Danielle Charest

Danielle Charest (1951 – October 13, 2011)[1] was a Quebecois writer, a major figure in the Canadian radical lesbianism movement.[2]

Charest was born in Sherbrooke, Quebec, in 1951.[3] She graduated from the School for Advanced Studies in the Social Sciences in Paris, having written her thesis on gender relations in crime fiction.[4][5] She subsequently obtained a higher degree in history, focusing on the treatment of lesbians and gay men in crime novels.[6] Charest subsequently worked various odd jobs: folk singer, apple picker, house painter, cook in a fast-food restaurant, taxi driver, horseback riding teacher for children, and French teacher for adults. These experiences helped inspire some of her later works.[4]

She co-directed a documentary film about violence against young girls, published several novels, and wrote in 1993 Ma maison, mon taxi, a biography of Fernande Chartrand, a taxi driver.[4] In 1982, she co-founded as part of a lesbian collective in Montreal the quarterly radical lesbian magazine Amazones d'Hier, Lesbiennes d'Aujourd'hui.[7]

She led debates on various subjects, published articles online, and contributed to Lesbia Magazine.[6][8] Her book Haro sur les fumeurs, jusqu'où ira la prohibition? ("Haro on Smokers: How Far Will Prohibition Go?"), published in 2008, studies the progression of anti-smoking laws in France in the international context. According to Charest, efforts to punish smokers are part of a larger framework of moralism that could have far broader implications.[9] Charest died in October 2011 at the Paris House for Women, a feminist collective, at age 60, after suffering an aneurism.[3][6]