00:00:24Exploring LGBTQ+ Culture and Activism
00:09:41The Legacy of Lynn Conway
00:24:05Trailblazing Trans Tech Queen Lynn Conway
ABOUT THIS EPISODE
What if you could transform adversity into groundbreaking achievements? Join us as we honor the remarkable journey of Lynn Conway, a trans activist and coding genius whose work in microelectronic chip design revolutionized modern computing. Despite being terminated from IBM in 1968 due to her gender transition, Lynn's perseverance and innovations have left an indelible mark on technology. We explore her incredible story of resilience, including her pivotal roles at Xerox Palo Alto Research Center and the University of Michigan, and her late but heartfelt recognition as a trans hero. This episode is a tribute to her enduring legacy and a powerful reminder that the fight for transgender rights continues.
But that's not all—we dive into the creative rebellion within queer culture, from the ingenious gay furries who humorously hacked the Heritage Foundation's Project 2025 to the clever trolling of the conservative cartoon "The New Norm" on Twitter. Through laughter and creativity, this episode captures how the LGBTQ+ community combats bigotry with flair. To top it off, we share a personal story of finding joy in long-distance relationships through Pokémon Scarlet and Violet, highlighting the game's inclusive Team Star narrative. This episode is a celebration of resilience, creativity, and the vibrant tapestry of LGBTQ+ culture.
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SHOW NOTES 🔗
TRANSCRIPT 🔗
WEBVTT
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I hope that one day we don't have things like internalized transphobia.
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The best way to be the troll is to troll them back, especially people who you can just tell are the definition of.
00:00:35.710 --> 00:00:37.627
I can dish it, but I can't take it.
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Lynn would invent DIS and no one would know she was fired from IBM for being transgender.
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I hope you all are doing great today.
00:00:51.731 --> 00:00:54.052
Back once again with another banger.
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We are here to teach you all about the late and great Lynn Conway.
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She was a trans activist pioneer and she was also a coder.
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She worked in electrical engineer and working with micro electronic chip design, so we're going to be getting into her soon.
00:01:28.024 --> 00:01:34.381
Some you know recent queer culture stuff that I've been seeing floating around the internet that I just can't stop thinking about because it both makes me cry, laugh and just it's everything, it's perfect.
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So first we have I don't know if y'all heard the gay furries are at it again, leaking more information from neo-Nazis.
00:01:43.986 --> 00:01:45.030
We love to see it.
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Every time it happens.
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It fills me with joy.
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That is incomprehensible and also a lot of pride for now living in Pennsylvania because fun fact the largest furry con in the world occurs right in Pittsburgh, pennsylvania.
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It's called AnthroCon.
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Fantastic time I've actually never been personally.
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I personally am not a furry, but I love the community with all my heart.
00:02:05.522 --> 00:02:09.126
So, yeah, that's the first bit of news that has just been tickling me.
00:02:09.126 --> 00:02:12.008
Pink is the gay furries being added again.
00:02:12.008 --> 00:02:25.257
They ended up hacking the Heritage Foundation, who are the authors of Project 2025, which, if you have not heard about that, please look into it, though at this point I don't know how you wouldn't have considering.
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But, yeah, gay furries hacked them and now they're being investigated by the fbi.
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So stay tuned, folks.
00:02:32.361 --> 00:02:46.514
And another piece of you know, recent queer culture news things that have been floating around anyone who is still integrated, if you will, in the cesspool that is Twitter slash X.
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Personally, I stay away from that as far as I can.
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Just no, thank you, I'm good.
00:02:51.620 --> 00:03:02.051
I think I made one Twitter account like four years ago because I was working on a book and I had a pipe dream of how this is so embarrassing.
00:03:02.051 --> 00:03:08.183
I had a pipe dream of having Tom Hiddleston star in the movie adaptation of my book.
00:03:08.183 --> 00:03:09.344
Yeah, yeah.
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So I made a Twitter account for that.
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That was the only purpose.
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I don't think I posted to it a single time.
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Unhinged behavior, fucking delusional.
00:03:19.852 --> 00:03:22.073
I was delusional, guys, okay.
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But yeah, so that's my only experience with Twitter outside of just like witnessing it from you know an outsider's perspective, if you will.
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But there's a recent adult animated cartoon that made its way to Twitter slash X called the New Norm, and I don't know who it was actually made by, but it's very conservative adult animation.
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That's the whole deal of it.
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The New Norm is not okay because everything woke is bad.
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That's basically the whole premise and I've seen a couple of videos of like other people discussing it and like showing some clips from it and stuff like that.
00:04:08.187 --> 00:04:41.543
A bunch of people, you know allies, queers coming together to flood the tags of this Twitter page, letting people know that, letting the creators know that that people edge to norm, and just drawing fan art of norm in very gay situations.
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He's a.
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He's an older, older white man.
00:04:43.548 --> 00:05:00.184
Just for anyone who doesn't know, like context of the show this is, this character is like in their 80s, but just like drawing fan art of him and I'm telling y'all, if you have an old, dying Twitter account or an active Twitter account, I don't judge, I get it.
00:05:00.184 --> 00:05:05.451
Take a look, just go take a look, because it is so worth it.
00:05:05.451 --> 00:05:06.939
There's one creator, I believe.
00:05:06.939 --> 00:05:13.733
They go by the name Salty and they, every day, multiple times a day, have just been.
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I edge to Norm hey, norm, I'm edging to you, edging to Norm right now with just the funniest pictures I've seen.
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They are.
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It's golden, it is absolutely golden, it's great and it's just been a good reminder that, like, sometimes, the best way to beat a bully is to bully, is to be not even just bully.
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I would say, actually, scratch that.
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The best way to beat a troll is to troll them back.
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And they're getting ratioed to shit.
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Like it's working.
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It's shutting them up Rather than you know.
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Oh, we made the libs cry.
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No, we're just gonna make fun of you actually, and it's working.
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Don't tolerate the intolerant.
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Bully them.
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Don't tolerate bullies.
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Fuck them up, literally up, literally, actually.
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I think y'all appreciate this.
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I'm playing pokemon scarlet right now with my boyfriend.
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We're doing it like long distance wise, so he's playing pokemon violet and I'm playing pokemon scarlet and we, you know, like connect games, like we play in each other's worlds, and uh, it's really fun, it's really cute.
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We're having like this little long distance dates through Pokemon and I love it, but before we'd started doing that, when we were both setting up to, you know, be able to get into that mode of the story.
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I interacted with Team Star and anyone who's played the newest Pokemon games know that they're basically like the new Team Rocket, I suppose, but they're just a bunch of bullies.
00:06:43.968 --> 00:06:44.865
They're like way worse new Team Rocket, I suppose, but they're just a bunch of bullies.
00:06:44.865 --> 00:06:46.704
They're like way worse than Team Rocket because they're just fucking bullies.
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And immediately I was like oh, oh, I'm going to annihilate you, y'all are going to like.
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On the phone with my boyfriend I was like I don't know man, I just know that I need to go after Team Star, because the moment I met them it was on site.
00:07:01.185 --> 00:07:01.964
I it was on site.
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I was like y'all are done, you're done, that's it.
00:07:05.266 --> 00:07:10.670
So, yeah, don't tolerate that stuff, just yeah.
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And I love to see it.
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I love to see people getting a taste of their own medicine, especially people who you can just tell are the definition of I can dish it, but I can't take it.
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I love seeing them being forced to take it.
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You know, like you were able to dish out all of this hateful, bigoted bullshit, nonsense about queer people and about, but you can't take it, you can't take a little funny.
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Ha-ha, Okay, it's great, I love it.
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Funny.
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Ha ha, okay, it's great, I love it.
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So, so yeah, that's the pieces of fun, queer culture just you know, like little bits of good, if you will, because there's so guys like we're living through a genocide, y'all Like there's so much bad happening.
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Sometimes it's just kind of nice to take a step back and recognize that like there are people out there who are doing their best, there are people out there who are doing good things, there are people out there who are trying, and that, I feel like, is really important at a time like now.
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Well, throughout every moment in history, throughout all of those big are we going to make it through this moments of history?
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Because y'all, we have had so many.
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Just like as a species, the fact that we're still here, we have been flying by the skin of our teeth since our inception.
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Y'all like even the fact that we only carry babies for nine months, when they clearly need longer in the womb.
