Lynn Conway's Retrospective

Lynn Conway [Updated Draft of 4-09-03.]

Copyright © 1999-2003, Lynn Conway.

All Rights Reserved.

 

 

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PART VI: EPILOGUE

 

 

In January 1999, my role in the IBM-ACS project began to come out publicly, along with the associated revelation of my personal and medical history. These revelations opened up a whole new phase in my life, from one of being in "stealth mode", to gradually being "quietly out" in the spring of 1999 and then coming fully out in the media in the fall of 2000.

 

Stealth was an essential phase in my life after the turbulent period of my transition. I had to enter stealth just to safely live and find employment back then. Even today most post-op women choose to quietly "woodwork" or "go stealth" after transition, in order to experience full personality integration and assimilation as women, and to build strong new relationships as women.

 

My emergence from long-term stealth as a fully assimilated woman has been refreshing and invigorating. After a period of hesitancy and uncertainty, I faced the fact that my past was going to be exposed, and that I had to take control of that process and inform people close to me about my past. This has been a process of discovery and a very new stage in my life. Fortunately my persona and my important relationships were well-enough established before I came out so that I've encountered few negative effects - and there have been many benefits,from being quietly out, as well see.

 

I've also met many people in the gender community, and learned much from them about current conditions. I 've been saddened to learn that the transgended still face surprisingly high levels of discrimination and stigmatization, and I decided to be more out in an effort to help alleviate these problems. On the other hand, I've learned of the many new, improved medical treatments for solving various physical mis-gendering problems. With the help of others who had undergone these new procedures, I myself have benefitted greatly from these advances.

 

With stealth now in the past and with nothing to hide any longer, I've been able to openly resolve many old residual issues in my professional and personal life, have gotten closer to my neices Kelly and Tracy and to their husbands and children, and have reunited with more members of my family - most of whom never knew what had happened to me. I've also been able to pay some dues in efforts to help others, primarily by creating various informational materials that are posted on my website. Most importantly, this has been a time when Charlie and I have felt ever more in love and have grown closer and closer, especially as he stood by me during the many difficult surgeries I needed to undergo during 1999-2002, and all this led up to our getting married in August of 2002.

 

This section contains a chronology of relevant events since late 1998, for future reference - and some photos taken along the way.

 

 

The adventure continues -

 

 

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PREFACE

PART I

PART II

PART III

PART IV

PART V

PART VI

 

 

 

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EPILOGUE:

 

I began compiling this retrospective in January 1999, right after my first first interactions with Dr. Mark Smotherman regarding the IBM ACS machine. I was astonished at the overall scope of the information that Mark had pieced together and carefully vetted in his website. His work finally provided a context into which my archived papers and notes could find a place and have some meaning. I realized that this historical reconstruction was going to possibly "out me" and I became very concerned about that. My interactions with Mark opened up a whole new phase in my life, due to the surfacing of my role in ACS and the associated revelation of my personal and medical history, as follows:

 

Mid-December, 1998

I had stumbled across Mark Smotherman's website while searching for "dynamic instruction scheduling". I'd been occasionally doing such searching over the past couple of years to track down what folks were saying and claiming about that idea. Mark's site speculated that "ACS was the first superscalar", but he didn't yet have enough evidence to make the claim really stick. I knew that I had the missing evidence, and that Mark had already compiled enough overall context about ACS for my materials to slip into as the "missing hardware links". However, I was frightened to think about what might happen if I were to send him my materials, for that might open up my whole past life to scrutiny for the first time in 31 years. I was so used to going stealth that I couldn't clearly visualize what might happen if I were suddenly outed.

 

On the other hand, I also worried about doing nothing, and having my past work possibly come out under my previous name, since quite a few people who worked at ACS knew that person had done that work. That could have led not only to outing, but also to the connection of the two names, which would have caused a lot of difficulties regarding my family and relatives - some of whom don't even know who I am now. This was a very scary period for me, and I feared not only outing but also a loss of my good name and reputation if things came out in some twisted way.

 

[Note: I was particularly concerned about outing by feminist intellectuals. During the late 80's and on into the 90's a few early-generation activist "strict feminists" in U.S. universities began to theorize and teach students that transsexual women are part of a "male conspiracy to invade women's spaces" (even though few of them had ever knowingly met any transsexual women). These bizarre concepts led some of these feminists into rather vicious outings of any successful stealth TS women they could identify. For example, the reknowned feminist Germaine Greer in a fit of rage outed a long-postop transsexual woman named Rachael Padman. Rachael is a prominent physicist who had been quietly working as a faculty member at an all-womens' College at Cambridge University. Greer's "news" was splashed all over the British tabloids as she attempted to have Rachael fired in 1997. Fortunately, Greer's effort was unsuccessful, although it had a major impact on Rachael's quality of life for a while. Such incidents produced a wave of fear among stealthy postop women in academia during the 90's. Hopefully these wierd conspiracy theories will fade as the early feminist ideologues pass on, and as more young people become better informed about the biological nature of gender identity and gender variations.]

 

Late December, 1998

While still wavering about ultimately what to do, I finally called Mark and mentioned that I'd worked at ACS and might be able to point him to other ACS vets who knew a lot about the ACS story. He knew quite well who Lynn Conway of VLSI fame was, and he had also picked up some earlier signals from a few ACS vets that I might have worked at ACS - although the signals were mixed ones since my current name never appeared there.

 

I began to realize that my involvement in ACS and my overall story was certain to come out, so over several phone calls I finally leveled with Mark and told him first about my name change, and then the reasons for it. Fortunately, Mark knew about another woman in computer science who had recently transitioned MtF, so he had some understanding of my situation.

 

I told him about my ACS materials, and we struggled for a while to figure out how to make use of that stuff. I decided to go ahead and try to help, but with the proviso that we try to keep things in my current name and keep my past transition quiet.

 

January 2, 1999

I sent my initial letter to Mark Smotherman indicating that I'd worked at ACS and listing my ACS papers and notes. This letter formally acknowledged my participation and my willingness to help out on the reconstruction.

 

January-February, 1999

In E-mail interactions with Mark Smotherman I further clarified lots of details of my personal history, and I began interacting with him to gather and coalesce materials, and to help with historical reconstruction. I contacted several other ACS vets regarding Mark's effort. Amazingly, there seemed to be almost no copies of the papers in my archive other than the ones I had. Therefore, for a while we thought that it might really be possible to use my current name on the papers (with agreement of the other ACS vets) without publicly revealing any details about my past. In this way, the papers could be used to help complete Mark's ACS reconstrution work but without outing me in any public way.

