Mary Gennoy

Gennoy was from Alameda, California, the daughter of William J. Gennoy and Doris Elaine Gennoy (later Gilla). Her father was a businessman and a World War II fighter pilot.^[1] Her mother was a secretary.^[2] She had congenital health issues she traced to radiation exposure in utero, while her mother was in treatment for cancer.^[3] She attended Alameda High School in the 1960s, the College of Alameda in the early 1970s,^[4] and San Francisco State University from 1979 to 1984.^[5]

Gennoy was a familiar figure in San Francisco activist communities, working for LGBT rights, disability rights, the environment, and marijuana legalization.^[5] She was one of the original active members of the San Francisco Cannabis Buyers Club, along with "Brownie Mary" Rathbun, Dennis Peron, and others.^[6] "If you were born like me, you'd have no choice," she explained in 1998,^[7] about her focus on marijuana legalization, because her chronic health issues required pain management, and medical cannabis met her needs.^[8][9]

In 1992, Gennoy was a member of San Francisco's New Stonewall Liberation Day board of directors.^[10] She gathered signatures for Proposition 215 in 1996,^[11] and ran for the San Francisco Board of Supervisors as a write-in candidate in 2000.^[5] In 2002 she ran again for the Board of Supervisors.^[12] She was part of the Dykes on Bikes contingent in the San Francisco Pride Parade.^[13] She wrote poetry for local lesbian publications.^[14]

Gennoy was physically disabled, of short stature, and hard of hearing. She used a wheelchair in adulthood, and underwent numerous surgeries. She died in 2004, at the age of 53, after throat surgery for laryngeal cancer.^[5][13] She was one of the people commemorated by a quilt honoring disabled lesbians, created by Karen Hampton and exhibited at the San Francisco Public Library in 2010.^[15]