Gary William Kinsman (born 1955) is a Canadian sociologist. Born in

Toronto Toronto ( ; or ) is the capital city of the Canadian province of Ontario. With a recorded population of 2,794,356 in 2021, it is the most populous city in Canada and the fourth most populous city in North America. The city is the ancho ...

, he is one of Canada's leading academics on

lesbian A lesbian is a Homosexuality, homosexual woman.Zimmerman, p. 453. The word is also used for women in relation to their sexual identity or sexual behavior, regardless of sexual orientation, or as an adjective to characterize or associate n ...

gay ''Gay'' is a term that primarily refers to a homosexual person or the trait of being homosexual. The term originally meant 'carefree', 'cheerful', or 'bright and showy'. While scant usage referring to male homosexuality dates to the late 1 ...

bisexual Bisexuality is a romantic or sexual attraction or behavior toward both males and females, or to more than one gender. It may also be defined to include romantic or sexual attraction to people regardless of their sex or gender identity, whi ...

and

transgender A transgender (often abbreviated as trans) person is someone whose gender identity or gender expression does not correspond with their sex assigned at birth. Many transgender people experience dysphoria, which they seek to alleviate through tr ...

issues."Gary Kinsman's book Canadian War on Queers takes on gay issues in government"
. ''

The Georgia Straight ''The Georgia Straight'' is a free Canadian weekly news and entertainment newspaper published in Vancouver, British Columbia, by Overstory Media Group. Often known simply as ''The Straight'', it is delivered to newsboxes, post-secondary schools, ...

'', 17 March 2010. In 1987, he wrote one of the key Canadian texts on

LGBT ' is an initialism that stands for lesbian, gay, bisexual, and transgender. In use since the 1990s, the initialism, as well as some of its common variants, functions as an umbrella term for sexuality and gender identity. The LGBT term is a ...

social history Social history, often called the new social history, is a field of history that looks at the lived experience of the past. In its "golden age" it was a major growth field in the 1960s and 1970s among scholars, and still is well represented in his ...

, ''Regulation of Desire'', reprinted in 1995. In 2000, he edited and co-authored a second work, on Canadian federal government

surveillance Surveillance is the monitoring of behavior, many activities, or information for the purpose of information gathering, influencing, managing or directing. This can include observation from a distance by means of electronic equipment, such as c ...

of marginal and dissident political and social groups, ''Whose National Security?'' In 2010, Kinsman's newest book, ''The Canadian War on Queers: National Security as Sexual Regulation'', co-written with Patrizia Gentile, was published by

University of British Columbia Press The University of British Columbia Press (UBC Press) is a university press that is part of the University of British Columbia. It was established in 1971. The press is based in Vancouver, British Columbia, Canada, and has editorial offices in Kelo ...

and released on 1 March. Gary Kinsman was involved in the Young Socialists during high school in the late 70s, where he first came in contact with the

Gay Liberation Movement The gay liberation movement was a social and political movement of the late 1960s through the mid-1980s that urged lesbians and gay men to engage in radical direct action, and to counter societal shame with gay pride.Hoffman, 2007, pp.xi-xiii. ...

. Kinsman later joined the Revolutionary Marxist group which eventually fused with the

League for Socialist Action The League for Socialist Action was a Trotskyist organization in Canada. It was known by several names throughout its history, including the International Left Opposition (Trotskyist) of Canada, the Workers Party of Canada, the Socialist Policy Gr ...

, creating the Revolutionary Workers League. Before the onset of Kinsman’s AIDS related activism, he was involved in the Gay Liberation Union, Gay Liberation Against the Right Everywhere, the Right to Privacy Committee, and later the Canadian Committee Against Customs Censorship. A retired professor of sociology, formerly at

Laurentian University Laurentian University (french: Université Laurentienne), officially the Laurentian University of Sudbury, is a mid-sized Bilingualism in Canada, bilingual public university in Greater Sudbury, Ontario, Canada, incorporated on March 28, 1960. Lau ...

in Sudbury, Ontario, Kinsman's research and publication focuses primarily on the sociological perspectives of LGBT issues. Kinsman is also a social activist on

feminist Feminism is a range of socio-political movements and ideologies that aim to define and establish the political, economic, personal, and social equality of the sexes. Feminism incorporates the position that society prioritizes the male po ...

trade union A trade union (labor union in American English), often simply referred to as a union, is an organization of workers intent on "maintaining or improving the conditions of their employment", ch. I such as attaining better wages and benefits ( ...

social justice Social justice is justice in terms of the distribution of wealth, opportunities, and privileges within a society. In Western and Asian cultures, the concept of social justice has often referred to the process of ensuring that individuals fu ...

, and anti-

poverty Poverty is the state of having few material possessions or little income. Poverty can have diverse social, economic, and political causes and effects. When evaluating poverty in ...

issues. Kinsman was a writer for ''

The Body Politic ''The Body Politic'' was a Canadian monthly magazine, which was published from 1971 to 1987.

'' and a central figure in the publication of the successor magazine ''

Rites Rail India Technical and Economic Service Limited, abbreviated as RITES Ltd, is a wholly owned subsidiary of the Indian Railways, Ministry of Railways, Government of India. It is an engineering consultancy corporation, specializing in the field ...

''. He helped found Gays and Lesbians Against the Right Everywhere and the Lesbian and Gay Pride Day Committee of Toronto. In Sudbury, he was one of the organizers of the city's first-ever Sudbury Pride event in 1997. In 2015, Kinsman was active in a campaign lobbying for a formal apology from the

Government of Canada The government of Canada (french: gouvernement du Canada) is the body responsible for the federal administration of Canada. A constitutional monarchy, the Crown is the corporation sole, assuming distinct roles: the executive, as the ''Crown ...

for the purges of LGBT people from the federal

civil service The civil service is a collective term for a sector of government composed mainly of career civil servants hired on professional merit rather than appointed or elected, whose institutional tenure typically survives transitions of political leaders ...

in the 1950s and 1960s."Group demands apology for Canadian government’s gay ‘purges’"
. ''

Metro Metro, short for metropolitan, may refer to: Geography * Metro (city), a city in Indonesia * A metropolitan area, the populated region including and surrounding an urban center Public transport * Rapid transit, a passenger railway in an urba ...

'', 1 June 2015.

Works

* ''The Regulation of Desire: Homo and Hetero Sexualities'' : Montreal, New York: Black Rose: (1987, 1995): , * ''Whose National Security? Canadian State Surveillance and the Creation of Enemies'' Toronto: Between the Lines (2000): * ''The Canadian War on Queers: National Security as Sexual Regulation'' Vancouver: UBC Press:(2010):

References

External links

Gary Kinsman's website 'Radical Noise'
1955 births Canadian anti-poverty activists Canadian sociologists Canadian socialists Canadian gay writers Journalists from Toronto Laurentian University faculty LGBT journalists from Canada LGBT rights activists from Canada Living people Scientists from Toronto Writers from Greater Sudbury Writers from Toronto {{LGBT-activist-stub