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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 (age 73) Houston, Texas, U.S.
Nationality	American
Education	Bachelors, Pitzer College; Ph.D, Union Graduate School; M.D., Baylor College of Medicine
Occupation	Filmmaker, activist, psychiatrist
Years active	1993–present
Notable work	Straight From the Heart
Spouse	Nanette Gartrell ​ (m. 2005)​
Parents	Robert Mosbacher (father) Jane Pennybacker (mother)
Relatives	Robert 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 reporter for The Washington Post 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

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

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

• 1985: Closets are Health Hazards: Gay and Lesbian Physicians Come Out - Director/Producer
• 1991: Lesbians on Practice, Patients, and Power - Director/Producer
• 1994: Straight From the Heart - Director/Producer (with Frances Reid and Deborah Hoffman)
• 1995: Out for a Change: Addressing Homophobia in Women's Sports - Director/Producer
• 1996: All God's Children - Director/Producer (with Sylvia Rhue and Frances Reid)
• 2001: De Colores - Executive Producer
• 2002: Radical Harmonies - Director/Producer (with Boden Sandstrom and June Millington)[15]
• 2006: No Secret Anymore: The Times of Del Martin and Phyllis Lyon - Producer (with Joan E. Biren)
• 2009: Training Rules - Director/Producer (with Fawn Yacker)[1]

Awards

• 1992: Creating Change Award, from the National Gay and Lesbian Task Force
• 1995: Jerry E. Berg Leadership Award, from the Human Rights Campaign Fund
• 1997: Liberty Award, from Lambda Legal Defense[16]
• 2009: Barbara Gittings Memorial Award, from Equality Forum[17]
• 2014: Mathew O. Tobriner Public Service Award, from the Legal Aid Society (San Francisco), Employment Law Center[18]

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

• List of female film and television directors
• List of lesbian filmmakers
• List of LGBT-related films directed by women

References

Further reading

• Tyrkus, Michael J (1997). Gay & lesbian biography. St. James Press. p. 333. ISBN 9781558622371.

External links

• Dee Mosbacher at IMDb
• Woman Vision - official website
• Training Rules - official website
• Dee Mosbacher papers and Woman Vision records at the Sophia Smith Collection, Smith College Special Collections

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