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But an afab person cannot push out a baby after that nine-month point.
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It becomes dangerous to their health.
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We should not have gotten as far as we have, plain and simply.
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But here we are and we will continue to be.
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Basically, and sometimes it's really important focusing on the little bits of good coming out as those reminders that we will continue to be and there is more good than there is bad.
00:09:09.534 --> 00:09:14.471
Just because the bad has the megaphone, just because they're louder, doesn't mean there is more of them.
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So keep that in mind All right.
00:09:18.650 --> 00:09:23.032
So with that, I wouldn't even say out of the way, because that was a lot of fun for me.
00:09:23.032 --> 00:09:31.284
I don't know about y'all, but with that done, let's jump in to the astounding beautiful Lynn Conway.
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So Miss Lynn was born January 2nd 1938 and passed away June 9th 2024.
00:09:37.868 --> 00:09:39.849
So it was early June that she passed away.
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Lynn was a computer scientist and electrical engineer whose work in microelectronic chip design is the foundation of many different computing functions that we still use today, like the microchip, the silicone.
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That's all her.
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She built the technical foundations to make all of that happen.
00:10:03.085 --> 00:10:16.746
There is so much of this recording software, this laptop I'm recording on like there is so much of what we use today technologically that can be traced back to her design of the microchip.
00:10:16.746 --> 00:10:35.826
So before inventing the microchip, all the way back in 1965, while working for IBM, she changed the world of technical engineering by inventing Dynamic Instruction Scheduling, or DIS for short, and as a direct quote from the University of Michigan's article about her states.
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Most computer engineers thought DIS was a generalization of decades of work and had no idea it had been invented in 1965.
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It caused Lynn great angst to see her wonderful invention so widely used and described in all the computer architecture textbooks without anyone knowing it was her idea.
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So this was a generalization of decades of work.
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Again, it's difficult to explain as someone who doesn't really do too much in computers, but I think the best way I could put this in a way that me and people like me who aren't like super tech savvy could probably understand is my father was born in 65.
00:11:18.875 --> 00:11:20.427
He was born in December of 65.
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And he started getting into, he worked in tech.
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He worked in like the foundations of like like the early days of the internet, if you will like he helped build that like early internet code kind of thing, and he worked for ibm and he would frequently discuss, like he, this this was pivotal to allowing him to do the things he needed to do in a timely manner.
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This is actually just a fun fact.
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This hits a little close to home for me because my father, who passed away when I was 11, worked in tech and very much worked with the advancements that Lin invented, like he worked with the, you know, like that's really cool to me.
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That tickles me pink again.
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I say so yes, unfortunately Lynn would invent DIS and no one would know.
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For years no one would know that it was her and no one would know that she was the one who invented this.
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And the reason for that is because in 1968, she was fired from IBM.
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And the reason behind her firing is because throughout the years of 1966 and 1967, she began medically transitioning.
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She was fired from IBM for being transgender, ibm for being transgender.
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Throughout the years 1966 and 1967, she had begun medically transitioning with pioneering physician Henry Benjamin and at first IBM was on board.
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Ibm seemed very supportive.
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It was their health insurance that was helping her cover this.
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They seemed on board and due to the support of her job, she had tenuous support from her family.
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It was kind of one of those things where the two were interlinked Because she was able to maintain the capitalist idea of functioning in society while still medically transitioning.
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She was able to maintain family and friend support a support system throughout her transition.
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However, in 1968, right before she was preparing to undergo bottom surgery, ibm fired her because they were concerned.
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The higher ups within IBM like literally all the way up to the the president of IBM at the time, the CEO, tj Watson Jr Himself this went all the way up the chain decided that they would fire her rather than risking having a trans woman working for them being out into the world.
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Like they didn't want the publicity and the the backlash that would have come from continuing to employ a trans woman at this point in time.
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So they decided to fire her right when she was about to undergo bottom surgery.
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Like, oh my God, I couldn't imagine that it would not be until 2020 that IBM would issue an apology to Lynn so long overdue, long, long, long overdue.
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This is another quote from the University of Michigan's article about Lynn.
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Lynn's case was the first that IBM the idea that a professional person would seek a sex change totally shocked IBM's management.
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And then there were a few sentences that I chose to omit just due to the dated sense of the article.
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This article was written back in.
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I mean, when you look at the webpage, the webpage looks like it's from 2002.
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I believe the article was written around the early 2000s, so it definitely uses some language and wording that would be considered outdated and could be considered offensive to some people.
00:15:09.304 --> 00:15:23.616
So those phrases, words I either omitted entirely from direct quotes or altered to more present day terminology, if that hope that makes sense.
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When top IBM management learned what Lynn was doing, she was fired in a maelstrom of animosity.
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It is almost certain that the decision was made by TJ Watson Jr himself and he was the CEO of IBM at the time.
00:15:38.589 --> 00:15:58.556
So yeah, and again, to not apologize until 2020, 2020, the year where you know a lot of businesses, a lot of influencers, a lot of popular people quote unquote were very much being faced with accountability.
00:15:58.556 --> 00:16:03.908
Of course they were like oh, we should, probably, we should probably.
00:16:03.908 --> 00:16:13.861
Oh no, you know, it feels a little disingenuous when it only comes after the point where people are demanding accountability.
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It should have happened a lot sooner than that.
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She was fired all the way back in 1968.
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So after her firing and cut off entirely from her professional connections, her family and personal support system also just fell apart.
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She was entirely alone.
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I couldn't imagine that.
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I mean, it's something that so many queer and trans people can identify with.
00:16:40.868 --> 00:16:56.979
It's something that is, I feel, personally, sadly intrinsic to the queer experience, because it's that whole idea of having a found family, because a lot of times there are people in your family who won't ever.
00:16:56.979 --> 00:17:25.436
I mean, there are whole sections of my family that I just don't acknowledge really as family at this point, genuinely, because if you can't accept me and be be here, you know, be here with me as who I am, if you can't be bothered to hear me out, even bye, so so yeah, no, I, I definitely it's not, I wouldn't necessarily.
00:17:25.436 --> 00:17:31.127
You know, when I say it's intrinsic to the queer experience, I'm not saying like you can't be queer unless your family cuts you off.
00:17:31.127 --> 00:17:31.807
Obviously I'm just.
00:17:31.807 --> 00:17:41.815
It feels like that type of familial trauma is very it's something that a lot of queer people can understand.
00:17:41.815 --> 00:17:48.059
It's just, it just is, it just is, and you know it's empathizing.
00:17:48.059 --> 00:17:50.181
It's an experience that every queer person knows.
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That's basically I don't know.
00:17:55.046 --> 00:17:57.045
I feel like I was going somewhere more with that and then my whole brain took a shit.
00:17:57.045 --> 00:18:12.067
Y'all ever have that happen, where you feel like you're going somewhere with a thought and then your whole brain just fizzles out to nothing and you're like, ah, ah, there was something there.
00:18:12.067 --> 00:18:12.868
Damn, I know it.
00:18:12.868 --> 00:18:12.989
Heike.
00:18:12.989 --> 00:18:15.996
I wish you could pause this like this.
00:18:15.996 --> 00:18:18.059
This only has a stop button.
00:18:18.059 --> 00:18:20.605
Why isn't there a pause button?
00:18:20.605 --> 00:18:30.827
Do you know how many times I would have just like paused and given myself a minute, like, oh my god, bro, design a platform with a pause button, please.
00:18:30.827 --> 00:18:31.548
And thank you.
00:18:31.548 --> 00:18:33.853
Anyway, I digress.
00:18:34.894 --> 00:18:50.398
So, entirely by herself, lynn traveled to Mexico for her bottom surgery and returned to a new life with a new name, a new place to live, not in touch with anyone from her past, and a new career.
00:18:50.398 --> 00:19:09.817
She started over again from the ground floor, like she went from being really pretty high up at IBM you know, she invented something that was revolutionary to computer engineering at the time to back at the bottom floor and working her way back up.
00:19:09.817 --> 00:19:13.896
At this point she was living stealth.
00:19:13.896 --> 00:19:21.296
She was working her way back up through the technical ladder as a cis woman according to the rest of the world.
00:19:21.296 --> 00:19:40.673
Anyone who is in the community probably knows what stealth means, but to people who aren't aware of what living stealth is, living stealth is basically when a trans person transitions medically and does not identify as trans whatsoever.
