[1] MacAllister was involved in a range of social justice issues, particularly LGBT rights, anti-racism and addressing anti-fat bias.
Whilst she was living in Michigan, Heather MacAllister's fat activism included the founding in 1992 of the Venus Group, a social and support network for large women.
She argued that erotic performance allowed fat women to express a sexuality "which has been underaffirmed and made negative in the popular culture".
[8] MacAllister campaigned for Muslim- and Arab-American civil rights after 9-11 and served on the board of Al-Fatiha, the national organization for sexual minority Muslims in the United States.
Her partner, author and stand-up comedian Kelli Dunham, moved from the East Coast to care for her until her death by assisted suicide on February 13, 2007, aged 38.
[1] MacAllister appeared posthumously in the art photography book The Full Body Project by photographer and actor Leonard Nimoy.