This year I’d like to share with you a little about one of my heroes, Lynn Conway. Lynn was a computer scientist and a transgender activist from the 1950s until her passing in the 2020s. Born in NY in 1938, she was fascinated by technology and astronomy, and in 1955 started her education at MIT. She started her gender transition in 1957, but, you’ll be shooken to learn that in the 50s we were about as OK with that then as parts of our country are with it today 🤯​.

By 1959 she de-transitioned and dropped out of MIT due to significant social pushback and a lack of medical care. Eventually she would earn her bachelors and masters degrees in electrical engineering in ’62 and ’63, respectively, through Columbia University. She began working for IBM in 1964 — which for those unaware was one of the world’s largest computer companies, well before the days of Apple & Microsoft. (Fun aside: IBM lost its position as one of the largest computer companies in the 80s because it believed that computers would never become common household objects and would always be a niche business tool, allowing Apple and Microsoft to become what they are today!)

At IBM, Lynn invented a key algorithm to support a process called “Out of order execution”, which is used still today by many modern computers. This allows a computer to process a series of instructions in a non-linear format to significantly improve the speed of them. Despite her success and the prestige this brought to IBM, in 1968 she was fired after she came out publicly again as trans. It took 52 years for IBM to offer a formal apology.

She began her medical transition in 1967 (HRT for trans adults started around this time, estimated 1966). As a parent of two children, she was denied access to her children after transitioning due to the laws in place.

Afterward, she worked at the University of Michigan teaching electrical engineering and computer science until 1998, and during that time would continue to release a series of new technologies and inventions that helped make computers what they are today. She became a leading transgender activist in 1999 until her death in 2024.

As I write this in 2025, I can’t help but to reflect on approximately 70 years of trans history that runs parallel with women’s history and the civil rights movement, and reflect on that we today in the US especially are facing a revivification of the laws that Lynn faced as a mother, an employee, and a woman, as bills across the nation pop-up deeming transwomen mentally ill, unfit for parenthood, unprotected by federal classifications that most other workers have, and denial of her bodily autonomy/medical care that would otherwise have been between her and her doctors.

I’m grateful for all that each of you do to help make the world a better place and fight against injustices such as these. In solidarity ⚧️​♀️​