Dee Mosbacher

Diane "Dee" Mosbacher, MD, Ph.D., (born January 13, 1949 in Houston, Texas) is an American filmmaker, lesbian feminist activist, and practicing psychiatrist. In 1993, she founded Woman Vision, a nonprofit organization to promote equal treatment of all people through the production and use of educational media, including video.[1]

Dee Mosbacher
Mosbacher in 2013
Born
Diane Mosbacher

(1949-01-13) January 13, 1949
Houston, Texas, U.S.
NationalityAmerican
EducationBachelors, Pitzer College;
Ph.D, Union Graduate School;
M.D., Baylor College of Medicine
OccupationFilmmaker, activist, psychiatrist
Years active1993–present
Notable work
Straight From the Heart
Spouse(s)
​
(m. 2005)​
Parents
RelativesRobert Mosbacher Jr. (brother)

Early life and education

Mosbacher is the daughter of the late Jane Pennybacker Mosbacher and Robert Mosbacher (1927–2010),[2] who served as U.S. Secretary of Commerce under George H.W. Bush from 1989 to 1992. She has two sisters (Kathryn and Lisa) and a brother (Robert Jr.).[2]

Mosbacher and her father had a close relationship despite the Republican Party's largely anti-gay position. In 1992, on a day when the two were both giving commencement speeches, she told a Washington Post reporter that she began her speech: "Dad and I had breakfast this morning. We looked at each other's speeches. He would have used mine but he's not a lesbian. I would have used his, but I'm not a Republican."[3] Dr. Mosbacher spoke out against the gay-bashing and anti-woman focus of the Republican Party's 1992 campaign.[4][5]

Mosbacher earned a bachelor's degree in psychology from Pitzer College in Claremont, California, a doctorate in social psychology from Union Graduate School, and a medical degree from Baylor College of Medicine.[6][7]

Career

Mosbacher was a medical intern at Cambridge Hospital through Harvard Medical School from 1983-1984 and was a psychiatry resident in the same hospital from 1984-1987.[7]

She became a women's health activist in college and began directing documentary films as a student at Baylor College and as a resident at Harvard Medical School. Her films focused on discrimination against lesbian and gay physicians and patients, and she wrote many articles about gay and lesbian patients for the academic and medical community.[7]

Woman Vision

In 1992, Dee Mosbacher founded the non-profit production company Woman Vision to counteract the media campaign on LGBT issues conducted by the Republican Party, which was the focus of the 1992 Republican National Convention. As a psychiatrist, Mosbacher understood the psychological and psychosocial suffering caused by homophobia and created Woman Vision to promote equal treatment of all people through the production and use of educational media. Woman Vision promotes positive role models and supportive images of societally marginalized people. It uses diversity trainings, lectures, and other educational outreach programs to encourage people to abandon their homophobia and to improve the lives of LGBT individuals.[7]

As of 2009, Mosbacher has directed or produced nine documentary films through Woman Vision, each having to do with LGBTQ or women's rights issues. In 1994, she directed and produced Straight From the Heart, which was nominated for an Academy Award.[8] Altogether, Mosbacher's films have received a total of 46 awards — by LGBT, Black, Latina, Latin American, and Aging Media film festivals, including best of show award, grand jury awards, and audience awards, in the US, the UK, Australia, Cuba, Mexico, and Italy.[1]

Oscar nomination for Straight from the Heart
Main article: Straight from the Heart (1994 film)

In 1995, Mosbacher co-directed and co-produced (with Frances Reid) Straight From the Heart, a documentary that explored relationships between heterosexual parents and their adult lesbian and gay children. The film includes emotional interviews with parents who felt conflicted between the teachings of their religious communities and their love of their lesbian daughters and gay sons. One couple discussed their disapproval of homosexuality until they learned that their son, who was dying of AIDS, was gay. The film was nominated for an Oscar in the Documentary (Short Subject) category.[9]

Training Rules
Main article: Training Rules

In 2010, Mosbacher co-directed and co-produced with Fawn Yacker the documentary film Training Rules, an hour-long movie about Rene Portland, a women's basketball coach from Penn State University. Portland allegedly banned lesbians from playing on her team. The film contains interviews with former athletes and faculty members at Penn State who say that Portland actively pursued and harassed members of her team whom she suspected were gay.