 

Feb 16, 1999

Finished compiling and annotating my ACS Archives into a 392 page volume. ([PDF] 14.2 mb).

 

Feb 17-19, 1999

I made a trip to Clemson to meet with Mark and thoroughly go over my ACS papers and materials in person.

 

Feb-March, 1999

We began pursuing the clearance of the archives with IBM and by other means. We learned that other copies of the various papers were showing up, with my old name on them. Some of the ACS vets knew my story, but others were incredulous that "Lynn Conway was saying that she worked there". Now it became clear that there was no way to do this without revealing my personal/medical history.

 

We decided that the best thing to do when releasing any papers was to fully acknowledge that my name had been legally changed in 1969, and that we were using that new name since I was so much better known that way (not mentioning my change in gender). We also communicated a request that folks not make unnecessary links to my old name. I'd like to avoid opening up old wounds for my original family members, relatives, friends and acquaintances who were innocent bystanders when I transitioned, back in a time when such things "just weren't done" (almost none of those folks know that I am now Lynn Conway).

 

March 10, 1999

I finally began coming out to some key senior folks, people who had been my past mentors, thinking of this initially as a defensive measure (wanting them to hear it from me).

 

April 27, 1999

In a trip to Wisconsin to meet with Jim Smith and his colleagues: I showed Jim my ACS archive, but didn't leave it with him since clearance was an issue (many of the papers are labeled IBM Confidential). I left him the front-matter of the archive so he could start to visualize what was involved.

 

May 10, 1999

I'd sent some e-mail to Terri (Doughty) Wanke, one of my past Administrative Assistants at PARC who was a good friend, and reestablished contact with her. During our interactions, I realized that she might be able to help me think about what to do about coming out or not, and how to handle various aspects of this with my friends and colleagues. I'd already scheduled a trip out west in June to try to reunite with my many VLSI friends; the emerging ACS situation greatly complicated thinking about any reunions, and what to say/not say about ACS and my past.

 

In a long conversation with Terri this day, she helped me finally sort through that I could and probably should come out to my close friends and colleagues. Times have changed so much that it's not such a big deal now; and anyways it's best that they hear it from me, rather than via rumors. This meant that eventually I'd need to somehow clarify things to my research community too, but I wasn't sure how I'd do that (maybe via my website?). Anyways, I immediately began efforts to quietly implement the decision to quietly come out; those efforts are ongoing now and affect all future interactions. I also began evolving my retrospective to be more and more specific about the history, without yet spelling it out for sure (not yet using the "T" word).

 

May 20-22, 1999

I obtained an excellent clarification of the legality of a method for conveying archives to Mark and his conveying them to other architects for study and reconstruction.

 

June 4-8, 1999

Sent out of initial copies of the archives to Mark Smotherman, Jim Smith, Trevor Mudge, Fran Allen, Ed Sussenguth, Don Rozenberg, i.e., to independent computer architects for vetting, and to ACS vets for reference during later reconstruction work. Also sent a copy to Peter Capek of IBM, so that he could initiate the internal IBM clearance process.

 

June 10-25, 1999

Trip to California: During this trip a number of the original VLSI crew pulled together a "VLSI Vets" reunion at Craig and Maureen Mudge's home in Palo Alto, on June 16th. Many of the key original team members and others turned up, including Carver Mead, Doug Fairbairn, Dick and Peggy Lyon, Mary Hausladen, Bert and Sylvia Sutherland, Jeanie Treichel, Alan Bell, Martin Newell, Craig and Maureen Mudge, Terri Wanke, Gerry Roylance, Jim Cherry, Jim Rowson and Mark Stefik. This was a wonderful reunion. It was one of those nice summer Palo Alto evenings, and everyone enjoyed the telling of old war stories and indulging in great food and drink. I also had a chance to update some more folks on the ACS story, and my past, etc., and that seemed to go OK. Hopefully things will work out for me with most of my past friends - - . Some photos from the VLSI Vets reunion follow:

 

	Aha! Some of the usual suspects:     Carver Mead, Craig Mudge and Mary Hausladen doing some celebrating!
	Doug Fairbairn, Gerry Roylance, Martin Newell, Jim Cherry (back to cam) and Dick Lyon,   in what looks like a pretty serious, techie discussion
	Alan Bell, Terri Wanke, Peggy Lyon, Dick Lyon and Mark Stefik,   enjoying themselves - -

 

 

While in California, I also had a chance to meet with *John Hennessy, Dean of Engineering at Stanford and co-author of a widely respected book on Computer Architecture. I showed John my ACS archive and went over the details of the whole situation with him, leaving a copy of the archive with him for later reference. My read on his reaction was that he saw this stuff as a pretty big missing link in computer history. Hopefully new editions of his book will at least have a footnote about the ACS story and my role as innovator of multiple, out-of-order dynamic instruction scheduling. [ *Just after this visit, John was named to be the new Provost of Stanford. Later, in April 2000, he became the new President of Stanford University ].

 

I met with ACS vet Don Rozenberg while out there, and went over the ACS archive with him too, in the hopes that he can get more involved in the reconstruction effort (he has an extensive knowledge of the ACS management issues, politics and actions).

 

I also had a wonderful "re-reunion" with my niece "Kelly". We'd written each other and exchanged photos in the years since she and Tracy visited me in Ann Arbor, but I hadn't seen in about 12 years. I also met her husband and two boys too. This reunion started to give me a sense of having some family again after all these years. My being out seemed to make me more open and less defensive about my past, which especially helped during my interactions with Kelly and her family.

 

By incredible coincidence, I'd also learned just before this trip that a friend of one of my students at Michigan was just now doing her Ph.D. research on orgasmic response in postop transsexual women. Her name is Rom Birnbaum, and I was able to schedule a lab session as one of her research subjects during this visit. On June 12th, I went to her lab (which was operated during off-hours in Club Eros in the Castro district - a gay men's club that loaned Rom this space in a "sex-friendly" environment), and participated in an instrumented session. More about this research and my participation in it is posted in my SRS webpage .

 

 

July 19-21, 1999

IEEE Microelectronics System Education Conference, Arlington, VA. I gave an overview of the origins of the Mead-Conway methods and of the MOSIS prototyping infrastructure in particular. I also mentioned that my meta-architectural interests derived from my IBM-ACS architecture and design methodology experiences, and began discussing my ACS work with some of the IEEE folks. Jim Aylor and Bruce Shriver in particular seemed quite interested in the materials. I also had a chance to talk at length with Bob Colwell of Intel about the ACS work, and later sent him a copy of the my ACS archive. Thus began my efforts to communicate about my IBM-ACS experiences out into the larger research community.

