Kyle Kirkup

Biography

Dr. Kyle Kirkup’s research explores the role of constitutional law, criminal law, and family law in regulating contemporary norms of gender identity and sexuality. He has published widely on topics including the criminalization of HIV non-disclosure, policing and LGBTQ+ communities, and the rights of gender and sexual minorities. He is currently working on a book length manuscript, under contract with UBC Press, titled Law and Order Queers: Respectability, Victimhood, and the Carceral State.

Professor Kirkup holds a doctorate from the University of Toronto Faculty of Law (SJD 2017), where he studied as a 2013 Trudeau Scholar and a Social Sciences Research Council of Canada Graduate Scholar. He also studied at Yale Law School (LLM 2012), the University of Ottawa Faculty of Law (JD 2009), and the College of the Humanities at Carleton University (BHum 2006).

In 2010-2011, Professor Kirkup served as a law clerk to the Honourable Madam Justice Louise Charron at the Supreme Court of Canada. He also taught advanced constitutional law in the Faculty of Law at Western University and worked at McCarthy Tétrault LLP in Toronto. He was called to the Bar of Ontario in 2010.

Professor Kirkup is a frequent media contributor who is committed to making legal issues accessible to the public. He has published editorials on topics including same-sex marriage, solitary confinement, judicial complaints, sex work, and HIV non-disclosure. He also regularly appears on international, national, and local media platforms.

Professor Kirkup has appeared before the House of Commons of Canada’s Standing Committee on Justice and Human Rights as an expert witness on the criminalization of HIV non-disclosure and sex work. He has appeared before the Standing Senate of Canada’s Committee on Human Rights as an expert witness on human rights in federal prisons. He has written expert reports on LGBTQ human rights issues in policing and corrections settings for Canada’s Office of the Correctional Investigator and the Ontario Human Rights Commission. He also served as the principal investigator and author of Best Practices in Policing and LGBTQ Communities in Ontario. Professor Kirkup also served on the Board of Directors of MAX: Ottawa’s Health Connection for Guys into Guys.