Born in Maxville, Ontario in 1933, he grew up as a ward of the provincial Children"s Aid Society after his father abandoned the family and his mother was financially and emotionally unable to care for Lee and his brother David on her own as a single mother.
He completed an undergraduate degree in sociology at the University of Toronto in 1956, and earned a Doctor of Philosophy from the University of Sussex in 1971.
He was a factory worker and trade unionist in his youth, and ran as a Cooperative Commonwealth Federation candidate in the electoral district of Broadview in the 1958 election. He then joined the University of Toronto as a faculty member in 1971. Teaching at the university until his retirement in 1999, he was the author of over 300 books and articles in sociology, predominantly focusing on sociological study of the LGBT community and on the broader psychology of love and sexuality.
His articles appeared in publications including the Canadian Journal of Higher Education, the Journal of Homosexuality, Psychology Today, The Body Politic, Canadian Forum and Christopher Street.
His most noted books were The Colours of Love (1973), the first prominent work of research into the concept of love styles, and Getting Sex (1978), a study of gay sexual cruising. In 1964, Lee began working as an "undercover gay activist", writing letters to various publications to protest unfair and biased depictions of LGBT people and writing more balanced pieces of his own.
Initially undertaking this work anonymously or under pseudonyms, in 1974 he officially came out on TVOntario"s The Judy LaMarsh Show, becoming one of Canada"s first professional figures ever to come out as gay. In 1975, he was one of the founders of the University of Toronto"s Gay Academic Union.
In 1979, he was an organizer of an LGBT rights protest which consisted of a three-day sit-in in the offices of provincial Attorney General Roy McMurtry.
Following Operation Soap in 1981, he was one of the founders of the Right to Privacy Committee. Late in life he was active in Dying with Dignity, a Canadian right to die activist group. During this era, he also published his autobiography, Love"s Gay Fool, as a free document on his own website.
He ended his life on December 5, 2013.
In honour of his role as a significant builder of LGBT culure and history in Canada, a portrait of Lee, by artist Norman Hatton, is held by the Canadian Lesbian and Gay Archives" National Portrait Collection. The archives also now hold many of his personal papers and records from throughout his career.