 

July 24, 1999

On this day there was a reunion of IBM-ACS vets with Dr. John Cocke at the IBM T. J. Watson Research Center. Herb Schorr, Lynn Conway and Fran Allen met with John, along with Mark Smotherman from Clemson and Peter Capek of IBM. Ed Sussenguth participated by conference call from North Carolina.

 

Mark went through the ACS reconstruction effort and the materials on his ACS website. I'd brought along a copy of my ACS archives for John; I showed it to him and discussed how it could be used to reconstruct the hardware architecture. Fran Allen went through a number of key ACS documents that she had located, including a critical missing link: the ACS Instruction Set Manual. Herb Schorr contributed a lot of reminiscences regarding key events in ACS history; I've never seen Herb so animated in conversation before ( I sent Herb a copy of my archive after the meeting). We enjoyed a wonderful dinner and conversation at the Kittle House that evening, being joined by Peter's wife too.

 

Some background on how this meeting got arranged:

 

Although John Cocke had heard a lot about Lynn Conway in her new career, and was quite familiar with Lynn's research and her impact, he had had no idea over the years that Lynn was formerly the boy whom John had known at ACS, and who had worked on the timing simulator and had invented DIS. Peter Capek quotes John as saying "Holy shit! That's amazing!", upon learning several months ago about how that boy had gone on to become Lynn Conway.

 

I had then asked Peter if perhaps I could visit sometime and see John again. Peter then arranged for this informal get-together. We then also used it as an occasion for introducing Mark too, and for discussing his ACS reconstruction effort.

 

This meeting tied up a lot of loose ends regarding the ACS project, both for me and for John Cocke. I was finally reconnected as having been a member of and innovator on that team, and John now sees that the ACS project, perhaps his favorite of all, is going to finally be historically reconstructed. ACS was a phenomenal project, and hopefully the accomplishments of the ACS team will gradually be recognized as being fundamental to much of modern computing.

 

IBM-ACS Mini-Reunion, IBM Research, Yorktown Heights, NY   [ left to right ] John Cocke, Fran Allen, Herb Schorr and Lynn Conway   July 24, 1999   Photo by Mark Smotherman        In memoriam: John Cocke, 1925-2002

 

 

August 11, 1999

Meeting with Douglas Ousterhout, M.D. in San Francisco: I had met Dr. O for the first time in June, to explore what he could do for me via his new paradigm of facial feminization surgery (FFS). I'd always "passed" well once through my earlier transition, I hadn't thought much about my appearance for many years, having settled into a pretty happy life. But as an older gal I needed a face-lift anyways, and had been exploring for info on the web. Then I stumbled onto Andrea's amazing site, and immediately realized the huge paradigm shift that Dr. O had made in facial surgery for TS's.

 

I was quietly "out" now among my friends and research colleagues. I began to worry a bit that if I were somehow more fully outed that I'd be subject to the snide remarks guys make about the appearances of women (whether TS or genetic) whom they've got something against. Feeling a bit uncomfortable about that, I decided to make some changes to become sufficiently attractive for my age to be unstigmatizable that way. Then, as I checked out FFS further, I shifted my viewpoint from one of "avoiding being uncomfortable" to that of "having fun with doing some remodeling". I rapidly became optimistic that the outcome could enhance my overall life experience.

 

By August, I'd decided to go ahead with the FFS surgery. This visit with Dr. O. was for some final planning prior to the surgery (10 hrs of surgery on Nov. 10, '99 and then another 6 hrs in February '00). FFS is quite an ordeal, much like being in a car wreck and having your face get smashed. The underlying bony structures are sawed out, reshaped, ground-down, wired-up and reconstructed to take the forehead, browbone, nose, jawbone, chin and trachea back towards the form they had prior to late pubertal masculinization by testosterone. To get an idea of what can be accomplished by FFS, see the before/after photos of Andrea, Sally, Nicki, and Madeleine.

 

August 16-17, 1999

While attending the IEEE Computer Society's HotChips Conference at Stanford University, I had a chance to introduce myself to Maurice V. Wilkes, the legendary British computer pioneer. While reminiscing with him, I told him about how I'd gotten my start in computing by doing the independent study with Herb Schorr at Columbia based on his early WISP self-compiling compiler papers from Cambridge. Maurice was quite familiar with my VLSI work; I think that he was very pleased to learn of how his work had gotten me excited about computing. He said that the WISP work had been a lot of fun for him, that he had learned a lot by doing it, and that others may have benefited by building on its simple, clear starting point. I observed that my VLSI work had parallels to that effect. I also mentioned that I still had the original "green covers" Cambridge Mathematical Lab versions of his two WISP papers; he said those must be quite rare now, and may be among the few remaining copies; when I see him again (at HotChips in '00?) I must get his autograph on those papers!

 

Lynn Conway and Maurice V. Wilkes   HotChips 11 Conference, Stanford University   August 17, 1999       Photo by Forest Baskett

 

September - October 1999

I began attending my EECS department's computer architecture seminars at the University of Michigan this fall. Feeling more empowered to talk with computing colleagues about my story, I attempted on two occasions, after seminars related to superscalar computers, to chat with colleagues about my work at ACS and my invention of DIS. I thought that I should alert them about it, thinking they would be interested in looking at my archive, etc. On both occasions I got very weird reactions - though I have no idea what they could have been thinking. Perhaps they'd heard about my past and were uncomfortable about it. Or perhaps as colleagues of Prof. Yale Patt, who'd for several years been claiming to have invented DIS in the early 80's, they thought I was making a strange joke. It was unsettling to be treated in such a dismissive way; I stopped attending the seminars.

 

November 2, 1999

Participation as speaker regarding TS'ism in a MAC seminar on LGBT issues for secondary school teachers held at the School of Education. The seminar was organized by Jim Toy of the Office of Equity and Diversity affairs at University of Michigan. This fall I'd begun coordinating with that office, plus the Office of LGBT Affairs (Frederic Dennis, Director), and also the University of Michigan Health System's Comprehensive Gender Services Program ( Sandra Cole, Director), to see if there might be ways in which I could volunteer my services and assistance. This was my first participation in such offices' public activities. I'm also began serving on the Office of LGBT Affairs Advisory Board. Maybe over time I can help transgender cause in some modest way. I benefit from such activities too, as they provide a means for me to gain experience in talking about and answering questions about my past, just in case.