00:19:40.673 --> 00:19:48.673
They identify, they live as a cis man or woman, whoever they, whatever you know.
00:19:48.673 --> 00:19:54.773
However, they ended up transitioning, if you will, and that's how Lynn was living at this point in time.
00:19:54.884 --> 00:20:24.413
She came back from having her bottom surgery and was living entirely in stealth, say we, but a lot of red pillars, if you will discuss transness and queerness as if it is entirely new, as if it's this new thing, you know, but all the time, I think about the fact that we have no idea how many trans people could have just been living stealth.
00:20:24.413 --> 00:20:31.227
We will never know that could have just been living stealth.
00:20:31.227 --> 00:20:32.849
We will never know that.
00:20:32.849 --> 00:20:38.659
That will never be known or understood, because that's just how time works and how not keeping track works.
00:20:38.659 --> 00:20:42.290
And yeah, that's something that I think about a lot.
00:20:42.290 --> 00:20:48.375
I don't know just how many people could have been living stealth the whole time and I love all of them.
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I love every.
00:20:50.771 --> 00:20:51.934
You know, because I get it.
00:20:52.526 --> 00:20:58.238
I have no animosity toward people who choose to live in stealth because it's scary.
00:20:58.238 --> 00:21:00.050
The world is hard.
00:21:00.050 --> 00:21:03.694
The world is a really fucking scary place.
00:21:03.694 --> 00:21:06.113
I am a sensitive crybaby.
00:21:06.113 --> 00:21:08.109
The world kind of sucks.
00:21:08.109 --> 00:21:18.996
I understand that desire to protect that comes from living in stealth mode because it is safe.
00:21:18.996 --> 00:21:20.038
It's a lot safer.
00:21:20.038 --> 00:21:28.917
I see some online animosity toward people who decide to go stealth and personally I feel nothing but love.
00:21:29.638 --> 00:21:45.811
I hope that one day we are able to build a world that is accepting and safe enough that no one feels like they have to hide themselves like that and live in stealth, unless that's something that they truly just want to do.
00:21:45.811 --> 00:21:54.461
I hope that one day we don't have things like internalized transphobia or I mean it's going to.
00:21:54.461 --> 00:21:56.311
I'm never going to see that day.
00:21:56.311 --> 00:21:58.611
That day's going to happen long after I die.
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I know that.
00:21:59.272 --> 00:22:04.656
But, like I hope one day people won't feel the need to live in stealth.
00:22:05.046 --> 00:22:08.395
I hope one day that stealth isn't even going to be a thing Like the.
00:22:08.395 --> 00:22:13.915
You know like that that, this idea of of needing to be fuck.
00:22:13.915 --> 00:22:16.126
One day I hope gender ain't even going to be a thing.
00:22:16.126 --> 00:22:20.195
You know what I mean If we're getting so real with it.
00:22:20.195 --> 00:22:24.309
I hope one day even just the whole concept of gender doesn't exist.
00:22:24.309 --> 00:22:25.811
That's the day.
00:22:27.914 --> 00:22:31.946
But you know again, never gonna live to see it and I'm cool with that.
00:22:31.946 --> 00:22:35.076
I'm cool with working toward a world that I'm never gonna live to see.
00:22:35.076 --> 00:22:38.669
That doesn't fill me with dread.
00:22:38.669 --> 00:22:40.794
That doesn't fill me with this grief of.
00:22:40.794 --> 00:22:42.958
Oh no, I'm happy to do that.
00:22:42.958 --> 00:22:48.594
I'm happy to help build a world that might not exist until long after I'm dead.
00:22:48.594 --> 00:22:50.336
Fuck it, I'll be a ghost there.
00:22:50.336 --> 00:22:52.539
That'd be a fun place to be a ghost.
00:22:52.539 --> 00:23:13.271
You know like well they're family members and stuff like that, where it looks like this idea of doom and gloom.
00:23:13.271 --> 00:23:13.752
But it's not.
00:23:13.752 --> 00:23:14.032
It's hopeful.
00:23:14.032 --> 00:23:15.938
I know that this world is possible.
00:23:15.938 --> 00:23:27.059
I know that we are capable of this world and I'm willing to work toward it, even though I know that there's a good chance it's probably not going to happen for a long fucking time.
00:23:27.059 --> 00:23:30.548
A good chance it's probably not gonna happen for a long fucking time.
00:23:30.548 --> 00:23:33.772
Like that's, it's still worth it to push the needle toward it to one day have it happen.
00:23:33.772 --> 00:23:40.590
I don't know again, maybe that's just me thoughts, opinions, feelings.
00:23:40.590 --> 00:23:41.332
Let us know.
00:23:41.332 --> 00:23:52.772
Check us out on insta on tiktok and you know, hop in the comments and let me know if you also constantly think about stuff like this, because I need to know that I'm not alone here.
00:23:52.772 --> 00:23:58.269
All of our socials will be in the description below, if you guys are interested.
00:23:58.269 --> 00:24:02.276
Oh, my goodness, that was funny.
00:24:02.276 --> 00:24:04.400
I make myself giggle.
00:24:05.644 --> 00:24:18.000
And she starts her career over from the ground floor back up and in 1973, she was hired by Xerox Palo Alto Research Center where she would once again revolutionize the computer trip design.
00:24:18.000 --> 00:24:23.694
Like, this girl did not stop, diva went let me revolutionize technology once again.
00:24:23.694 --> 00:24:30.133
Like Diva looked at life and was like I think I'm going to revolutionize technology not once, but twice.
00:24:30.133 --> 00:24:33.983
Yes, yes, as she should.
00:24:33.983 --> 00:24:53.250
In 1983, she was brought into the Department of Defense to research machine intelligence tech, and in 1985, she was hired at the University of Michigan as a professor of computer science and electrical engineering, along with being the associate dean of the engineering school at the same university.
00:24:53.250 --> 00:24:58.586
Within her tenure, the school became one of the foremost in the nation, according to Forbes.
00:24:58.586 --> 00:25:04.640
Like, this girl does win after win after win after win.
00:25:04.640 --> 00:25:13.722
It was while working with Xerox Palo Alto Research Center that she would invent the silicone microchip.
00:25:13.722 --> 00:25:18.123
Basically, she would revolutionize the creation of that chip.
00:25:19.214 --> 00:25:24.538
Computer science and engineering would not exist as it does today without Lynn's technological contributions.
00:25:24.538 --> 00:25:26.021
Plain and simply, it wouldn't.
00:25:26.021 --> 00:25:40.363
A quote from Valeria Bretango, another brilliant mind in the computer science field, was quoted as saying chips used to be designed by drawing them with paper and pencil, like an architect's blueprints in the pre-digital age.
00:25:40.363 --> 00:25:49.734
Conway's work developed algorithms that enabled our field to use software to arrange millions, and later billions of transistors on a chip.
00:25:49.734 --> 00:25:55.440
Again, even as someone who doesn't understand tech, I can understand that that's huge.
00:25:55.440 --> 00:26:10.452
You go from the rudimentary paper-to-pencil step one to like step 30 in two years, three years, with one invention.
00:26:10.452 --> 00:26:12.019
It's crazy.
00:26:12.019 --> 00:26:13.800
That's absurd.
00:26:13.800 --> 00:26:22.281
That blows my mind Even I know that's absolutely absurdly crazy.
00:26:22.281 --> 00:26:23.346
That's absurd.
00:26:23.346 --> 00:26:25.295
That blows my mind Even I know that's absolutely absurdly crazy.
00:26:36.755 --> 00:26:41.509
So it wouldn't be until around the 1990s, almost 2000s, that the world recognized it was Lin who, not once but twice, revolutionized computing technologies.
00:26:41.509 --> 00:26:48.394
And it was because of transphobia, it was because, you know, being fired by IBM, having to completely start her life over and having to completely disconnect herself from that previous invention.
00:26:48.394 --> 00:26:56.490
That previous invention had her dead name attached to it, a name that no one really knew what happened to at that point.
00:26:56.490 --> 00:27:14.423
And it basically took computer technology historians looking into the invention of DIS closely, specifically looking into the invention and the inventor of DIS specifically, to figure out that it was Lin, to figure out that it was Lynn.
