American activist
Sister Mary Elizabeth Clark
|
---|
Born
| (
1938-06-16
)
June 16, 1938
(age 85)
|
---|
Nationality
| American
|
---|
Other names
| Joanna Michelle Clark
|
---|
Known for
| Trans activist, AIDS educator and archivist
|
---|
Notable work
| AIDS Education and Global Information System database
|
---|
Sister Mary Elizabeth Clark
(born 1938 in
Pontiac
,
Michigan
) is the main mover of the AIDS Education and Global Information System database, previously a pre-
World Wide Web
bulletin board system
.
[1]
Biography
[
edit
]
Clark was born in June 1938 in Pontiac, Michigan
[2]
and assigned male at birth.
In 1957, she enlisted in the
United States Navy
and rose to the rank of chief petty officer (E-7), serving as an instructor in
anti-submarine warfare
. Clark had an 11-year marriage which produced a son, but ended acrimoniously.
[3]
[4]
She married again, and later revealed her gender dysphoria to her second wife, who helped her through self-identifying as female.
[3]
Upon learning of her psychological evaluations, the Navy discharged her honorably.
[3]
In 1975, she underwent a
sex reassignment surgery
and took the name
Joanna Michelle Clark
.
[3]
A
U.S. Army Reserves
recruiter who was aware that she was transgender enlisted her as a woman in the Army in 1976.
[5]
A year and a half later, she was nominated for promotion to
warrant officer
. Her enlistment was voided when her transgender status became known to higher-ups. She brought suit against the Army and won a settlement of $25,000 and an honorable discharge.
[6]
[7]
[8]
During the 1970s, she was an activist for the rights of
transsexual people
and was instrumental in winning the right of
Californians
to have their gender changed on their birth certificates and driver licenses. In 1980, she founded and led the
ACLU
Transsexual Rights Committee.
She had been raised
Southern Baptist
, but left the church due to disillusionment with racism in its congregations.
[4]
In the 1980s, she felt a religious calling and worked to become an
Episcopal
sister. Conflict with the Episcopal diocese over the validity of the
order
she sought to found led to her leaving the denomination shortly after she took her vows in 1988,
[8]
and she later became a sister of the
American Catholic Church
, a small independent Christian denomination following
Catholic
rites.
Also in the 1980s she continued the work of the
Erickson Educational Foundation
, aiding transgender people.
[9]
[10]
In 1990, inspired by meeting an isolated young man with
AIDS
in rural
Missouri
, she returned to her family home in
San Juan Capistrano
,
California
, taking on the bulletin board system AEGIS begun by
Jamie Jemison
and eventually building it into the "most definitive ? and perhaps the most accessible ? source of information on" AIDS.
[4]
Awards and recognition
[
edit
]
She is the recipient of the Award of Courage from the
American Foundation for AIDS Research
,
[11]
the
Jonathan Mann Award for Health and Human Rights
from the International Association of Physicians in AIDS Care,
[12]
the Crystal Heart award from the San Diego GLBT Center
[
citation needed
]
and the Joan of Arc award from the
Orange County
Community Foundation.
[
citation needed
]
References
[
edit
]
- ^
"About: AEGiS History"
. AIDS Education Global information System. aegis.org. Archived from
the original
on October 22, 2007
. Retrieved
2017-01-28
.
- ^
says, SharonAnne McC (2017-02-16).
"Michael / Joanna / Sister Mary Elizabeth Clark; An American Hero"
.
Xandra
. Retrieved
2018-12-14
.
- ^
a
b
c
d
Terence (2010-08-17).
"Queers in History: Sister Mary Elizabeth Clark. transsexual nun"
.
Queers in History
. Retrieved
2018-12-14
.
- ^
a
b
c
Gottlieb, Jeff (2002-12-29).
"She Shares Her AIDS Archive With the World"
.
Los Angeles Times
.
ISSN
0458-3035
. Retrieved
2018-12-14
.
- ^
The Crystal Chronicle, November 1998
. Thecrystalclub.org. Retrieved on 2015-06-02.
- ^
Pasco, Jean O. (December 1, 1997).
"A Life of Service: Sister Mary, whose past has seen many painful twists and turns, now brings comfort to others with the world's most comprehensive Web site on AIDS and HIV"
.
Los Angeles Times
. Archived from
the original
on February 23, 2013
. Retrieved
2013-05-09
.
- ^
Article from transsexual community publication Update profiling Sr. Mary Elizabeth
- ^
a
b
SMITH, LYNN (1988-01-08).
"Transsexual Nun's Order Repudiated"
.
Los Angeles Times
.
ISSN
0458-3035
. Retrieved
2018-12-14
.
- ^
Green, Richard; Money, John (1969).
Transsexualism and Sex Reassignment
. The Johns Hopkins University Press.
ISBN
978-0801810381
.
- ^
Denny, Dallas
(August 22, 2013).
"The Impact of Emerging Technologies on One Transgender Organization"
.
Dallas Denny
: Body of Work
. Dallas Denny
. Retrieved
August 20,
2016
.
- ^
"amfAR :: 2003 Honoring with Pride Sister Mary Elisabeth, OSM :: The Foundation for AIDS Research :: HIV / AIDS Research"
.
www.amfar.org
. Retrieved
2018-12-14
.
- ^
Elton John honoured by IAPAC
Archived
2016-03-04 at the
Wayback Machine
. GayLifeUK (2003-05-20). Retrieved on 2015-06-02.
|
---|
International
| |
---|
National
| |
---|
People
| |
---|
Other
| |
---|