 

November 8-18, 1999 and February 24-Mar 3, 2000

Traveled to San Francisco to undergo facial feminization surgery (FFS). This involved two operations, one nearly 10 hours long and the second about 6 hours long to reconstruct my facial skeleton. The initial surgery was performed by Douglas Ousterhout, M.D., D.D.S. at California-Pacific Medical Center, on 11-10-99, with additional surgery done by him on 2-24-00. Dr. Ousterhout is the maxillo-facial reconstructive surgeon who pioneered this new paradigm in surgical treatment of transsexual women. This was indeed quite an ordeal, and kept me sidelined on and off during the winter months. For information about the surgery, see my FFS web-page. That page soon began getting many hits per day. Hopefully it's helping quite a few other women now prepare for FFS: http://ai.eecs.umich.edu/~mirror/FFS/LynnsFFS.html

 

April 13-16, 2000

Reunion with three of my first cousins (from my father's side) and their families. I'd lost contact with my father's side of the family in childhood. My mother tended to only interact with her own family and relatives. When I transitioned, my mother and all her relatives excommunicated me, so I was left without any family at all (except for my one brother, who sort-of "accepted" me). I'd heard from my brother this Christmas that my cousins had been trying to find me for years due to their interest in genealogy, so I wrote them and told them my story. I immediately got phone calls from them. In mid-April I flew to Tulsa, Oklahoma to join in with them for a larger reunion of their extended family. They were very excited to have "solved the mystery of my disappearance", and they all welcomed me with open arms. This was a wonderful experience for me, and I feel more like I have a family now. Here are some photos from this reunion.

 

Lynn and her cousins Marion, Jeff and Marcina	Lynn and Marcina's grandaughter Baylea

 

April 26-30, 2000

I flew to Orlando, FL to give the keynote talk at the IEEE WVLSI workshop on the 27th, and then drove to visit my niece "Tracy" and her four children (three boys and a little girl) ages 3-14, in Jacksonville. This was a wonderful reunion with Tracy, whom I hadn't seen in about 13 years, and gave me a chance to meet all her beautiful, sweet kids too. We had a great time, going to the zoo, etc., and this also helped give me a sense of having a family again. Again, my being out and open about the past helped me communicate better with Tracy, and our interactions during this visit were very warm and wonderful.

 

May 29, 2000

After some reflection on how things have been going this past year, I decided to be more generally "out" and open about my past. I think it had something to do with the happiness I've been feeling about my own life and my own current situation, and my growing sadness at seeing how poorly so many other transsexual women are treated by families, friends, colleagues, employers, churches, the medical establishment, the legal system, and society in general.

 

I'm not quite sure what to do or say, but I've got to do something. I began to think that if I just told my story more widely, and other transsexuals knew about it, then maybe they could take some hope from it. Maybe young T-girls could show it to parents, and say "look, this can really work; I can do this and go on to be successful, like Lynn did".

 

Our society hasn't caught on yet that transition really can work. There are many successful gals out there, but they are almost all in stealth just like I was. No one knows their stories.

 

I began to think, hmm, maybe I should just go ahead and "come out". As someone who has become truly successful as a woman, in stealth mode AFTER her gender transition, I'd be the first to do that. But why not? What have I got to lose? And doing that might help and inspire many others.

 

As a first step, I wrote a short but explicit sketch of my experience entitled "Lynn's Story". I linked directly to that story from my home page in mid-May. In late May that site suddenly got picked up by many T lists, and began getting lots of hits. I've already had many T's e-mail me, saying that just knowing about my story has helped them greatly in one way or another. Those responses have meant a great deal to me, and I began to realize that this was the right thing to do.

 

July 17, 2000

This evening I was interviewed by GenderTalk Radio hosts Nancy Nangeroni and Gordene MacKenzie on WMBR, 88.1 FM, Boston, Mass. GenderTalk is a worldwide weekly radio program that talks about transgenderism in the first person. Each week they present news, information, and exciting new voices that challenge traditional views of gender. I had a chance to tell some of my personal story, and take interesting questions from Nancy and Gordene.

 

Many people who are playing important roles in the struggle for gender rights have been interviewed on GenderTalk, including TG/TS/IS people in the news, activists and allies, politicians, authors, media people, and medical and legal authorities. GenderTalk maintains an extensive audio archive of those past programs. For a list of recent programs and instructions on how to download and listen to them, see http://www.3dcom.com/gt/index.html

 

The GenderTalk program (#267) which includes my interview can be found at http://www.gendertalk.com/real/251/gt267.shtml

 

July 21, 2000

At the invitation of Cheryl Chase, President of the Intersex Society of North America (ISNA), I attended with her the special "2000 John W. Duckett, Jr., M.D. Pediatric Urology Lectureship" at the University of Michigan's Medical School.

 

The focus this year of these invited lectures and Q/A sessions was on the current intersex surgery controversy, and the paradigm shift now occurring in the medical community about the nature and origins of gender identity (see the "Gender Basics" section of my TG/TS/IS site for background on this controversy). It was a truly amazing thing to witness - a medical paradigm shift occurring in real time, right in front of my eyes.

 

The history and current state of intersex surgery was discussed by A. J. Casalde, M.D., of Indiana University; a definitive case presentation was given by D. A. Canning, M.D., of University of Pennsylvania.; the emerging philosophy and ethics of gender identity were discussed by W. R. Reiner, M.D., of John's Hopkins; and "Intersex dilemma: Is there a paradigm shift?" was discussed by S. J. Skoog, M.D. of the Oregon Health Science Center.

 

Up to now, UM has been one of the most 'Victorian' of major hospitals regarding intersex surgery. However, the presentations by these experts in this event were listened to with intense interest, and amazingly good questions during follow-up showed that the paradigm shift is also occurring at the Univ. of Michigan's Medical School, and key medical leaders here are now simply trying to figure out how to cope with handling intersex kids and their parents under the emerging paradigm - including the many issues of how to explain options to parents, provide long-term counseling, etc., etc.

 

Infant genital surgeries that arbitrarily assign a child's gender (usually to female, since that is easiest) run a serious risk of surgically creating a transsexual person who seeks later gender reassignment. This has great significance in the medical treatment of intersex children by discrediting the practice of infant genital surgery in many cases. It also clarifies scientifically what must be happening in early onset transsexualism, i.e., that transsexuals suffer cross-gendering in utero during gender imprinting of the lower-brain and central nervous system.