00:27:14.423 --> 00:27:20.209
And that wouldn't happen until the 1990s, almost the year 2000.
00:27:20.209 --> 00:27:22.211
Around the year 2000,.
00:27:22.211 --> 00:27:47.344
She would come out in a New York Times article with the author, michael Hiltzik, and in the article she would state I was known for breaking the gender barrier in the computer science field as a woman, but in 2000, it became the transgender barrier I was breaking, which, yes, yes, yes, I actually believe she wrote that article in 2002.
00:27:47.344 --> 00:28:01.186
It was in Hiltzik's New York times article that Lynn would come out as trans and dive into her life story, explaining one of the many reasons for her leaving stealth mode.
00:28:01.689 --> 00:28:08.076
So you know, obviously there's many reasons for someone living in stealth mode, especially for Lynn, and especially at this point in time.
00:28:08.076 --> 00:28:17.567
She had lost everything, everyone to her journey of coming out as trans, which no one should ever have to do.
00:28:17.567 --> 00:28:20.457
You should never have to lose things.
00:28:20.457 --> 00:28:24.625
There should never be a price for authenticity y'all.
00:28:24.625 --> 00:28:27.057
I don't know who needs to hear that.
00:28:27.057 --> 00:28:28.622
I don't know who needs to be reminded of that.
00:28:28.622 --> 00:28:33.478
There should not be a price tag on being authentically you.
00:28:33.478 --> 00:28:38.327
You do not need someone else's consent to be authentically you.
00:28:38.327 --> 00:28:43.786
There shouldn't be a price to pay just for being yourself.
00:28:43.786 --> 00:28:44.406
That's bull.
00:28:44.406 --> 00:28:53.239
Anyone who tries to tell you otherwise is a walking red flag Again, just something I feel like that you know people need to be reminded of.
00:28:53.239 --> 00:28:55.106
You are free to be authentically you without anyone else's permission.
00:28:55.106 --> 00:28:57.194
You are free to be authentically you without anyone else's permission.
00:28:57.194 --> 00:29:01.364
You are free to be yourself authentically without someone else's consent.
00:29:01.364 --> 00:29:03.087
Glad we got that out of the way.
00:29:03.875 --> 00:29:08.968
This quote comes once again from the University of Michigan site Lynn Conway's story page.
00:29:08.968 --> 00:29:15.567
Lynn is the first truly successful case to come out of long-term stealth and tell her story.
00:29:15.567 --> 00:29:20.143
That story should give hope to young transgender people.
00:29:20.143 --> 00:29:32.563
It should help parents see possibilities for happiness for a transgender 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.
00:29:32.563 --> 00:29:39.080
It should also give employers pause for thought before firing someone just because of their being transgender.
00:29:39.642 --> 00:29:53.646
The day will come when gender transition will no longer be seen as a sad, somewhat shameful and tragic event, but instead as a wonderful, life-giving miracle to those so unfortunate as to have been misgendered at birth.
00:29:53.646 --> 00:30:01.423
Lynn hopes to live to see that day and, lynn, I am so sorry that you couldn't live to see that day.
00:30:01.423 --> 00:30:05.780
I also hope I get to live to see that day, even though I'm sure I probably won't.
00:30:05.780 --> 00:30:11.539
But you know what babes, our kids will, our grandkids will, the kids they will.
00:30:11.539 --> 00:30:15.087
You know Like we're going to try and make sure of that.
00:30:15.087 --> 00:30:18.659
We're going to do our best to make sure that.
00:30:18.659 --> 00:30:20.144
I really didn't think I was gonna cry reading that again.
00:30:20.144 --> 00:30:21.430
I wrote this down.
00:30:21.430 --> 00:30:22.654
I did this research.
00:30:22.654 --> 00:30:23.856
Why am I crying?
00:30:23.856 --> 00:30:32.938
Oh my god, I worked too hard on this makeup to cry it off before I finished this episode, damn it.
00:30:34.101 --> 00:30:52.400
In her time working with an l working within LGBTQIA plus activism and trans inclusion, she was named a trans hero by the national LGBTQ task force in 2009 and was honored by time in 2014 by being named one of the most influential LGBTQ plus people of the United States.
00:30:52.400 --> 00:30:56.701
Alrighty Rest in peace, miss Lynn.
00:30:56.701 --> 00:31:05.154
We love If there are any other queer trans activists and people of the past that you would like us to talk about.
00:31:05.154 --> 00:31:13.596
Please check us out on social media, which again are all in the description below, and leave us a comment letting us know who you would like us to look into and do an episode on.
00:31:13.596 --> 00:31:24.670
I'm hoping that at some point soon, perhaps around her birthday, we will do an episode about the angelic mother of whores, cecilia Gelenti.
00:31:24.670 --> 00:31:27.102
Keep your fingers crossed.
00:31:27.102 --> 00:31:43.950
I'm hoping we'll see that coming down the pipeline, probably around her birthday, but let us know if that's something that you would be interested in and if there are any other topics activists, musicians, anything that you would like us to touch on, please leave us a comment, let us know.
00:31:43.950 --> 00:31:45.000
We'd love to hear from you.
00:31:45.000 --> 00:31:57.657
If you give us a follow on TikTok, we're getting close to 1,000 followers, which means we'll be able to go live and I am considering doing get ready for the podcast with me kind of lives, maybe even some like research with me lives.
00:31:57.657 --> 00:32:04.861
Let me know if you guys, if that's something y'all would also like to see, we're going to jump into the interesting fact and then I will let y'all go.
00:32:05.923 --> 00:32:19.559
Today's interesting fact is, on top of the numerous honors lynn has received for her work in computer science and transgender activism, she also holds five separate US patents and five honorary degrees.
00:32:19.559 --> 00:32:24.671
Like diva Girl, she was on it, girl was on it.
00:32:24.671 --> 00:32:32.067
Diva was absolutely slaying the technical field in every sense of the word, and we love a STEM queen.
00:32:32.067 --> 00:32:33.599
I'm a camp math gay, but we love a STEM queen here.
00:32:33.599 --> 00:32:34.746
Alrighty y'all, stay safe, stay queer, have a good queen.
00:32:34.746 --> 00:32:35.971
I'm a camp math gay, but we love a stem queen here.
00:32:35.971 --> 00:32:38.015
Alrighty y'all, stay safe, stay queer, have a good one.
00:32:38.015 --> 00:32:59.199
We'll see you next time.
00:00:24.094 --> 00:00:29.498
I hope that one day we don't have things like internalized transphobia.
00:00:29.498 --> 00:00:35.710
The best way to be the troll is to troll them back, especially people who you can just tell are the definition of.
00:00:35.710 --> 00:00:37.627
I can dish it, but I can't take it.
00:00:37.627 --> 00:00:45.206
Lynn would invent DIS and no one would know she was fired from IBM for being transgender.
00:00:45.206 --> 00:00:51.731
I hope you all are doing great today.
00:00:51.731 --> 00:00:54.052
Back once again with another banger.
00:00:54.052 --> 00:00:59.337
We are here to teach you all about the late and great Lynn Conway.
00:00:59.337 --> 00:01:07.385
She was a trans activist pioneer and she was also a coder.
00:01:07.385 --> 00:01:28.003
She worked in electrical engineer and working with micro electronic chip design, so we're going to be getting into her soon.
00:01:28.024 --> 00:01:34.381
Some you know recent queer culture stuff that I've been seeing floating around the internet that I just can't stop thinking about because it both makes me cry, laugh and just it's everything, it's perfect.
00:01:34.381 --> 00:01:43.986
So first we have I don't know if y'all heard the gay furries are at it again, leaking more information from neo-Nazis.
00:01:43.986 --> 00:01:45.030
We love to see it.
00:01:45.030 --> 00:01:46.102
Every time it happens.
00:01:46.102 --> 00:01:47.146
It fills me with joy.
00:01:47.146 --> 00:01:57.281
That is incomprehensible and also a lot of pride for now living in Pennsylvania because fun fact the largest furry con in the world occurs right in Pittsburgh, pennsylvania.
00:01:57.281 --> 00:01:58.506
It's called AnthroCon.
00:01:58.506 --> 00:02:01.799
Fantastic time I've actually never been personally.
00:02:01.799 --> 00:02:05.522
I personally am not a furry, but I love the community with all my heart.