Training Rules was shown at dozens of film festivals in the United States, Canada, and Europe, and won three audience choice awards.[10]

Affiliations

From 1994 to 2002, Mosbacher served on the Pitzer College Board of Trustees. In 2011, she established the Mosbacher Fund for Media Studies and the Mosbacher/Gartrell Center for Media Experimentation and Activism at Pitzer College.[11]

The Last Closet

In 2012, Woman Vision launched The Last Closet, a web-based campaign and video project to end homophobia in men's professional sports.[12]

Personal life

Mosbacher is married to Nanette Gartrell, MD,[6] a researcher, psychiatrist, and author of six books, including My Answer Is NO... If That's Okay With You.[13][14]

Filmography

Awards

In 1991, Dee Mosbacher was the first Pitzer College graduate to deliver a commencement address at her alma mater. In 2010, she established the Mosbacher/Gartrell Center for Media Experimentation and Activism at Pitzer College.[7]

See also

References
  1. "Woman Vision: Social Change Through Media". www.womanvision.org. Retrieved December 18, 2018.
  2. Hershey Jr., Robert D. (January 24, 2010). "Robert A. Mosbacher, 82, Ex-Commerce Chief, Dies". The New York Times. Retrieved December 18, 2018.
  3. THE LESBIAN IN THE G.O.P. FAMILY, by Laura Blumenfeld, Washington Post Staff Writer, 1992
  4. San Francisco Chronicle, “A Word on Lesbian in GOP Family,” by Liz Smith. September 7, 1992, page E1.
  5. The New Yorker, “Malice Toward Some,” Comment. October 26, 1992, pages 4-6.
  6. "Dee Mosbacher, Nanette Gartrell". The New York Times. January 16, 2005. Retrieved December 19, 2018.
  7. "Collection: Dee Mosbacher papers and Woman Vision records | Smith College Finding Aids". findingaids.smith.edu. Retrieved August 6, 2020. This article incorporates text available under the CC BY 3.0 license.
  8. "Straight from the Heart (1994)". IMDb.com. 2018. Retrieved December 19, 2018.
  9. "The 67th Academy Awards - 1995". www.oscars.org. Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences. Retrieved December 18, 2018.
  10. "Training Rules". www.trainingrules.com. Woman Vision. 2018. Retrieved December 18, 2018.
  11. "The Participant - Fall 2013". Issuu.com. December 16, 2013. Retrieved December 18, 2018.
  12. Zeigler, Cyd (September 18, 2012). "The Last Closet launches, aims to open closet doors for gay pro athletes". Outsports. Retrieved December 18, 2018.
  13. "My Answer Is NO. . . . If That's OK With You". www.myanswerisno.com. 2018. Retrieved December 18, 2018.
  14. Gartrell, Nanette (2008). My Answer Is NO... If That's Okay With You (1st Free Press hardcover ed.). New York, NY: Free Press. ISBN 9781416546931. OCLC 124036193.
  15. "Radical Harmonies (2002)". IMDb.com. 2018. Retrieved December 19, 2018.
  16. "Mayor Riordan To Help Honor Esteemed Federal Judge With Lambda Liberty Award". Lambda Legal. October 15, 1997. Retrieved December 18, 2018.
  17. Rothaus, Steve (July 17, 2009). "Equality Forum & QFest present first Barbara Gittings Award to filmmaker Dee Mosbacher". The Miami Herald. Miami, FL. Retrieved December 19, 2018.
  18. "2014 Mathew O. Tobriner Public Service Award". The Williams Institute, UCLA School of Law. June 25, 2014. Retrieved December 18, 2018.

Further reading
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