The LGBT Community and Medicine

Dr. Sarah Josephine Baker:

Dr Baker was an American physician who helped to fight against the effects of widespread urban poverty and ignorance caused to children. Her work organizing the first child hygiene department under government control led to the lowest infant death rate in any American or European city during the 1910’s. She also is known for (twice) tracking down Mary Mallon, the infamous index case known as Typhoid Mary. Baker was in a long-term relationship with screenwriter Ida Wylie.

Dr. Alan L. Hart:

Dr Hart was a physician, radiologist, tuberculosis researcher, writer and novelist. In 1918, he was one of the first trans men to undergo hysterectomy and gonadectomy in the United States. He pioneered the use of X-Ray photography in tuberculosis detection. Dr. Hart was instrumental in developing tuberculosis screening programs at the time that TB was the largest disease killer in the US. Dr. Hart’s efforts with screening programs saved thousands of lives. Using his system, doctors cut TB death tolls to 1/50th of previous levels.

Dr Louise Pearce:

Dr Pearce's research led to a cure for trypanosomiasis (African Sleeping Sickness) in 1919. Belgian officials, impressed and grateful for her results, awarded her the Ancient Order of the Crown and elected her a member of the Belgian Society of Tropical Medicine. For many years, Louise Pearce lived with physician Sara Josephine Baker and author Ida A. R. Wylie and is even buried alongside them. All were members of Heterodoxy, a feminist biweekly luncheon discussion club, of which many members were lesbian or bisexual.

Bruce Voeller:

Bruce Voeller was an American biologist, gay-rights activist, and AIDS researcher who pioneered the use of nonoxynol-9 as a spermacide and topical virus-transmission preventative. Before the 1980s, AIDS was known by various names, including GRIDD (Gay Related Immune Defense Disorder). Because this term was inaccurate, Voeller coined the term “Acquired Immuno Deficiency Syndrome.” At the time of his death, Voeller’s research centered on the reliability of various brands of condoms in preventing the spread of diseases.

Dr. John Ercel Fryer:

Dr. Fryer was an American psychiatrist and gay rights activist best known for his anonymous speech at the 1972 American Psychiatric Association (APA) annual conference where he appeared in disguise and under the name Dr. Henry Anonymous. This event has been cited as a key factor in the decision to de-list homosexuality as a mental illness from the APA’s Diagnostic and Statisical Manual of Mental Disorders. Fryer was the first gay American psychiatrist to speak publicly about his sexuality.