 

All pediatricians should follow these developments, and be sensitive to their own inner biases and/or past erroneous training, should they ever encounter IS/TS/TG children. Changes in institutional practices and improved counselling of parents are going to be key factors in helping these kids have a chance for a real life free of unwanted infant genital surgery, mis-gendering, shame, guilt, secrecy and social oppression. Although these cases are somewhat rare, the level and intensity of daily life-long personal trauma that can result if they are mishandled should not be underestimated.

 

July 27-29

Paul Wallich, whom I'd gotten to know during his tours as a writer for IEEE Spectrum and as a technology journalism fellow at the University of Michigan, visited me and Charlie at our home. He interviewed me for a profile to appear in the December, 2000 issue of Scientific American Magazine. Paul already knew a lot about my career, having done earlier profiles about my VLSI work, but we had a lot to fill in regarding my IBM work and transition.

 

August 7-16, 2000

Trip to the Bay Area of California - visited with Candice Elliott, re her ClairVoyante start-up - visited the Computer Museum History Center at Nasa Ames, and talked with John Toole and the staff members there about the ACS project - - leaving a copy of my ACS archives with them - - they are interested in hosting a group gathering of ACS vets next summer, and doing a series of video tapings of reminiscences of the project - - stayed at Gordon and Gwen Bell's home that night - -

 

- - I also visited with my niece Kelly and her family again - - we reminisced about the past some more, and I got an update on what was happening in the lives of her two sons, who are now almost grown - - -

 

- - - I then spent a day with Mike Hiltzik of the L. A. Times who is doing background research about my story - - Mike authored the classic book Dealers of Lightning about Xerox Palo Alto Research Center a couple of years ago, and had interviewed me for that book - - I talked to him recently for advice about how to best get my story out there is a mature and dignified manner, and he volunteered that he'd like to write it himself - - -

 

- - - I also attended HotChips12 during this trip, so as to track what's going on in the chip world these days - - and did a follow-up visit with Doug Ousterhout for an examination and new "after" photos - - lots of stuff happened on this trip!

 

At the Computer Museum History Center, NASA Ames, Sunnyvale, CA   [ left to right ] Dag Spicer, Lynn Conway, Gwen Bell, John Toole and Karen Mathews     August 9, 2000

 

 

August - September - October, 2000

This was a period of intense activity, in which many critical events unfolded - - -

 

I'd been involved in a series of interactions with IBM regarding my past firing, getting clearance for distribution of my ACS Archives, etc., and these finally came to some resolution - - - I was able to obtain a worldwide license to make and distribute copies of my IBM-ACS Archives - - -

 

However, I was extremely disappointed that IBM would make no response whatsoever regarding my request for an "expression of regrets" over my firing years ago. Instead I was told by a senior IBM executive (Mr. Dan O'Donnell, Secretary and Board Member) that "IBM wanted to put this behind us and just move forward" - - - . For a description of these recent interactions with IBM, see http://ai.eecs.umich.edu/people/conway/ACS/IBM/IBM-Interactions.html

.

During September Mike Hiltzik visited our home in Michigan to interview us and other folks in Ann Arbor and at University of Michigan for his major upcoming L. A. Times story. The interviewing for this story had some amazing side-effects and benefits - - - by finally opening up to discussion many areas that were stumbling blocks in my close relationships - - -

 

For example, during September Kelly and Tracy and I finally shared information in many phone calls about what had happened on all sides - - we learned amazing things as a result of Mike Hilzik's interviewing of all of us - - - they had never known what had happened to me until they were 15 and 17 - - Tracy had finally confronted Sue and asked where their father was and why he had deserted them - - Sue never responded in person - - she wrote a brief letter to Tracy while on a business trip, saying that Robert had changed sex - - - Tracy shared this with Kelly, but they didn't know that I was PREVENTED from ever seeing them - -

 

- - - they now finally understood why I hadn't visited them - - this also explained their past hesitation and uncertainty about me (they may have thought that I simply didn't care to see them) - - also, they knew very little about transsexualism, or about how desperate my situation had been, and why I'd had to transition - - all these revelations brought us much closer than before - - - and the fact that they couldn't remember "Robert" turned out to be an advantage now: the only possible way for them to gender me now is as a woman, their Aunt Lynn - -

I also finally learned that Sue had remarried shortly after divorcing Robert years ago, but she didn't tell Robert. Maybe she did this out of fear that she'd lose the child support (which she should not have feared), or feared that she have to deal with the issue of Robert's transition again and didn't want to do that - - - this came as sad news though - - - revealing on reflection that Sue had not been honest about many things (she probably felt justified in this, because Robert had not been open with her about his transsexualism) - - - this also made Robert wonder if she'd been seeing this person on the side while they were married (which would have been no surprise), and thus the question of paternity again - - - of course none of these things were anyone's fault, but were just the result of desperate young people playing the cards they were dealt as best they could at the time - - -

The backgrounding effort on the L.A. Times article also made me finally realize that my relationship with my brother was very strained by his ongoing difficulty in re-gendering me as a female - - I visited him this month, and we talked about it - - at first he didn't grasp what I was talking about - - after all, he always used the right name and pronouns - - but in the end he realized that although he tends to abstractly think of me as a woman and a "different person", he still deeply connects me with the past and genders me as his brother - - When he does this, he projects "tells" at a subtle, unconscious level, "tells" that I can read and find disturbing, as though he is not seeing me but still seeing Robert instead - - - we both realized that this wasn't anyone's fault, but was just more "data" on the challenges that face TS women and their close family members.

 

Most people might think that those close to you and who love you would be the first to try to understand and re-gender someone who has transitioned - - but it's just the opposite: strangers see you correctly right away (once you pass) - - casual friends, colleagues and acquaintances usually snap through the gender paradigm shift quickly at some point - - but those who've known someone a long time have great difficulty in seeing them in their new gender - -

 

Once beyond your teens and having a firmly established external gender, it may be nearly impossible for close family members to re-gender you in their own minds after transition - - there are just too many memories of you in the old gender, and too many projections of gendered futures for you - - you always seem to be an "impersonator" to them - - - this is all the more reason for families to support early transition of teen-aged transsexual girls, at least if they ever hope to truly know them as their daughters in the future - - and those who transition beyond their teens must realize that they may forever be a stranger to their parents and siblings, and that this is not anyone's fault, but is just a fact of life - - a result of how deep the imprint of gender is, not only internally in our own minds, but externally in the minds of others who knew you in your former social gender - -

 

In late September I traveled to Woods Hole, MA for a meeting of the National Academy's Air Force Science and Technology Board (AFSTB). While in the area, I had a chance to stop by MIT and meet for a while with Chuck Vest. Chuck, who was by then President of MIT, had been one of the Associate Deans of Engineering at University of Michigan when I first joined there. He then went on to become Dean and then Provost at UM before joining MIT. I've known Chuck and his wife Becky for a long time now, and it was great to finally be able to tell him my story and discuss my early research work with him.

