http://ai.eecs.umich.edu/people/conway/TS/News/US/Zucker/...http://ai.eecs.umich.edu/people/conway/TS/Dreger/ASB%20pa...http://www.tsroadmap.com/info/kenneth-zucker.htmlTranscript
Staying Sane
365Gay News
Logo
Originally aired 26 February 2009
Ross Palombo:
A transgender university professor targeted she says for speaking out,
and her fight against a prominent psychiatrist may help others keep
their sanity. Chagmion Antoine has that story from New York. Chagmion.
Chagmion Antoine:
Ross, even though homosexuality was removed from the American
Psychiatric Associations list of mental illnesses back in 1973,
people who are transgender are still diagnosed with gender identity
disorder today. And one professor at U. Michigan says thats crazy
talk.
Chagmion Antoine (voiceover):
Lynn Conway has been fighting for the rights of transgender people
ever since her own experience cost her her job in the 1960s. Now shes
a professor emeritus at the University of Michigan, and her website
lynnconway.com is a respected resource for trans people all around the
world. So why is she being sued for libel by one of the worlds
leading researchers on gender identity?
Professor Lynn Conway:
This isnt between Dr. Zucker and Professor Lynn Conway, this is
between Dr. Zucker and the entire transgender community.
Chagmion Antoine (voiceover):
Dr. Kenneth Zucker, a Toronto-based sexologist, spent his career
diagnosing children with gender identity issues as mentally ill. When
he was appointed to the APA as an authority on gender identity
disorders last year, Conway sounded the alarm.
Professor Lynn Conway:
Dr. Zucker and his clinic are the sources of decades of pseudoscience
claiming that transgender people, especially transgender children, are
mentally disordered and in need of reparative therapy. I seek to
expose that.
Chagmion Antoine (voiceover):
And she did. Zuckers appointment to the APAs committee was protested
by trans people around the world.
Mishyana: [
http://www.youtube.com/user/Mishyana] (clip from
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iTrXIKKO0)To say the least, Dr. Zucker is not appropriate for this position.
Chagmion Antoine (voiceover):
Zucker fired back with this letter to Conway, threatening to sue. He
never followed through. Zucker declined to comment to 365, but Conway
says his scare tactics are meant to draw attention from the bigger
picture.
Professor Lynn Conway:
There are a lot of us out there. A lot of us are actually rather cool
people. I think hed enjoy meeting us all.
Chagmion Antoine:
Heres an interesting fact. Lynn Conway is also a pioneering
researcher in computer chip technology. She literally helped write the
book. Ross.
Ross Palombo:
Thanks, Chagmion.
(less info)
