Fragments of memory. This is what I have now of Sharon, along with her very powerful writings. Most special to me of her writings will always be her early edited collection Lesbians in Canada. But her contributions to disability studies are major and impressive. I remember Sharon as fiercely dedicated, smart, and with a sharp wit. But she was also always profoundly caring and loving at the same time. She was profoundly committed to social justice. Her passing is a major loss for all of us. I miss her even though I had not seen her since 2010 and our last contacts were through emails.
I first met Sharon in the very early 1980s when she was a student in Sociology at the University of Toronto where she did battle with the theories of ‘deviance’ that were still the dominant ways of theorizing lesbian and gay experiences. She went onto do her PhD in the York University Sociology Department. She did important work on lesbian organizations including the Lesbian Mothers Defence Fund, and Lesbians Against the Right, and the coverage of feminist and lesbian concerns in the mainstream media.
Sharon was also very much an activist and was involved in many groups. In the early 1980s she was involved in Lesbians Against the Right and its explosive dyke organizing against the right-wing and for lesbian visibility. She was the co-head marshall with me at the 1982 Lesbian and Gay Pride march through the streets of Toronto. See the pictures below.
Sharon was also very much an internationalist and one of the groups I was involved in with her was the Toronto International Lesbian and Gay Association (ILGA) Toronto Support Group. We did a lot to make sure groups in Toronto knew about the global struggles of lesbians and gay men. In 1985 we helped to organize the International Gay Association (IGA) conference (soon to be the International Lesbian and Gay Association) in Toronto in conjunction with the Sex and the State history conference. The conference was titled “Smashing Borders and Opening Spaces” and was the first international lesbian and gay conference ever held in the Canadian state. The organizing for this conference was rather rocky and Sharon played a major part in keeping us focussed and on track.
The conference was attended by 500 delegates and observers from 18 countries from June 30-July 6th, 1985. A highlight of the event was a conference demonstration at Queen’s Park with speakers from New Zealand, Peru, Sweden, West Germany, Greece and Canada condemning right-wing campaigns against lesbians and gay men, calling for more support for people living with AIDS/HIV and for closer links between the lesbian and gay struggle and other liberation movements. Within her work in lesbian and gay organizing Sharon consistently raised the needs and concerns of people living with disabilities including those with ‘invisible’ disabilities.
Sharon was a mover and shaker in the development of early lesbian and gay studies. When Continuing Education at Ryerson expressed an interest in doing lesbian and gay studies courses Sharon was involved in the discussions. Sharon and I co-taught the first of these Lesbian and Gay Studies classes at Ryerson and she was wonderful to work with. We had a great group of students. Later she would bring her insights to teaching at the Simone de Beauvoir Institute at Concordia, in Kelowna, and at Lakehead.
When I moved to the east coast, and then to Sudbury, I unfortunately saw Sharon a lot less. When she was in Kelowna she invited me to present at a Sociology conference there and I did a talk on the ideology and organization of the anti-gay and anti-feminist right-wing. Sharon also organized a nice community launch for the second edition of my book The Regulation of Desire at a local restaurant.
Once she moved to Thunder Bay to teach at Lakehead I saw her a few times at academic conferences and when she would drive through Sudbury. She asked me to be an external on a very good thesis that one of her MA students did. In 2010 she organized a launch event for my book, with Patrizia Gentile, called The Canadian War on Queers at Lakehead which went very well. Sharon hosted a reception for me after and I experienced her kind hospitality as I stayed at her place that night. I got to meet a number of her friends and colleagues and got a sense of the support system she had built for herself both at the university and in the community. I believe that was the last time I saw Sharon in person. If I had known this there is a lot more I would have said.
I believe my last communication with Sharon is from August, 2013 and she wrote: “You may have seen this petition already but thought I’d send it along in case you haven’t. I’m not usually one to sign these internet petitions but have done so because I have known John since the 80s.”Like me she was very concerned that John Greyson (who we both knew in Toronto as a gay video artist and activist) and Tarek Loubani were being held in an Egyptian prison. Luckily we were successful in getting them released from this unjustified confinement.
I so much wish I had been in touch with Sharon after this but I can find no record or memory. I will miss Sharon who was always a fierce but also a kind and gentle warrior for social justice.
In solidarity,
Gary Kinsman