   

Mike's story about Lynn, entitled "Engineering Identity - A Computer Pioneer's Secret Leap Across the Gender Gap", was the feature article in the November 19, 2000 issue of the L. A. Times Sunday Magazine.

 

Late October 2000

I visited again with my niece Tracy and her husband and four children in Jacksonville, FL. We had a wonderful time - - especially fun was the big Halloween party for all the neighborhood kids! Tracy and I reminisced and compared notes about past events, and talked about many things in the upcoming L. A. Times article. Tracy and I are amazingly similar in appearance and personality - - we often found ourselves staring at each other, noticing how much alike we are - - and just quietly being with Tracy and playing with her four children brought great joy into my life during this trip - - it's wonderful to be fully reunited with both Kelly and Tracy and their families now - -

 

November 7 - 20, 2000

On November 7, Charlie and I drove over to Neenah, Wisconsin, for my upcoming abdominoplasty, vaginal deepening, and labiaplasty surgery. The surgery was performed by Eugene Schrang, M. D. on Nov. 9th, and took about 6-1/2 hours. Dr. Schrang is one of the world's top experts in transsexual surgery, and one of the very few who are capable of "re-finishing" early SRS surgeries to bring them up to current standards of appearance and function.

 

I had visited and consulted with Dr. Schrang three times during the summer and fall, to go over all the details of this complex surgery. The goal was to have him upgrade my female genitals to the current-day state of the art in appearance and function. One important factor was that I needed abdominoplasty anyways, in order to remove excess belly skin that hadn't shrunk back from when I was heavier years ago. That excess skin would be good source material for grafts for the vaginal deepening and labiaplasty, so I decided to go ahead and do it all at once. In this way I could avoid major skin graft scars in the skin-graft source areas.

 

Eugene Schrang, M.D. One of the world's top experts in transsexual surgeries. Nov. 8, 2000

 

Dr. Schrang performed this surgery in the Theda Clark Medical Center in Neenah, WI, which is a marvelous facility with truly outstanding care. While very complex and somewhat risky, the vaginal deeping surgery was totally successful. The abdominoplasty and labiaplasty also resulted in very significant improvements in my body's appearance. These results reflect the highly advanced state of the art of Dr. Schrang's transsexual surgical techniques, and his great skill as a surgeon. I entered Theda Clark on the 8th, and stayed in hospital care there through the 17th. Charlie and I stayed in the Valley Inn before and afterwards - it's a really wonderful hotel in Neenah. I've had an uneventful recovery so far (Note: Everything worked out splendidly as time went on, and within two to three months I experienced a return of full genital sensitivity, corpora arousal and orgasmic capabilities). This surgery finally completed my year-long "this old house" remodelling project!

 

Lynn during a preliminary visit toDr. Schrang's offices and to Theda Clark Medical Center in Neenah, WI Fall 2000

 

Charlie stayed with me in Neenah for the first four days after the surgery, then came back for the final few days in the Valley Inn. We drove me home on the 20th. While I was recovering and still in Neenah at the Valley Inn, the L. A. Times and Scientific American articles came out. This resulted in a deluge of e-mail - I was sure glad I had my portable PC with me so I could begin to cope with it all.

 

The Scientific American article did a good job of covering my research career and contributions, and I appreciated that. However, the writing and editing led to a very distorted coverage of my gender change. Somehow the editors couldn't shake the classic modern-media-stereotype image of "man gets sex change". They played that image up to the hilt in the subtitle and in the text of the article. Maybe they hoped that it would make the story more titillating and attract more readers attention. Who knows what they were thinking, although they clearly knew that people don't really read such articles in detail and instead react to the general thrust and impression of a story.

 

Sadly, the author's and editors' approach led many readers who skimmed the article to think that I was among the recent spate of late-transitioners (those who had indeed lived most of their lives as men and had later in their forties or fifties transitioned to female). This was reinforced by statements about my "living half my life as a man", and then changing sex. Many folks who scanned the article became quite confused about when I did what. Some thought I must have changed sex AFTER doing the VLSI work in the 70's.Others thought it was just before coming to UM. Some even thought this was yet another story of a recent gender transition, and wondered how long I'd been "working as a woman while actually being a man", and about how I'd kept it secret! It was a really confused mess.

 

What was missed was that I had been a slender, shy and quietly feminine boy till age 19. I started on female hormones and lived as best I could as a girl at ages 20-21. Then, in order to avoid institutionalization after a confrontation with the medical establishment, I struggled really hard to look and act like a "real guy" for six horrible years (ages 22-28). I finally found medical help from Dr. Benjamin and went back on female hormones. By 1968 I had undergone sex reassignment surgery and become a woman. None of that deeply cross-gender identity trajectory was even hinted at in the article.

 

How those six horrible years of pretending to be a "man" could now be described as "being a man for half her life" is beyond me! It hurt me terribly to see them say that about me. It just wasn't accurate or fair. The article also completely glossed over the fact that I'd been among the small pioneering group of transsexuals who underwent sex reassignment way back in the 1960's, and that I had been able to carve out a tremendously successful career in research nevertheless. All this cut pretty deep, especially since I was recovering from major surgery when I read the article.

 

On the other hand, Mike Hiltzik of the L.A.Times produced an amazingly thorough, accurate and compassionate portrayal of the events in my life. Many of the things he covered were hard for me to read about, because he revisited many key events in my life and told it like it was. However, Mike went to all the original sources, to the people who "were there", and he got the story right. His writing was extremely well organized and he told the WHOLE story. He also carefully avoided creating misimpressions or causing accidental "weird spins" based upon current media stereotypes of transsexualism. His story is thus an authentic report on early-period transsexualism that will be useful for others to reflect on, even in the distant future, in the archives of transgender and transsexual writings.

 

Mike is a Pulitzer Prize winning journalist, and I could now see why. All you have to do is compare the two articles, and you will see why too! The contrast in journalistic professionalism, writing skills and editorial care between these two articles is very stark and obvious.

 

Lynn Conway with Mike Hiltzik of the L. A. Times Sept. 21, 2000

 

 

Late Nov - through Dec 2000

I spent a lot of time at home during this period, recovering from the surgery and following up on lots of e-mails, letters and calls about the recent articles. Dianne Lynch wrote a really neat article for her ABCNEWS.com "Wired-Women" column on November 29th - her article well captured my stance on things - especially my engineering stance that "What works, Works!"

