Matthew Russell Harrison-Taylor: Performer. Advocate. Partner. Son. Born May 7, 1969, in Ottawa; died Feb. 8, 2024, in Vancouver, by medical assistance in dying; aged 54.
Matthew Harrison-TaylorCourtesy of family
Taking a seat at the Celebration of Life for Matthew Harrison-Taylor, you ask others how they knew him. To your right, someone says “Matthew was my drug dealer. We had sooo much fun together.” To your left, someone else says, “Matthew saved my life. I honestly wouldn’t be here today if it wasn’t for him.” Matthew contained multitudes.
His send-off sparkled, quite literally. The MC was dressed in a glittery body suit topped with a crystal captain’s hat that Elton John might die for. There was Celine Dion karaoke. Those gathered heard a riotous anecdote about how Matthew once jumped the queue for an overbooked flight at Toronto’s Pearson airport by unpacking his drag queen outfit at the check-in counter and announcing he had to get to Regina for a wedding because he was bringing the bride’s dress.
Raised by a loving if unglamorous family in suburban Ottawa, Matthew showed a natural flair for performance and leadership at an early age. He thrived on school plays, Boy Scouts and any kind of boundary-breaking behaviour. As a camp counsellor in Golden Lake, Ont., his penchant for cross-dressing ensured he was always the centre of attention during stage nights.
He left home after high school to attend York University in 1988, dropped out after two years and lived in Toronto for a while working at the Princess of Wales Theatre as an usher.
Mr. Harrison-Taylor became a fixture at drag shows and anything else requiring a large dose of charisma in Vancouver’s gay-friendly Davie Village in the West End in the 1990s.Courtesy of family
By the mid-1990s he’d moved to Vancouver’s gay-friendly Davie Village in the West End, where he became a fixture at drag shows and anything else requiring a large dose of charisma. Then a string of bad choices saw him fall out of regular employment and into drugs and prostitution. “I got really good at being really lost for a few years,” he once told Vancouver Foundation magazine.
Things turned around on Aug. 28, 2005, when he declared himself drug-free after a stay at an addiction recovery program. Considering research showing crystal meth relapse rates over 60 per cent, his uninterrupted sobriety thereafter was one of his proudest achievements and marked a rebirth of sorts. Once clean he reunited with his family, tracked down his birth mother and threw himself headlong into community service.
Among his postaddiction successes was founding the charity HUSTLE: Men on the Move in 2007. At a time when male prostitutes were ignored by everyone but their clients, Matthew prowled the streets of Vancouver’s “Boystown” handing out bottled water and clean socks; he knew from experience this was what they needed most. His other community work included leading camping weekends for those newly diagnosed with HIV/AIDS, while his drag persona Crystal Clearly was a frequent host of Clean & Sober events during Pride celebrations. In contrast with his energetic public face, among family and close friends, Matthew was a quiet source of empathy and emotional support, often acting as a mentor, sobriety sponsor or patient listener.
When a change in funding for HUSTLE shifted him from street-level practitioner to grant proposal writer, Matthew grew bored and handed over the reins of his creation. Around the same time, the cumulative toll of those early mistakes began to catch up with him. In late 2023 a long list of crippling physical and mental-health challenges led him to decide on a medically assisted death. Three weeks before he died, he married his former fiancé Ray Harrison-Taylor.
In his final days, Matthew took pleasure in saying goodbye to friends and family, as well as planning his own Celebration of Life. Like the man himself, it was an exuberant, chaotic and frequently over-the-top affair. Although he would have been disappointed to find out someone forgot the chocolate fountain.
Peter Shawn Taylor is Matthew’s older and less charismatic brother.
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