00:02:05.522 --> 00:02:09.126
So, yeah, that's the first bit of news that has just been tickling me.
00:02:09.126 --> 00:02:12.008
Pink is the gay furries being added again.
00:02:12.008 --> 00:02:25.257
They ended up hacking the Heritage Foundation, who are the authors of Project 2025, which, if you have not heard about that, please look into it, though at this point I don't know how you wouldn't have considering.
00:02:25.257 --> 00:02:30.370
But, yeah, gay furries hacked them and now they're being investigated by the fbi.
00:02:30.370 --> 00:02:31.432
So stay tuned, folks.
00:02:32.361 --> 00:02:46.514
And another piece of you know, recent queer culture news things that have been floating around anyone who is still integrated, if you will, in the cesspool that is Twitter slash X.
00:02:46.514 --> 00:02:49.770
Personally, I stay away from that as far as I can.
00:02:49.770 --> 00:02:51.620
Just no, thank you, I'm good.
00:02:51.620 --> 00:03:02.051
I think I made one Twitter account like four years ago because I was working on a book and I had a pipe dream of how this is so embarrassing.
00:03:02.051 --> 00:03:08.183
I had a pipe dream of having Tom Hiddleston star in the movie adaptation of my book.
00:03:08.183 --> 00:03:09.344
Yeah, yeah.
00:03:09.344 --> 00:03:12.426
So I made a Twitter account for that.
00:03:12.426 --> 00:03:13.948
That was the only purpose.
00:03:13.948 --> 00:03:15.968
I don't think I posted to it a single time.
00:03:15.968 --> 00:03:19.852
Unhinged behavior, fucking delusional.
00:03:19.852 --> 00:03:22.073
I was delusional, guys, okay.
00:03:22.073 --> 00:03:31.979
But yeah, so that's my only experience with Twitter outside of just like witnessing it from you know an outsider's perspective, if you will.
00:03:32.360 --> 00:03:49.126
But there's a recent adult animated cartoon that made its way to Twitter slash X called the New Norm, and I don't know who it was actually made by, but it's very conservative adult animation.
00:03:49.126 --> 00:03:50.889
That's the whole deal of it.
00:03:50.889 --> 00:03:58.020
The New Norm is not okay because everything woke is bad.
00:03:58.020 --> 00:04:08.187
That's basically the whole premise and I've seen a couple of videos of like other people discussing it and like showing some clips from it and stuff like that.
00:04:08.187 --> 00:04:41.543
A bunch of people, you know allies, queers coming together to flood the tags of this Twitter page, letting people know that, letting the creators know that that people edge to norm, and just drawing fan art of norm in very gay situations.
00:04:41.543 --> 00:04:41.923
He's a.
00:04:41.923 --> 00:04:43.548
He's an older, older white man.
00:04:43.548 --> 00:05:00.184
Just for anyone who doesn't know, like context of the show this is, this character is like in their 80s, but just like drawing fan art of him and I'm telling y'all, if you have an old, dying Twitter account or an active Twitter account, I don't judge, I get it.
00:05:00.184 --> 00:05:05.451
Take a look, just go take a look, because it is so worth it.
00:05:05.451 --> 00:05:06.939
There's one creator, I believe.
00:05:06.939 --> 00:05:13.733
They go by the name Salty and they, every day, multiple times a day, have just been.
00:05:13.853 --> 00:05:20.060
I edge to Norm hey, norm, I'm edging to you, edging to Norm right now with just the funniest pictures I've seen.
00:05:20.060 --> 00:05:20.500
They are.
00:05:20.500 --> 00:05:31.826
It's golden, it is absolutely golden, it's great and it's just been a good reminder that, like, sometimes, the best way to beat a bully is to bully, is to be not even just bully.
00:05:31.826 --> 00:05:33.048
I would say, actually, scratch that.
00:05:33.048 --> 00:05:37.870
The best way to beat a troll is to troll them back.
00:05:37.870 --> 00:05:42.132
And they're getting ratioed to shit.
00:05:42.132 --> 00:05:43.413
Like it's working.
00:05:43.413 --> 00:05:48.156
It's shutting them up Rather than you know.
00:05:48.156 --> 00:05:51.437
Oh, we made the libs cry.
00:05:51.437 --> 00:05:58.204
No, we're just gonna make fun of you actually, and it's working.
00:05:58.204 --> 00:06:00.009
Don't tolerate the intolerant.
00:06:00.009 --> 00:06:04.658
Bully them.
00:06:04.658 --> 00:06:05.261
Don't tolerate bullies.
00:06:05.261 --> 00:06:08.288
Fuck them up, literally up, literally, actually.
00:06:08.288 --> 00:06:09.291
I think y'all appreciate this.
00:06:09.379 --> 00:06:11.512
I'm playing pokemon scarlet right now with my boyfriend.
00:06:11.512 --> 00:06:22.552
We're doing it like long distance wise, so he's playing pokemon violet and I'm playing pokemon scarlet and we, you know, like connect games, like we play in each other's worlds, and uh, it's really fun, it's really cute.
00:06:22.552 --> 00:06:32.408
We're having like this little long distance dates through Pokemon and I love it, but before we'd started doing that, when we were both setting up to, you know, be able to get into that mode of the story.
00:06:32.408 --> 00:06:43.968
I interacted with Team Star and anyone who's played the newest Pokemon games know that they're basically like the new Team Rocket, I suppose, but they're just a bunch of bullies.
00:06:43.968 --> 00:06:44.865
They're like way worse new Team Rocket, I suppose, but they're just a bunch of bullies.
00:06:44.865 --> 00:06:46.704
They're like way worse than Team Rocket because they're just fucking bullies.
00:06:46.704 --> 00:06:53.841
And immediately I was like oh, oh, I'm going to annihilate you, y'all are going to like.
00:06:54.105 --> 00:07:01.185
On the phone with my boyfriend I was like I don't know man, I just know that I need to go after Team Star, because the moment I met them it was on site.
00:07:01.185 --> 00:07:01.964
I it was on site.
00:07:01.964 --> 00:07:05.266
I was like y'all are done, you're done, that's it.
00:07:05.266 --> 00:07:10.670
So, yeah, don't tolerate that stuff, just yeah.
00:07:11.290 --> 00:07:12.550
And I love to see it.
00:07:12.550 --> 00:07:22.096
I love to see people getting a taste of their own medicine, especially people who you can just tell are the definition of I can dish it, but I can't take it.
00:07:22.096 --> 00:07:26.038
I love seeing them being forced to take it.
00:07:26.038 --> 00:07:40.103
You know, like you were able to dish out all of this hateful, bigoted bullshit, nonsense about queer people and about, but you can't take it, you can't take a little funny.
00:07:40.103 --> 00:07:41.324
Ha-ha, Okay, it's great, I love it.
00:07:41.324 --> 00:07:41.464
Funny.
00:07:41.464 --> 00:07:43.908
Ha ha, okay, it's great, I love it.
00:07:43.908 --> 00:08:02.714
So, so yeah, that's the pieces of fun, queer culture just you know, like little bits of good, if you will, because there's so guys like we're living through a genocide, y'all Like there's so much bad happening.
00:08:03.255 --> 00:08:17.345
Sometimes it's just kind of nice to take a step back and recognize that like there are people out there who are doing their best, there are people out there who are doing good things, there are people out there who are trying, and that, I feel like, is really important at a time like now.
00:08:17.345 --> 00:08:23.750
Well, throughout every moment in history, throughout all of those big are we going to make it through this moments of history?
00:08:23.750 --> 00:08:25.579
Because y'all, we have had so many.
00:08:25.579 --> 00:08:33.183
Just like as a species, the fact that we're still here, we have been flying by the skin of our teeth since our inception.
00:08:33.183 --> 00:08:41.051
Y'all like even the fact that we only carry babies for nine months, when they clearly need longer in the womb.
00:08:41.051 --> 00:08:46.159
But an afab person cannot push out a baby after that nine-month point.
00:08:46.159 --> 00:08:47.964
It becomes dangerous to their health.
00:08:47.964 --> 00:08:54.361
We should not have gotten as far as we have, plain and simply.
00:08:54.361 --> 00:08:59.731
But here we are and we will continue to be.