 

January 24-27, 2001

At the invitation of the SafeSpace and CGLEN employee groups and with support from the local Human Resources departments, I visited Hewlett-Packard's and Agilent's facilities in Fort Collins, Colorado. These are major high-technology design and manufacturing sites employing many thousands of people. Much of the work at HP there involves computer design and VLSI design, and thus my name is well known in technical circles there. On Thursday the 25th I gave a 2-hour talk to HP technical staff members and wove my transition story into that talk. I then spent 1-1/2 hours with the HP SafeSpace and CGLEN groups, discussing GLBT diversity issues at the Fort Collins site. That afternoon the local paper interviewed me and took a photo (I wondered how the article would turn out!). That evening I spoke before a large audience (~250) at Colorado State University, going through my career and transition story and taking many questions.

 

These gatherings were very well attended and my talks were well received, generating lots of questions. I also began to get a sense of how my story could benefit the larger community of gay and lesbian folks grappling with fear of discrimination at high-tech sites in "new suburbias" such as Fort Collins. Since I am so well known in high-tech, but people didn't realize that I was TS, my story has some power in opening people's minds and breaking down old stereotypes. The fact that I had been fired by IBM for being a transsexual after doing such important work there, and that I'd resurrected myself in stealth and gone on to become famous as Lynn Conway, gave many pause for thought.

 

Not only that, but many companies are now sensitive to the fact that locations known to be "GLBT friendly", such as Austin, TX and the Research Triangle, NC are able to attract outstanding employees (especially outstanding women employees) who are not GLB or T, but who want to work in an environment that is welcoming of diversity. More and more bright young people are recognizing that conformist environments that are not welcoming of diversity may not be welcoming of new ideas either, and do not want to work at such places.

 

[Note: This concept has gotten a lot of attention recently in high-tech circles, especially due to the work of Richard Florida, founder and director of the Software Industry Center at Pittsburgh's Carnegie Mellon University. Florida is Professor of Regional Economic Development at CMU, and is a pioneering cartographer of talent. The January 2001 issue of the on-Line magazine Fast Company described Florida's work, including the significance of the so-called "Gay Index" in an article entitled Where Are You on the Talent Map. For more information this important work, see http://www.brook.edu/urban/floridaexsum.htm]

 

However, in HP at Fort Collins many of the CGLEN members expressed considerable fear about being "out" in any way. Many also said that those fears might be unfounded, since those who are out have had no real problems. But the apparant visible conformity and lack of visible diversity in the workplace in Fort Collins generates and maintains ongoing fears of being known as gay or lesbian. It is kind of a catch-22 situation, and difficult to know how to break out of it. In addition, the absence of openly gay people in the work force at Fort Collins produces even greater apprehension about being outed among the even smaller minority of transgendered and transsexual HP employees there.

 

On Friday morning, my hosts showed me a wonderful article the Fort Collins Coloradoan had printed on its front page that morning entitled "Computer pioneer speaks from the heart about diversity".

 

The timing of the article was great, because that morning and midday I met with Human Resources managers and General Managers from HP and then Agilent to discuss gender transition issues. The Coloradoan article helped me stress that by welcoming gender and orientation variance in the workforce, companies could generate visible signs of diversity and a more open and less conformist environment for all. I also discussed the increasing numbers of "on-the-job' transgender transitions, and stressed that sound guidelines (such as those at Lucent) could help managers efficiently expedite such transitions without getting bogged down in time-wasting hassles.

 

That evening I went to dinner with the group of CGLEN members who had sponsored my visit. We concluded the visit by gathering for drinks, music and dancing at Choice City SHOTS, a really neat GLBT bar in downtown Fort Collins.

 

This trip was a special experience for me. Somehow something came together for the whole group of us involved. We sensed that a unique opportunity is at hand to promote gender and orientation diversity in high-tech companies. By embracing diversity, especially by including the GLBT community, those companies can signal their welcome and openness to top people of all persuasions, and better attract and motivate the best and brightest employees. In addition, those companies are powerful factors for social change in the hinterlands of the U.S. into which they are expanding. After all, it is those large numbers of high-tech employees who have the good high-paying jobs, and who will be increasingly influential in local affairs in those areas.

 

February 9, 2001

A week after my trip to Fort Collins, hpNOW (the internal Hewlett-Packard on-line newsletter) ran a front-page story about my visit. This was a wonderfully supportive story that well reinforced the events that had occurred, and brought the story to the attention of many of hp's 88,000 employees. The article in particular echoed one of CEO Carly Fiorina's frequent messages: A company emphasis on conformity can stifle growth and individuality, whereas diversity encourages self-expression and helps fuel creativity. As time goes on, I'll try to quietly press for more progress along these lines.

 

Spring 2001

The years of 1999 and 2000 were rather tumultuous ones for me. Quietly coming out within my research community and telling my story was quite scary at first, but that has worked out well and in many ways I feel incredibly better about things now. By controlling the release of my story, I felt confident that I could avoid any gross misrepresentations and any major loss of my good name and reputation.

 

The ghosts of my past are out of the closet now, but without negatively impacting my day-to-day life. In fact, I feel ever so much better about things. I'm able to feel and express a sense of pride in what I've accomplished, instead of hiding my past all the time. I've made many wonderful new friends and have been able to help a lot of folks via my website information and e-mail interactions. I've also been able to get even closer to my nieces Kelly and Tracy and their children. All these things have brought a new sense of joy and purpose into my life.

 

The past two years have been stressful too, due to the many "renovation" surgeries that I needed to complete. I was very fortunate to have had access to extremely valuable current information about those surgeries via web contacts with many highly successful TS women who'd just undergone such surgery themselves (that experience led me to do my part by creating an extensive webpage about facial feminization surgery). Although the surgeries involved difficult recoveries, the results have been truly wonderful and have added to my sense of renewed joy in life. Charlie has been wonderful through all of these surgeries, staying close by my side and comforting me during the difficult times.

 

As this tumultuous period has finally settled down, a wonderful normalcy has returned into our lives. Charlie and I are enjoying to the max the simple pleasures of everyday life. We enjoyed lots of evenings by the fireplace this winter - looking out over our snowy countryside from our cozy home. A beautiful spring then brought all the greenery and animal life back into view. Charlie's looking forward to the new motocross season, and we're both looking forward to having many friends and relatives come visit us this summer and partake in our "summer camp" environment here in rural Michigan.

