Lynn Conway Research Paper

735 Words3 Pages
In an age of diversity, unity, and global community, one particular individual breaks down the norms to show that not everyone is treated equally, despite what we would like to think. Lynn Conway is an amazingly intelligent transgendered woman who has done an incredible amount of work in not only her career in computer engineering, but also as an activist for the transgendered community. She has brought gender identity and gender transitioning to light by courageously sharing her story with the world. Born and raised as a male, Conway grew up in White Plains, New York. Although shy and experiencing gender dysphoria as a child, she became fascinated with and engaged by astronomy and did well in math and science in high school. Conway entered MIT in 1955, earning high grades. She attempted a gender transition in 1957-1958, but this effort failed due to the feelings surrounding the medical profession at the time, and Conway left MIT in…show more content…
She was given this award by the International Court System, one of the oldest and largest predominantly gay organizations in the world, and the National Gay and Lesbian Task Force. Conway is one of the first truly successful transgendered persons to come out of long-term secrecy and tell her story, and that story should give hope to young transsexuals. It should help parents see possibilities for happiness for a transsexual daughter-to-be, especially if they were to support their child's efforts to transform a "boy's" body and become a woman early enough in life. It should also give employers pause for thought before firing someone - just because of their transsexualism. The day will come when gender transition is no longer be seen as a sad, somewhat shameful and tragic event, but instead as a wonderful life-giving miracle for those so unfortunate as to have been mis-gendered at birth. Lynn hopes to live to see that

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