Danielle Charest

Danielle Charest (1951 – October 13, 2011)^[1] was a Canadian writer and a 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]