Sue Katz
Sue Katz was born and raised in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, in a first-generation American Jewish family. She left Pittsburgh at seventeen to attend Boston University, where she became involved in civil rights, antiwar organizing, women’s liberation, and early gay liberation movements. Katz’s first career is as a professional athlete and martial artist; she becomes one of the first women in the United States to earn a black belt in Taekwondo and later opens women-centered martial arts gyms in California and Israel. While living in Israel for fourteen years, she founded and led an inclusive Taekwondo institute and became active in feminist and anti-occupation movements, including as a founding member of Women in Black. Katz later lives and works in London, where she holds a senior leadership role in an international nonprofit focused on transnational volunteer service. A longtime writer, Katz publishes political essays, journalism, dance criticism, and fiction, with recent books focusing on aging, sexuality, and queer elders.
In this interview, Sue Katz discusses her childhood in Pittsburgh, her family life, and her early exposure to racial and class divisions. She describes her education at Boston University during the 1960s and her participation in civil rights, antiwar, women’s liberation, and early lesbian organizing. Katz reflects on her coming-out experiences before and after Stonewall and the risks faced by queer people during that period. She details her career as a martial artist, including gender-based discrimination in sports, the founding of women’s and inclusive Taekwondo gyms in the United States and Israel, and her role as a teacher and mentor. Katz discusses her years living in Israel, her involvement in feminist and anti-occupation activism, and the origins and spread of the Women in Black movement. She also addresses her work in international nonprofit leadership while living in London, her experiences with antisemitism, and differing cultural attitudes toward sexuality. The interview covers Katz’s writing and blogging, including her long-running blog, Consenting Adult, her engagement with dance as both a practitioner and a critic, and her recent focus on LGBTQ elders. Katz concludes by discussing issues of aging, isolation, poverty, and care within LGBTQ communities and the importance of intergenerational organizing and advocacy.
The views expressed in these interviews are solely those of the speakers and do not reflect the positions of JWA or its affiliates.
