John Alan Lee

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For other people named John Lee, see John Lee (disambiguation).

John Alan Lee
Born(1933-08-24)August 24, 1933
Maxville, Ontario
DiedDecember 5, 2013(2013-12-05) (aged 80)
Toronto, Ontario
Occupationsociologist, activist
LanguageEnglish
NationalityCanadian
Alma materUniversity of Toronto (B.A.), University of Sussex (Ph.D.)
Period1970s–2000s
Subjectpsychology and sociology of love and sexuality
Notable worksThe Colours of Love, Getting Sex

John Alan Lee (August 24, 1933 – December 5, 2013) was a Canadian writer, academic and political activist, best known as an early advocate for

sexuality, and for his later-life advocacy of assisted suicide and the right to die.[2]

Early life

Born in

Maxville, Ontario in 1933,[3] he grew up as a ward of the provincial Children's Aid Society[1] after his father abandoned the family and his mother was financially and emotionally unable to care for Lee and his brother David on her own as a single mother.[4]

He was a factory worker and trade unionist in his youth, and ran as a

Cooperative Commonwealth Federation candidate in the electoral district of Broadview in the 1958 election
.

Education and academic career

He completed an undergraduate degree in sociology at the

Ph.D. from the University of Sussex in 1971. He then joined the University of Toronto as a faculty member in 1971.[1] In the same year, his book Test Pattern: Instructional Television at Scarborough College, University of Toronto was published by the University of Toronto Press, a report on instructional television as medium at the University of Toronto Scarborough. Teaching at the university until his retirement in 1999, he was the author of over 300 books and articles in sociology, predominantly focusing on sociological study of the LGBT community and on the broader psychology of love and sexuality.[1]

His articles appeared in publications including the Canadian Journal of Higher Education, the

love styles,[5] and Getting Sex (1978), a study of gay sexual cruising.[1]

Activism

In 1964, Lee began working as an "undercover gay activist",

TVOntario's The Judy LaMarsh Show, becoming one of Canada's first professional figures ever to come out as gay.[1]

In 1975, he was one of the founders of the University of Toronto's Gay Academic Union.

Attorney General Roy McMurtry.[1] Following Operation Soap in 1981, he was one of the founders of the Right to Privacy Committee.[1]

He was also active in other organizations, including the Sierra Club, Amnesty International and the Religious Society of Friends.[3]

Late in life he was active in Dying with Dignity, a Canadian right to die activist group.[2] Although in poor health he was not terminally ill,[2] but advocated that he should have the right to die on the grounds that his life was complete and he no longer had anything new he wanted to accomplish or achieve.[2] During this era, he also published his autobiography, Love's Gay Fool, as a free document on his own website.[4]

He ended his life on December 5, 2013.[2]

Honours

In honour of his role as a significant builder of LGBT culture and history in Canada, a portrait of Lee, by artist Norman Hatton, is held by The ArQuives: Canada's LGBTQ2+ Archives' National Portrait Collection.[3] The archives also now hold many of his personal papers and records from throughout his career.[3]

See also

  • The Lee Report

References

  1. ^
    Xtra!
    , December 18, 2013.
  2. ^ a b c d e "John Alan Lee pushes limits of Canada's assisted suicide debate". CBC News, May 5, 2014.
  3. ^
    Canadian Lesbian and Gay Archives
    .
  4. ^ a b c John Alan Lee, Love's Gay Fool.
  5. ISBN 9780300116977
    . p. 149.

External links
Retrieved from "https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=John_Alan_Lee&oldid=1217779638"