Michèle Causse

Michèle Causse (29 July 1936 – 29 July 2010) was a French activist, author, and self-proclaimed radical lesbian.

Early life Causse was born in the Martel region of Lot in France. She later taught in Tunisia, and then lived for ten years in Rome, where she studied Chinese. After that, she moved to Martinique and then to the United States before emigrating to Canada.

Theory Canadian academic Clive Thompson has referred to Causse as a "writer of radical lesbian texts." In her works, she is critical of heterosexuality, stating that "as long as a woman wishes to please a man, she is inauthentic... She does not have the integrity, the un-corruptibility that comes with not wishing to please."

Causse was also critical of both the Women's Movement and the concept of a homosexual movement, stating, "I am not a feminist, I am not a homosexual, I am a radical lesbian." She believed that "the women's movement is sustained by lesbians in every country; it is a lesbian movement, profoundly lesbian." She was also critical of the influence of patriarchy on lesbians, claiming that lesbians were "phallicized" in the 1980s by the male homosexual movement.

Translations Causse translated between the French, English, and Italian languages and was fluent in all three languages. Her translations of works included texts by Herman Melville, Gertrude Stein, Ti-Grace Atkinson, Djuna Barnes, Jane Bowles, Willa Cather, Mary Daly, Ignazio Silone, and Alice Munro.

Last years and death In her last years, she lived in the southwest of France. Causse chose to end her life on her 74th birthday, with assistance from Dignitas, a Swiss non-profit organization for physician-assisted suicide.

Although Causse had no terminal illness, she listed several medical issues as reasoning for her medically-assisted death, including vertebral compression fractures exacerbated by osteoporosis, the loss of a kidney, and asthma.

She died on 29 July 2010. Her death was filmed and shown in the documentary Dignitas - la mort sur ordonnance, which aired on Swiss television.