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Lynn Conway and transgender people

Lynn Conway was an American engineer and one of history’s most notable computer scientists. Conway was also a key figure in online transgender resources.

Background

Lynn Ann Conway was born on January 2, 1938 and grew up in White Plains, New York. Conway enrolled at MIT in 1955, but dropped out. After working as an electronics technician, Conway enrolled at Columbia University’s School of Engineering and Applied Science, earning bachelor’s and master’s degrees in 1962 and 1963.

Conway began at IBM Research in 1964, helping to develop new supercomputer technology. After coming out as transgender in 1968, Conway was fired by IBM.

After making a gender transition, Conway worked at Computer Applications and Memorex before joining Xerox PARC in 1973 to develop new integrated circuits. Conway co-authored Introduction to VLSI Systems with Carver Mead in 1978. The book’s insights are widely considered one of the most important advances in microchip technology.

Conway left Xerox to join DARPA’s Strategic Computing Initiative. Conway joined the University of Michigan in 1985 as professor of electrical engineering and computer science, and associate dean of engineering. Conway was appointed Professor Emerita in 1998.

Conway and engineer Charlie Rogers began a relationship in 1987, marrying in 2002.

Conway died on June 9, 2024 following heart issues.

Transgender activism

After creating an academic page in 1997, Conway bought the domain lynnconway.com in 2000 and began building a large personal website that included information about gender transition. Conway’s Transsexual Women’s Successes pages were an important early source of community inspiration, later expanded with a similar page for notable trans men.

Conway was a key figure in the transgender community response to the 2003 publication of the anti-transgender book The Man Who Would Be Queen by J. Michael Bailey. Conway methodically documented events as they unfolded, creating an important archive. Gender studies professor K. Surkan said our work “represented one of the most organized and unified examples of transgender activism seen to date.”

Conway also performed in our first all-trans performance of The Vagina Monologues in 2004.

Conway was also among the first to question academia’s deliberate undercounting of trans and gender diverse people.

References

Staff (June 12, 2024). Lynn Conway obituary. Sherwood Funeral Home https://memorials.sherwoodfh.com/lynn-conway/5445916/index.php

Trip Gabriel (June 15, 2024). Lynn Conway, Computing Pioneer and Transgender Advocate, Dies at 86. New York Times https://www.nytimes.com/2024/06/15/technology/lynn-conway-dead.html

Lang, Kristy (June 21, 2024). Last Word: Lynn Conway. BBC https://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/m00208pq

Smith, Harrison (June 13, 2024). Lynn Conway, microchip pioneer and trans rights advocate, dies at 86. Washington Post https://www.washingtonpost.com/obituaries/2024/06/13/lynn-conway-dead/

Hicks, Mar (June 21, 2024). Remembering Lynn Conway, of the Conway Effect, Who Helped Launch the Computing Revolution. Scientific American https://www.scientificamerican.com/article/remembering-lynn-conway-of-the-conway-effect-who-helped-launch-the-computing/

Goodrich, Joanna (June 20, 2024). Honoring the Legacy of Chip Design Innovator Lynn Conway. IEEE Spectrum https://spectrum.ieee.org/chip-design-innovator-lynn-conway

Hiltzik, Michael (June 11, 2024). Column: Lynn Conway, leading computer scientist and transgender pioneer, dies at 86. Los Angeles Times https://www.latimes.com/business/story/2024-06-11/lynn-conway-leading-computer-scientist-and-transgender-pioneer-dies-at-85

Moore, Nicole Casal (June 11, 2024). The legacy of Lynn Conway, chip design pioneer and transgender-rights advocate. University of Michigan Engineering News https://news.engin.umich.edu/2024/06/the-legacy-of-lynn-conway-chip-design-pioneer-and-transgender-rights-advocate/

Dodds, Io (June 15, 2024). Why losing trans pioneer Lynn Conway feels like a death in the family. The Independent https://www.independent.co.uk/news/world/americas/lynn-conway-death-obituary-b2563216.html

Olyslager F, Conway L (2007). On the calculation of the prevalence of transsexualism. WPATH 20th International Symposium http://ai.eecs.umich.edu/people/conway/TS/Prevalence/Reports/Prevalence%20of%20Transsexualism.pdf

Cramer, Maria (November 21, 2020). 52 Years Later, IBM Apologizes for Firing Transgender Woman. New York Times https://www.nytimes.com/2020/11/21/business/lynn-conway-ibm-transgender.html

Surkan, K. Transsexuals protest academic exploitation. In Faderman, Lillian (ed). Gay, Lesbian, Bisexual, and Transgender Events, 1848-2006. Salem Press, 2007, pp. 700–702.ISBN 9781587652653 [PDF]

Staff report (May 29, 2014). 21 Transgender People Who Influenced American Culture. Time https://time.com/130734/transgender-celebrities-actors-athletes-in-america/

Dodds, Io (December 4, 2023). ‘I was completely, manically joyful’: How a trans woman changed computing in the modern world. The Independent https://www.independent.co.uk/news/world/americas/iphone-science-trans-woman-lynn-conway-b2458269.html

Alicandri, Jeremy. IBM Apologizes For Firing Computer Pioneer For Being Transgender…52 Years Later. Forbes https://www.forbes.com/sites/jeremyalicandri/2020/11/18/ibm-apologizes-for-firing-computer-pioneer/

Paul Wallich (December 2000). Profile: Lynn Conway—Completing the Circuit. Scientific American https://www.jstor.org/stable/26058967

Conway, Lynn (2012). Reminiscences of the VLSI Revolution: How a Series of Failures Triggered a Paradigm Shift in Digital Design (PDF). Solid-State Circuits Magazine. Vol. 4, no. 4. IEEE. pp. 8–31. doi:10.1109/MSSC.2012.2215752.

Media

Mead, Carver; Conway, Lynn (1980). Introduction to VLSI Systems. Addison-Wesley. ISBN 0201043580

National Inventors Hall of Fame (April 14, 2023). Providing Freedom: The Lynn Conway Story. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=H6tb8qBgWXU

Michigan Engineering (October 8, 2014). Lynn Conway reflects on her gender transition. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7kJ-N54cQu4

Resources

Lynn Conway (lynnconway.com)

Wikipedia (en.wikipedia.org)

Facebook (facebook.com)

National Inventors Hall of Fame (invent.org)

Twitter (twitter.com)