00:08:59.731 --> 00:09:09.534
Basically, and sometimes it's really important focusing on the little bits of good coming out as those reminders that we will continue to be and there is more good than there is bad.
00:09:09.534 --> 00:09:14.471
Just because the bad has the megaphone, just because they're louder, doesn't mean there is more of them.
00:09:14.471 --> 00:09:18.650
So keep that in mind All right.
00:09:18.650 --> 00:09:23.032
So with that, I wouldn't even say out of the way, because that was a lot of fun for me.
00:09:23.032 --> 00:09:31.284
I don't know about y'all, but with that done, let's jump in to the astounding beautiful Lynn Conway.
00:09:31.284 --> 00:09:37.868
So Miss Lynn was born January 2nd 1938 and passed away June 9th 2024.
00:09:37.868 --> 00:09:39.849
So it was early June that she passed away.
00:09:41.149 --> 00:09:54.216
Lynn was a computer scientist and electrical engineer whose work in microelectronic chip design is the foundation of many different computing functions that we still use today, like the microchip, the silicone.
00:09:54.216 --> 00:09:55.857
That's all her.
00:09:55.857 --> 00:10:03.085
She built the technical foundations to make all of that happen.
00:10:03.085 --> 00:10:16.746
There is so much of this recording software, this laptop I'm recording on like there is so much of what we use today technologically that can be traced back to her design of the microchip.
00:10:16.746 --> 00:10:35.826
So before inventing the microchip, all the way back in 1965, while working for IBM, she changed the world of technical engineering by inventing Dynamic Instruction Scheduling, or DIS for short, and as a direct quote from the University of Michigan's article about her states.
00:10:35.826 --> 00:10:44.669
Most computer engineers thought DIS was a generalization of decades of work and had no idea it had been invented in 1965.
00:10:44.669 --> 00:10:54.205
It caused Lynn great angst to see her wonderful invention so widely used and described in all the computer architecture textbooks without anyone knowing it was her idea.
00:10:54.205 --> 00:11:00.075
So this was a generalization of decades of work.
00:11:00.681 --> 00:11:18.875
Again, it's difficult to explain as someone who doesn't really do too much in computers, but I think the best way I could put this in a way that me and people like me who aren't like super tech savvy could probably understand is my father was born in 65.
00:11:18.875 --> 00:11:20.427
He was born in December of 65.
00:11:20.427 --> 00:11:24.410
And he started getting into, he worked in tech.
00:11:24.410 --> 00:11:48.393
He worked in like the foundations of like like the early days of the internet, if you will like he helped build that like early internet code kind of thing, and he worked for ibm and he would frequently discuss, like he, this this was pivotal to allowing him to do the things he needed to do in a timely manner.
00:11:48.393 --> 00:11:50.022
This is actually just a fun fact.
00:11:50.022 --> 00:12:05.807
This hits a little close to home for me because my father, who passed away when I was 11, worked in tech and very much worked with the advancements that Lin invented, like he worked with the, you know, like that's really cool to me.
00:12:05.807 --> 00:12:09.214
That tickles me pink again.
00:12:09.274 --> 00:12:16.730
I say so yes, unfortunately Lynn would invent DIS and no one would know.
00:12:16.730 --> 00:12:22.982
For years no one would know that it was her and no one would know that she was the one who invented this.
00:12:22.982 --> 00:12:28.486
And the reason for that is because in 1968, she was fired from IBM.
00:12:28.486 --> 00:12:38.495
And the reason behind her firing is because throughout the years of 1966 and 1967, she began medically transitioning.
00:12:38.495 --> 00:12:47.402
She was fired from IBM for being transgender, ibm for being transgender.
00:12:47.402 --> 00:12:53.235
Throughout the years 1966 and 1967, she had begun medically transitioning with pioneering physician Henry Benjamin and at first IBM was on board.
00:12:53.235 --> 00:12:54.498
Ibm seemed very supportive.
00:12:54.498 --> 00:12:57.886
It was their health insurance that was helping her cover this.
00:12:57.886 --> 00:13:05.951
They seemed on board and due to the support of her job, she had tenuous support from her family.
00:13:05.951 --> 00:13:20.591
It was kind of one of those things where the two were interlinked Because she was able to maintain the capitalist idea of functioning in society while still medically transitioning.
00:13:20.591 --> 00:13:28.553
She was able to maintain family and friend support a support system throughout her transition.
00:13:28.553 --> 00:13:39.936
However, in 1968, right before she was preparing to undergo bottom surgery, ibm fired her because they were concerned.
00:13:39.936 --> 00:13:59.067
The higher ups within IBM like literally all the way up to the the president of IBM at the time, the CEO, tj Watson Jr Himself this went all the way up the chain decided that they would fire her rather than risking having a trans woman working for them being out into the world.
00:13:59.067 --> 00:14:10.938
Like they didn't want the publicity and the the backlash that would have come from continuing to employ a trans woman at this point in time.
00:14:10.938 --> 00:14:15.684
So they decided to fire her right when she was about to undergo bottom surgery.
00:14:15.825 --> 00:14:29.897
Like, oh my God, I couldn't imagine that it would not be until 2020 that IBM would issue an apology to Lynn so long overdue, long, long, long overdue.
00:14:29.897 --> 00:14:34.453
This is another quote from the University of Michigan's article about Lynn.
00:14:34.453 --> 00:14:42.187
Lynn's case was the first that IBM the idea that a professional person would seek a sex change totally shocked IBM's management.
00:14:42.187 --> 00:14:49.820
And then there were a few sentences that I chose to omit just due to the dated sense of the article.
00:14:49.820 --> 00:14:51.649
This article was written back in.
00:14:51.649 --> 00:14:54.957
I mean, when you look at the webpage, the webpage looks like it's from 2002.
00:14:54.957 --> 00:15:09.304
I believe the article was written around the early 2000s, so it definitely uses some language and wording that would be considered outdated and could be considered offensive to some people.
00:15:09.304 --> 00:15:23.616
So those phrases, words I either omitted entirely from direct quotes or altered to more present day terminology, if that hope that makes sense.
00:15:25.166 --> 00:15:31.027
When top IBM management learned what Lynn was doing, she was fired in a maelstrom of animosity.
00:15:31.027 --> 00:15:38.589
It is almost certain that the decision was made by TJ Watson Jr himself and he was the CEO of IBM at the time.
00:15:38.589 --> 00:15:58.556
So yeah, and again, to not apologize until 2020, 2020, the year where you know a lot of businesses, a lot of influencers, a lot of popular people quote unquote were very much being faced with accountability.
00:15:58.556 --> 00:16:03.908
Of course they were like oh, we should, probably, we should probably.
00:16:03.908 --> 00:16:13.861
Oh no, you know, it feels a little disingenuous when it only comes after the point where people are demanding accountability.
00:16:13.861 --> 00:16:16.232
It should have happened a lot sooner than that.
00:16:16.232 --> 00:16:18.841
She was fired all the way back in 1968.
00:16:18.841 --> 00:16:28.642
So after her firing and cut off entirely from her professional connections, her family and personal support system also just fell apart.
00:16:28.642 --> 00:16:30.966
She was entirely alone.
00:16:30.966 --> 00:16:34.934
I couldn't imagine that.
00:16:35.095 --> 00:16:40.868
I mean, it's something that so many queer and trans people can identify with.
00:16:40.868 --> 00:16:56.979
It's something that is, I feel, personally, sadly intrinsic to the queer experience, because it's that whole idea of having a found family, because a lot of times there are people in your family who won't ever.
00:16:56.979 --> 00:17:25.436
I mean, there are whole sections of my family that I just don't acknowledge really as family at this point, genuinely, because if you can't accept me and be be here, you know, be here with me as who I am, if you can't be bothered to hear me out, even bye, so so yeah, no, I, I definitely it's not, I wouldn't necessarily.
00:17:25.436 --> 00:17:31.127
You know, when I say it's intrinsic to the queer experience, I'm not saying like you can't be queer unless your family cuts you off.
00:17:31.127 --> 00:17:31.807
Obviously I'm just.
00:17:31.807 --> 00:17:41.815
It feels like that type of familial trauma is very it's something that a lot of queer people can understand.
00:17:41.815 --> 00:17:48.059
It's just, it just is, it just is, and you know it's empathizing.
