# Beth Kelly

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{{Short description|American political theorist}}
{{Multiple issues|
{{Notability|Academics|date=February 2016}}
{{BLP primary sources|date=February 2016}}
}}
'''Beth Kelly''' is an American political theorist and [feminist](/source/feminism). Kelly is a professor of Women's and Gender Studies and Irish Studies<ref>{{Cite web|url=https://las.depaul.edu/academics/Irish-Studies/Pages/faculty.aspx|title=Faculty &#124; Irish Studies &#124; Academics &#124; College of Liberal Arts & Social Sciences &#124; DePaul University, Chicago|accessdate=Apr 2, 2020}}</ref> at [DePaul University](/source/DePaul_University).<ref>{{cite web |url=http://las.depaul.edu/wms/People/ProgramFaculty/BethKelly.asp |title=DePaul University College of LAS: Beth Kelly, Ph.D |publisher=Las.depaul.edu |accessdate=2013-11-01 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20131004215841/http://las.depaul.edu/wms/People/ProgramFaculty/BethKelly.asp |archive-date=2013-10-04 |url-status=dead }}</ref><ref>{{cite web|url=http://directory.depaul.edu/dept_dir/irishstudies.aspx |title=Internal Information Infrastructure - Department Directory |publisher=Directory.depaul.edu |date= |accessdate=2013-11-01}}</ref> From 1997 to 2003, Kelly served as director of the department of Women's and Gender Studies at DePaul, and was a founder of DePaul's LGBT studies program. Since March 2010, Kelly has been chairperson of the Advisory Council on Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual and Transgender Issues, one of eight advisory councils to the Commission on Human Relations for the City of [Chicago](/source/Chicago).<ref name="Daley appoints new chair">{{cite web|url=http://chicago.gopride.com/news/article.cfm/articleid/9855625|title=Daley appoints new chair to Chicago's LGBT advisory council|publisher=Chicagogopride.com|accessdate=2012-12-07|url-status=dead|archiveurl=https://web.archive.org/web/20120720023032/http://chicago.gopride.com/news/article.cfm/articleid/9855625|archivedate=2012-07-20}}</ref> Kelly received her PhD from Rutgers University.<ref>{{cite web|last=|first=|date=|title=DePaul University Course Catalog|url=http://www.depaul.edu/university-catalog/catalog-archive/Documents/2011-2012-summer-autumn/College-of-Liberal-Arts-and-Social-Sciences-Graduate-Studies.pdf|url-status=dead|archiveurl=https://web.archive.org/web/20131014060315/http://www.depaul.edu/university-catalog/catalog-archive/Documents/2011-2012-summer-autumn/College-of-Liberal-Arts-and-Social-Sciences-Graduate-Studies.pdf|archivedate=2013-10-14|accessdate=2013-11-01|website=}}</ref>

==Writings and views==
Kelly is [openly lesbian](/source/openly_lesbian). Regarding her academic career, Kelly says, "If someone had told me 30 years ago that in 2010 I would be tenured and promoted to a professor as a publicly professed Lesbian at the country's largest Catholic university, I would not have believed them. I love the university and I think I have given back a great deal of my time and effort as a result."<ref name="Outing DePaul">{{cite web|url=http://www.depauliaonline.com/focus/outing-depaul-1.2154591|archive-url=https://archive.today/20130121183741/http://www.depauliaonline.com/focus/outing-depaul-1.2154591|url-status=dead|archive-date=2013-01-21|title=Outing DePaul|publisher=The DePaulia|accessdate=2012-12-07}}</ref>

Among her research interests, Kelly lists feminist theory, [LGBT politics](/source/LGBT), and [queer theory](/source/queer_theory).

In 2005, Kelly published the collective memoir ''Telling Our Lives: Conversations on Solidarity and Difference'' with Frida Kerner Furman and Linda Williamson Nelson.

==Political career and LGBT activism==
In March 2010, Chicago Mayor [Richard M. Daley](/source/Richard_M._Daley) named Kelly head of the city's LGBT advisory council for a three-year term. The council serves as a liaison for the gay community to the city government and is responsible for identifying areas of prejudice or discrimination impacting the gay community in relation to housing and human rights issues.<ref name="Daley appoints new chair" />

==Controversy==
In 1979, Beth Kelly published an article and autobiographical account titled "On 'Woman/Girl Love'—Or, Lesbians Do 'Do It.'" Kelly recounted a sexual relationship she experienced, beginning when she was 8 years old, with a grandaunt who was at least 40–50 years older, and described her personal involvement in similar relationships both "as a girl and as a woman." The article, which presents a positive description of pederasty, has been reprinted by pro-[pederasty](/source/pederasty) organizations such as [NAMBLA](/source/NAMBLA).<ref>David Thorstad, [https://books.google.com/books?id=C37q4LOUNcgC&pg=PA255 "Man/Boy Love and the American Gay Movement,"] in ''Male Intergenerational Intimacy: Historical, Socio-Psychological, and Legal Perspectives'', p. 255, 1991, {{ISBN|1560240008}}</ref>

==Major publications==
* "Three Lives: Conversations on Solidarity and Difference", with Frida Kerner Furman and Linda Williamson Nelson. Rowman and Littlefield, 2005
* "A House Made of Words: Class, Education, and Dissidence in Three Lives", John Freeman-Moir and Alan Scott, eds. "Yesterday's Dreams: International and Critical Perspectives on Education and Social Class", University of Canterbury Press, 2002
* "In Goldilocks' Footsteps: Exploring the Discursive Construction of Gay Masculinity in Bear Magazines," with Kate Kane, Eric Rofes and Sara Miles eds. "Opposite Sex: Lesbians and Gay Men Writing About Each Other's Sexuality", New York University Press, 1998
* "Grounds for Criticism: Coffee, Passion, and the Politics of Feminist Discourse", in Lois Lovelace Duke, "Women in Politics: Outsiders or Insiders?", rev. ed., Prentice-Hall, 1995 and 3rd ed., Prentice-Hall, 1998
* "Education, Democracy, and Public Knowledge", Westview Press, 1995 Recipient of Michael Harrington Award for Best Book published in 1995 from New Political Science Section of the American Political Science Association.

==References==
{{Reflist}}

==External links==
* {{cite web|url=http://las.depaul.edu/wms/People/ProgramFaculty/BethKelly.asp|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20131004215841/http://las.depaul.edu/wms/People/ProgramFaculty/BethKelly.asp|archive-date=2013-10-04|access-date=2017-06-07|url-status=dead |title=Beth Kelly}} (archived copy of former faculty page at DePaul University)
{{Authority control}}

{{DEFAULTSORT:Kelly, Beth}}
Category:American feminists
Category:DePaul University faculty
Category:Lesbian feminists
Category:American LGBTQ writers
Category:American LGBTQ rights activists
Category:Living people
Category:Postmodern feminists
Category:Queer theorists
Category:Rutgers University alumni
Category:American academics of women's studies
Category:Year of birth missing (living people)
Category:Lesbian academics

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Adapted from the Wikipedia article [Beth Kelly](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Beth_Kelly) by Wikipedia contributors ([contributor history](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Beth_Kelly?action=history)). Available under [Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 International](https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/). Changes may have been made.
