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Transgender success stories

Varying degrees of “stealth” have allowed many transgender people to be quite successful in spite of the challenges. The 12th and final installment in The Advocate’s Transgender 101 series
An Advocate.com exclusive posted October 2, 2006
Transgender success stories

I might have transitioned sooner to live as a female had there been greater public awareness of transgender people. There has been no shortage of stereotypes and Hollywood images, and none of them ever seemed to fit me. It wasn't until I read Crossing, the autobiography of noted economist and university professor Deirdre McCloskey, that I started to realize that there are transgender people in every walk of life—even mine.

Since then I have learned of lots of transgender success stories, many of which were not widely known because those involved had kept quiet about their transgender status. I’d like to share some of those stories with you. Since my space is limited, I’m going to limit my sharing to stories you probably have not heard. That means I’ll only mention people outside of the entertainment industry and whose “day jobs” do not directly involve transgender activism.

One of the more famous success stories in this category is that of computer scientist Lynn Conway. Lynn invented technology while she was at IBM in the 1960s that is used in most computers today—probably including the machine you're using right now. But when Lynn announced her plans to transition from male to female, she was fired. How ironic that seems now, because the IBM of today was the first corporation to add gender identity and expression to its global nondiscrimination policy.

Following her transition in 1968, Lynn chose to live “stealth” to preserve her career prospects. She went on to a distinguished research career, pioneering new methods of computer chip design while working at Xerox’s legendary Palo Alto, Calif.., Research Laboratory, and is now professor emerita of engineering at the University of Michigan. She chose to come out as transgender only in 1999, when an author writing on the history of computer science set out to find the person who had developed that technology at IBM.

Since then, Lynn has devoted much time to making information about transgenderism available in as many languages as possible. I probably would not have had the courage to transition if it weren't for her profiles of successful transitioners on www.lynnconway.com.

There are other transgender successes in academia. Ben Barres is a popular Professor of Neurobiology at Stanford who recently made the headlines when his article challenging sexist comments made by former Harvard President Lawrence Summers was published in the prestigious scientific journal Nature. My hat is off to Ben. He has seen firsthand, through his transition from female, just how much bias there is facing women who pursue careers in the sciences. I applaud him for speaking out against the bias as a man.

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Herman is the first transgender member of the boards of The Point Foundation, the national LGBT scholarship fund, and of Gay and Lesbian Advocates and Defenders, the New England–based LGBT legal rights organization that filed and argued the court case that brought same-sex marriage to Massachusetts. She is also a member of the advisory board of the National Center for Transgender Equality.
From the archives of The Advocate and Advocate.com

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