00:17:48.059 --> 00:17:50.181
It's an experience that every queer person knows.
00:17:50.181 --> 00:17:52.482
That's basically I don't know.
00:17:55.046 --> 00:17:57.045
I feel like I was going somewhere more with that and then my whole brain took a shit.
00:17:57.045 --> 00:18:12.067
Y'all ever have that happen, where you feel like you're going somewhere with a thought and then your whole brain just fizzles out to nothing and you're like, ah, ah, there was something there.
00:18:12.067 --> 00:18:12.868
Damn, I know it.
00:18:12.868 --> 00:18:12.989
Heike.
00:18:12.989 --> 00:18:15.996
I wish you could pause this like this.
00:18:15.996 --> 00:18:18.059
This only has a stop button.
00:18:18.059 --> 00:18:20.605
Why isn't there a pause button?
00:18:20.605 --> 00:18:30.827
Do you know how many times I would have just like paused and given myself a minute, like, oh my god, bro, design a platform with a pause button, please.
00:18:30.827 --> 00:18:31.548
And thank you.
00:18:31.548 --> 00:18:33.853
Anyway, I digress.
00:18:34.894 --> 00:18:50.398
So, entirely by herself, lynn traveled to Mexico for her bottom surgery and returned to a new life with a new name, a new place to live, not in touch with anyone from her past, and a new career.
00:18:50.398 --> 00:19:09.817
She started over again from the ground floor, like she went from being really pretty high up at IBM you know, she invented something that was revolutionary to computer engineering at the time to back at the bottom floor and working her way back up.
00:19:09.817 --> 00:19:13.896
At this point she was living stealth.
00:19:13.896 --> 00:19:21.296
She was working her way back up through the technical ladder as a cis woman according to the rest of the world.
00:19:21.296 --> 00:19:40.673
Anyone who is in the community probably knows what stealth means, but to people who aren't aware of what living stealth is, living stealth is basically when a trans person transitions medically and does not identify as trans whatsoever.
00:19:40.673 --> 00:19:48.673
They identify, they live as a cis man or woman, whoever they, whatever you know.
00:19:48.673 --> 00:19:54.773
However, they ended up transitioning, if you will, and that's how Lynn was living at this point in time.
00:19:54.884 --> 00:20:24.413
She came back from having her bottom surgery and was living entirely in stealth, say we, but a lot of red pillars, if you will discuss transness and queerness as if it is entirely new, as if it's this new thing, you know, but all the time, I think about the fact that we have no idea how many trans people could have just been living stealth.
00:20:24.413 --> 00:20:31.227
We will never know that could have just been living stealth.
00:20:31.227 --> 00:20:32.849
We will never know that.
00:20:32.849 --> 00:20:38.659
That will never be known or understood, because that's just how time works and how not keeping track works.
00:20:38.659 --> 00:20:42.290
And yeah, that's something that I think about a lot.
00:20:42.290 --> 00:20:48.375
I don't know just how many people could have been living stealth the whole time and I love all of them.
00:20:48.375 --> 00:20:50.771
I love every.
00:20:50.771 --> 00:20:51.934
You know, because I get it.
00:20:52.526 --> 00:20:58.238
I have no animosity toward people who choose to live in stealth because it's scary.
00:20:58.238 --> 00:21:00.050
The world is hard.
00:21:00.050 --> 00:21:03.694
The world is a really fucking scary place.
00:21:03.694 --> 00:21:06.113
I am a sensitive crybaby.
00:21:06.113 --> 00:21:08.109
The world kind of sucks.
00:21:08.109 --> 00:21:18.996
I understand that desire to protect that comes from living in stealth mode because it is safe.
00:21:18.996 --> 00:21:20.038
It's a lot safer.
00:21:20.038 --> 00:21:28.917
I see some online animosity toward people who decide to go stealth and personally I feel nothing but love.
00:21:29.638 --> 00:21:45.811
I hope that one day we are able to build a world that is accepting and safe enough that no one feels like they have to hide themselves like that and live in stealth, unless that's something that they truly just want to do.
00:21:45.811 --> 00:21:54.461
I hope that one day we don't have things like internalized transphobia or I mean it's going to.
00:21:54.461 --> 00:21:56.311
I'm never going to see that day.
00:21:56.311 --> 00:21:58.611
That day's going to happen long after I die.
00:21:58.611 --> 00:21:59.272
I know that.
00:21:59.272 --> 00:22:04.656
But, like I hope one day people won't feel the need to live in stealth.
00:22:05.046 --> 00:22:08.395
I hope one day that stealth isn't even going to be a thing Like the.
00:22:08.395 --> 00:22:13.915
You know like that that, this idea of of needing to be fuck.
00:22:13.915 --> 00:22:16.126
One day I hope gender ain't even going to be a thing.
00:22:16.126 --> 00:22:20.195
You know what I mean If we're getting so real with it.
00:22:20.195 --> 00:22:24.309
I hope one day even just the whole concept of gender doesn't exist.
00:22:24.309 --> 00:22:25.811
That's the day.
00:22:27.914 --> 00:22:31.946
But you know again, never gonna live to see it and I'm cool with that.
00:22:31.946 --> 00:22:35.076
I'm cool with working toward a world that I'm never gonna live to see.
00:22:35.076 --> 00:22:38.669
That doesn't fill me with dread.
00:22:38.669 --> 00:22:40.794
That doesn't fill me with this grief of.
00:22:40.794 --> 00:22:42.958
Oh no, I'm happy to do that.
00:22:42.958 --> 00:22:48.594
I'm happy to help build a world that might not exist until long after I'm dead.
00:22:48.594 --> 00:22:50.336
Fuck it, I'll be a ghost there.
00:22:50.336 --> 00:22:52.539
That'd be a fun place to be a ghost.
00:22:52.539 --> 00:23:13.271
You know like well they're family members and stuff like that, where it looks like this idea of doom and gloom.
00:23:13.271 --> 00:23:13.752
But it's not.
00:23:13.752 --> 00:23:14.032
It's hopeful.
00:23:14.032 --> 00:23:15.938
I know that this world is possible.
00:23:15.938 --> 00:23:27.059
I know that we are capable of this world and I'm willing to work toward it, even though I know that there's a good chance it's probably not going to happen for a long fucking time.
00:23:27.059 --> 00:23:30.548
A good chance it's probably not gonna happen for a long fucking time.
00:23:30.548 --> 00:23:33.772
Like that's, it's still worth it to push the needle toward it to one day have it happen.
00:23:33.772 --> 00:23:40.590
I don't know again, maybe that's just me thoughts, opinions, feelings.
00:23:40.590 --> 00:23:41.332
Let us know.
00:23:41.332 --> 00:23:52.772
Check us out on insta on tiktok and you know, hop in the comments and let me know if you also constantly think about stuff like this, because I need to know that I'm not alone here.
00:23:52.772 --> 00:23:58.269
All of our socials will be in the description below, if you guys are interested.
00:23:58.269 --> 00:24:02.276
Oh, my goodness, that was funny.
00:24:02.276 --> 00:24:04.400
I make myself giggle.
00:24:05.644 --> 00:24:18.000
And she starts her career over from the ground floor back up and in 1973, she was hired by Xerox Palo Alto Research Center where she would once again revolutionize the computer trip design.
00:24:18.000 --> 00:24:23.694
Like, this girl did not stop, diva went let me revolutionize technology once again.
00:24:23.694 --> 00:24:30.133
Like Diva looked at life and was like I think I'm going to revolutionize technology not once, but twice.
00:24:30.133 --> 00:24:33.983
Yes, yes, as she should.
00:24:33.983 --> 00:24:53.250
In 1983, she was brought into the Department of Defense to research machine intelligence tech, and in 1985, she was hired at the University of Michigan as a professor of computer science and electrical engineering, along with being the associate dean of the engineering school at the same university.
00:24:53.250 --> 00:24:58.586
Within her tenure, the school became one of the foremost in the nation, according to Forbes.
00:24:58.586 --> 00:25:04.640
Like, this girl does win after win after win after win.
00:25:04.640 --> 00:25:13.722
It was while working with Xerox Palo Alto Research Center that she would invent the silicone microchip.
00:25:13.722 --> 00:25:18.123
Basically, she would revolutionize the creation of that chip.
