing case posted this tribute on a legal listserv:

Lillibeth Navarro: Disability Community Leader and Hero Passes Away

Lillibeth Navarro, the founding director of CALIF, died yesterday after a short illness. In many ways, she was the heart and soul of the “LA 504” housing accessibility case litigated by my firm, Disability Rights California, Disability Rights Legal Center and David Geffen. Lillibeth spent the last 30+ years insisting on community integration for people with disabilities in all aspects of life. The world is a better place for all of us because of her work….

Over the last decade, Lillibeth became part of my life again as she advocated against a public policy of assisted suicide, helping to communicate the real dangers of this policy to the disability community and the broader public. Like so many people with disabilities, Lillibeth saw and experienced healthcare disparities impacting members of BIPOC and disability communities, disparities that belie the empty platitudes about “safeguards” in assisted suicide laws.

She organized a protest against the Hollywood film “Million Dollar Baby” due to its assisted suicide theme. She fought alongside DREDF’s Marilyn Golden to oppose passage of the CA assisted suicide law and spoke movingly at a Sacramento rally focused on the dangers to people with disabilities.

Lillibeth helped educate her community about this issue in myriad ways, such as organizing a multi-issue advocacy seminar and inviting me to speak. And she led CALIF to become part of an important lawsuit challenging the disability discrimination inherent in assisted suicide laws. She appeared in a powerful video about the case that was launched today.

Lillibeth’s incredibly warm and generous heart touched and changed so many lives, individually and as a result of her commitment to justice and tenacious advocacy. I’m so grateful for the times we shared and join her family, friends, dedicated staff and all her communities in mourning her loss and celebrating her beautiful life.