 

May 19,2001

Today I posted a new page in my website: the "TS Successes Page". The goal of this page is to present a more correct image of the many postop women who have made successes of their lives, but by doing so are usually not identifiable as having undergone gender corrections. Hopefully this page will help provide more visible role models for younger TS's who are now facing transition, and help them see just how successful many others have been. The hit rate on that page built up radpidly, and it now has a lot of visibility in the transgender community and among gender counselors.

 

June 23, 2001

Had a chance to meet with the photographer Loren Cameron for a photo shoot in San Francisco. Loren got some nice photos that I could use on my website.

 

Photo of Lynn by Loren Cameron, June 23, 2001

Copyright @ Loren Cameron, 2001

 

 

Summer, 2001

- - - TBD - - - my niece Tracy and her children visit us in Michigan - - - trip to visit my cousin Marion and her husband Kenny in Louisiana, and do some fishing down at their camp at Grand Isle (see Fishing pages) - - -

 

 

Lynn with Marion and Kenny at their fishing camp on Grand Isle, LA

 

 

Marion and Charlie, fishing in Barataria Bay, Louisiana

 

 

Fall 2001

- - - TBD - - - Charlie wins First-Place in the Vets 45+ Class in MRA's 2001 Season Motocross Championships! - - - and he will ride with the Number 1 plate during the 2002 racing season - - - here's a new photo with the #1's on his race-bike - - -

 

 

 

December 31, 2001

 

- - - Charlie and I had been thinking about the possibility of getting married for several years now - - - we date our "getting seriously together" back to New Years Eve of 1987, when we had made a skiing trip to Canada - - - we celebrated New Years there, and decided that we would like to live together - - - we've been together for almost 14 years by now, and our relationship became deeper and more wonderful with each passing year - - - in late December, Charlie asked me to marry him, and I said "yes"! - - - we announced and celebrated our engagement on Dec. 31st at a New Year's party we went to at a really cool Blues Club that we are supporting members of here in Michigan - - - we didn't set a date yet, but expect to marry sometime in 2002 - - - (see below) - - -

 

January 2002

 

- - - One January 3rd I travelled to Boston and on January 4th I had laser resurfacing surgery (LRS) performed on my entire face by Jeffery Dover, M.D. - - - Over the years I had a lot of sun exposure, especially when I was younger. This eventually caught up with me, and finally led to a lot of fine wrinkles and discolorations that made my face look older than I liked. - - - Dr. Dover is one of the very top laser surgeons in the U.S., and has vast experience. (This is one of those surgeries that you do not want done by anyone but the best, because the results will be forever visible to all). Upon consulting with him I discovered that I was an idea candidate for the surgery, because of the particular nature of my skin and the damage that needed to be corrected. - - - During the first two weeks of my recovery, I stayed in the Boston area at the home of my friend Nicki, who had also had the same surgery. The surgery turned out splendidly and the results are clearly going to exceed even my wildest expectations. Almost all the fine wrinkles are gone now, and the skin is softer, plumper and much younger looking than before. It almost seems like a miracle. For more about laser facial resurfacing, see Nicki's LRS photo webpage and Dr. Dover's page about LRS. See also Dr. Dover's bio webpage and the Skincare Physician's of Chestnut Hill webpage (Dr. Dover's clinic) - - -

 

 

Spring 2002

 

- - - When I transitioned way back in 1968, I tried to get a revised birth certificate showing my new name and gender, but New York State would not issue revised birth certificates back then. I'd been able to get a legal name change, a new drivers license and a U.S. Passport as a female, and these indentification papers were adequate for all purposes in the intervening years (a passport is almost always as good or better than a birth certificate) - - - so I just stopped worrying about the lack of a birth certificate, thinking that there wasn't anything I could do about it anyways.

 

During the intervening years, New York changed its policy and provided a means for postop TS's to apply for a new birth certificate. I found out about this when I came out in 1999 and began accessing current TS information on the web. New York's procedure is the most difficult of all states that do provide for such revisions. New York requires a lot of "official documentation" about one's gender reassignment (see Becky Allison's site for state-by-state info about B.C. revisions).

 

My SRS and gender transition were so long ago (33 years ago!) that most of my paperwork didn't meet current requirements, so I needed to provide lots of additional medical documentation in order to compensate for gaps in the originals. Last November I put all the required paperwork together and applied for my new birth certificate. Having had the vaginal deepening done by Dr. Schrang helped with this, because Dr. Schrang was able to provide me with a certified surgeon's letter confirming that I'd previously undergone a complete SRS.

 

Finally in March 2002 I was issued a completely revised New York State birth certificate showing my current name and female gender, and my original birth record was sealed. In addition to the regular Certificate of Birth, New York State also issues a "short-form" Certification of Birth. Unlike the "long-form", this simpler form doesn't include parents' names and address at the time. This short form is very useful for additional privacy in cases where a last name was changed too, as in my case.

 

Having obtained a completely revised birth certificate from New York and then marrying in Michigan insures that my marriage to Charlie will be fully legal, because BOTH New York State and the State of Michigan legally recognize gender reassignments and both provide for complete revisions of B.C.'s for postop TS women born in those states. It would have easily been possible to marry here by using just my drivers license or U.S. Passport as ID for the marriage license, but the New York State birth certificate will better insure the long-term legal validity of our upcoming marriage.

 

Summer 2002

 

When Charlie and I finalized our wedding plans this spring - - - we decided to marry this August in a ceremony on Mackinac Island in northern Michigan - - - the Island is a very special, romantic place - - - you can only get there by ferry-boats - - - all the buildings are in late-19th century Victorian architecture - - - and there are no automobiles on the Island - - all transportation is by horsedrawn carriages, or bicycles, or by foot - - - the Grand Hotel on Mackinac Island was the setting for the 1980 romantic movie "Somewhere in Time" starring Christopher Reeve and Jane Seymour - - - it's a very sad, romantic story that has added to the Island's mystique - - -

 

 

 

 

We travelled to Mackinac Island from August 11- 16, 2002, and we were married there on August 13th. Here are some photos from our wedding day:

 

 

 

 

 

 

And here are photos of us on our honeymoon - in the first photo we're on the balcony porch of the Harbour View Inn, just outside our upstairs front room and its spectacular harbor view - in the second we're having dinner at the Mission Point Resort.

 

 

 

 

 

 

For more about our wedding trip, including many photos from our wedding and honeymoon, see our "Wedding Trip to Mackinac Island" webpage. This trip was a truly romantic adventure, and was a memorable way to celebrate our love and committment to each other.

 

 

 

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PREFACE

PART I

PART II

PART III

PART IV

PART V

PART VI

 

[Lynn's home page]