Namaste graduated from Carleton University in 1989 with a BA and continued her education at York University, earning an MA in Sociology. She then completed her doctoral at Université du Québec à Montréal in Semiotics and Linguistics. She worked within ACT UP Paris. In 2001, she received the Outstanding Book Award from the Gustavus Myers Center for her book entitled, Invisible Lives: The Erasure of Transsexual and Transgendered People. That same year, Namaste was also a director in the documentary Madame Lauraine's Transsexual Touch which deals with transsexual sex workers as well as sexual health and clientele. Namaste became an associate professor and the Research Chair in HIV/AIDS and Sexual Health at Concordia University in Montreal, Quebec, Canada. In 2009, she was awarded the "Canadian Award for Action on HIV/AIDS and Human Rights", which is awarded jointly by the Canadian HIV/AIDS Legal Network and Human Rights Watch. In 2012, Namaste led a strike with SDBI faculty in order to protest tuition increases. In 2013, she was called as an official intervenor in a hearing at the Supreme Court of Canada on whether the ban on solicitation, prohibition of brothels and criminality of making a living from prostitution violate the Charter of Rights. The feminist journal, , has called Namaste's work, "extremely important". Namaste considers activism more important than work within the humanities.
Published work
;Imprimés interdits : La censure des journaux jaunes au Québec, 1955-1975 In post-war Quebec, a new form of popular communication emerged: the "yellow newspapers", so named because of the poor quality of their paper. It contained all the gossip about artists, cabarets and nightlife, with content strongly dominated by sexuality. ;Invisible Lives: The Erasure of Transsexual and Transgendered People Invisible Lives evaluates the erasure of transgender individuals by medical psychiatry. It also draws on the daily lived-experiences of transgendered individuals and describes how their identity permeates every facet of their life from obtaining housing to health care. The Library Journal wrote that Invisible Lives has "broken new ground with one of the first sociological studies of the TS/TG community." ;Sex Change, Social Change: Reflections on Identity, Institutions, and Imperialism This book utilizes case studies as a means to analyze elements such as Human rights and Prostitution in looking at transsexual politics in Quebec and Canada. Namaste asks what makes someone a woman and whether male to female transsexuals should be included in women's spaces. Namaste also explores how gender and sex are defined in our culture and discusses the everyday manner in which transsexuals face discrimination. In the end, she recommends that feminists "integrate transsexual politics and theory into their work." One criticism that the journal, , makes of the writing in Sex Change, Social Change is that Namaste is "at times antagonistic towards transsexual and transgender activists and theorists who work within gay, lesbian, or queer frameworks." Canadian Dimension writes that her book makes the subject matter "accessible to those unacquainted with the current body of work on transsexuality." ;C'était du spectacle! L'histoire des artistes transsexuelles à Montréal, 1955-1985 This book explores the lives of fourteen transsexual cabaret dancers. It discusses how transsexuals and transvestites were largely responsible for Cabaret's culture. Looking at the social changes that occurred in the 60's and 70's in Quebec, this book examines working conditions for these cabaret dancers as well as police abuse of power.