00:25:19.214 --> 00:25:24.538
Computer science and engineering would not exist as it does today without Lynn's technological contributions.
00:25:24.538 --> 00:25:26.021
Plain and simply, it wouldn't.
00:25:26.021 --> 00:25:40.363
A quote from Valeria Bretango, another brilliant mind in the computer science field, was quoted as saying chips used to be designed by drawing them with paper and pencil, like an architect's blueprints in the pre-digital age.
00:25:40.363 --> 00:25:49.734
Conway's work developed algorithms that enabled our field to use software to arrange millions, and later billions of transistors on a chip.
00:25:49.734 --> 00:25:55.440
Again, even as someone who doesn't understand tech, I can understand that that's huge.
00:25:55.440 --> 00:26:10.452
You go from the rudimentary paper-to-pencil step one to like step 30 in two years, three years, with one invention.
00:26:10.452 --> 00:26:12.019
It's crazy.
00:26:12.019 --> 00:26:13.800
That's absurd.
00:26:13.800 --> 00:26:22.281
That blows my mind Even I know that's absolutely absurdly crazy.
00:26:22.281 --> 00:26:23.346
That's absurd.
00:26:23.346 --> 00:26:25.295
That blows my mind Even I know that's absolutely absurdly crazy.
00:26:36.755 --> 00:26:41.509
So it wouldn't be until around the 1990s, almost 2000s, that the world recognized it was Lin who, not once but twice, revolutionized computing technologies.
00:26:41.509 --> 00:26:48.394
And it was because of transphobia, it was because, you know, being fired by IBM, having to completely start her life over and having to completely disconnect herself from that previous invention.
00:26:48.394 --> 00:26:56.490
That previous invention had her dead name attached to it, a name that no one really knew what happened to at that point.
00:26:56.490 --> 00:27:14.423
And it basically took computer technology historians looking into the invention of DIS closely, specifically looking into the invention and the inventor of DIS specifically, to figure out that it was Lin, to figure out that it was Lynn.
00:27:14.423 --> 00:27:20.209
And that wouldn't happen until the 1990s, almost the year 2000.
00:27:20.209 --> 00:27:22.211
Around the year 2000,.
00:27:22.211 --> 00:27:47.344
She would come out in a New York Times article with the author, michael Hiltzik, and in the article she would state I was known for breaking the gender barrier in the computer science field as a woman, but in 2000, it became the transgender barrier I was breaking, which, yes, yes, yes, I actually believe she wrote that article in 2002.
00:27:47.344 --> 00:28:01.186
It was in Hiltzik's New York times article that Lynn would come out as trans and dive into her life story, explaining one of the many reasons for her leaving stealth mode.
00:28:01.689 --> 00:28:08.076
So you know, obviously there's many reasons for someone living in stealth mode, especially for Lynn, and especially at this point in time.
00:28:08.076 --> 00:28:17.567
She had lost everything, everyone to her journey of coming out as trans, which no one should ever have to do.
00:28:17.567 --> 00:28:20.457
You should never have to lose things.
00:28:20.457 --> 00:28:24.625
There should never be a price for authenticity y'all.
00:28:24.625 --> 00:28:27.057
I don't know who needs to hear that.
00:28:27.057 --> 00:28:28.622
I don't know who needs to be reminded of that.
00:28:28.622 --> 00:28:33.478
There should not be a price tag on being authentically you.
00:28:33.478 --> 00:28:38.327
You do not need someone else's consent to be authentically you.
00:28:38.327 --> 00:28:43.786
There shouldn't be a price to pay just for being yourself.
00:28:43.786 --> 00:28:44.406
That's bull.
00:28:44.406 --> 00:28:53.239
Anyone who tries to tell you otherwise is a walking red flag Again, just something I feel like that you know people need to be reminded of.
00:28:53.239 --> 00:28:55.106
You are free to be authentically you without anyone else's permission.
00:28:55.106 --> 00:28:57.194
You are free to be authentically you without anyone else's permission.
00:28:57.194 --> 00:29:01.364
You are free to be yourself authentically without someone else's consent.
00:29:01.364 --> 00:29:03.087
Glad we got that out of the way.
00:29:03.875 --> 00:29:08.968
This quote comes once again from the University of Michigan site Lynn Conway's story page.
00:29:08.968 --> 00:29:15.567
Lynn is the first truly successful case to come out of long-term stealth and tell her story.
00:29:15.567 --> 00:29:20.143
That story should give hope to young transgender people.
00:29:20.143 --> 00:29:32.563
It should help parents see possibilities for happiness for a transgender 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.
00:29:32.563 --> 00:29:39.080
It should also give employers pause for thought before firing someone just because of their being transgender.
00:29:39.642 --> 00:29:53.646
The day will come when gender transition will no longer be seen as a sad, somewhat shameful and tragic event, but instead as a wonderful, life-giving miracle to those so unfortunate as to have been misgendered at birth.
00:29:53.646 --> 00:30:01.423
Lynn hopes to live to see that day and, lynn, I am so sorry that you couldn't live to see that day.
00:30:01.423 --> 00:30:05.780
I also hope I get to live to see that day, even though I'm sure I probably won't.
00:30:05.780 --> 00:30:11.539
But you know what babes, our kids will, our grandkids will, the kids they will.
00:30:11.539 --> 00:30:15.087
You know Like we're going to try and make sure of that.
00:30:15.087 --> 00:30:18.659
We're going to do our best to make sure that.
00:30:18.659 --> 00:30:20.144
I really didn't think I was gonna cry reading that again.
00:30:20.144 --> 00:30:21.430
I wrote this down.
00:30:21.430 --> 00:30:22.654
I did this research.
00:30:22.654 --> 00:30:23.856
Why am I crying?
00:30:23.856 --> 00:30:32.938
Oh my god, I worked too hard on this makeup to cry it off before I finished this episode, damn it.
00:30:34.101 --> 00:30:52.400
In her time working with an l working within LGBTQIA plus activism and trans inclusion, she was named a trans hero by the national LGBTQ task force in 2009 and was honored by time in 2014 by being named one of the most influential LGBTQ plus people of the United States.
00:30:52.400 --> 00:30:56.701
Alrighty Rest in peace, miss Lynn.
00:30:56.701 --> 00:31:05.154
We love If there are any other queer trans activists and people of the past that you would like us to talk about.
00:31:05.154 --> 00:31:13.596
Please check us out on social media, which again are all in the description below, and leave us a comment letting us know who you would like us to look into and do an episode on.
00:31:13.596 --> 00:31:24.670
I'm hoping that at some point soon, perhaps around her birthday, we will do an episode about the angelic mother of whores, cecilia Gelenti.
00:31:24.670 --> 00:31:27.102
Keep your fingers crossed.
00:31:27.102 --> 00:31:43.950
I'm hoping we'll see that coming down the pipeline, probably around her birthday, but let us know if that's something that you would be interested in and if there are any other topics activists, musicians, anything that you would like us to touch on, please leave us a comment, let us know.
00:31:43.950 --> 00:31:45.000
We'd love to hear from you.
00:31:45.000 --> 00:31:57.657
If you give us a follow on TikTok, we're getting close to 1,000 followers, which means we'll be able to go live and I am considering doing get ready for the podcast with me kind of lives, maybe even some like research with me lives.
00:31:57.657 --> 00:32:04.861
Let me know if you guys, if that's something y'all would also like to see, we're going to jump into the interesting fact and then I will let y'all go.
00:32:05.923 --> 00:32:19.559
Today's interesting fact is, on top of the numerous honors lynn has received for her work in computer science and transgender activism, she also holds five separate US patents and five honorary degrees.
00:32:19.559 --> 00:32:24.671
Like diva Girl, she was on it, girl was on it.
00:32:24.671 --> 00:32:32.067
Diva was absolutely slaying the technical field in every sense of the word, and we love a STEM queen.
00:32:32.067 --> 00:32:33.599
I'm a camp math gay, but we love a STEM queen here.
00:32:33.599 --> 00:32:34.746
Alrighty y'all, stay safe, stay queer, have a good queen.
00:32:34.746 --> 00:32:35.971
I'm a camp math gay, but we love a stem queen here.
00:32:35.971 --> 00:32:38.015
Alrighty y'all, stay safe, stay queer, have a good one.
00:32:38.015 --> 00:32:59.199
We'll see you next time.
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