A Request For Others to Consider

[Guest LizMarie]

The head of the Houston TG center posted this elsewhere. I would like to ask each of you to consider reading this and consider submitting Sister Mary Elizabeth Clark for the 2013 Citizens Medal. Sister Clark is a trans-woman, a Catholic nun, and has done incredible work for the HIV community world wide. I have provided a link to the White House web site where you can submit this information.

Sister Mary Elizabeth Clark is 75 years old and is from San Juan Capistrano, California (information you will need for the submission, if you choose to make one).

The quote below is from my friend's Facebook page, so that you have some summary information about Sister Clark from which to draw should you choose to submit her name. Whether she wins or not, I think that bringing positive transgender role models into the public eye helps to dispel some of the common myths about transgender people.

I just nominated Sister Mary Elizabeth Clark (a transwoman) for the 2013 Citizens Medal and I'd appreciate it if you would too!

Sister Mary Elizabeth Clark (American Catholic Church nun) has been nominated for the Nobel Peace Prize, won the Award of Courage from the American Foundation for AIDS Research, the Jonathan Mann Health and Human Rights Award from the International Association of Physicians in AIDS Care, the Crystal Heart award from the San Diego GLBT Center and the Joan of Arc award from the Orange County Community Foundation.

In 1990, Sister Mary Elizabeth Clark single-handedly took on and created the largest AIDS information database in the world called the AIDS Education and Global Information System or AEGiS and was nominated to the United Nations Educational, Scientific, and Cultural Organization's (UNESCO) "Memory of the World" program in 1999.

She created this resource out of a trailer and without major corporate backing - and managed to create the world's largest online resources for HIV/AIDS information.

From a 2005 newspaper prfile: "An injury from jumping off of the wing of a burning P-3 anti-submarine patrol aircraft left her with three herniated discs in her back and the peripheral neuropathy causes her chronic pain. Combine that with inherited age-related macular degeneration and one is left with a sense of awe at her drive and workload. She begins her day at 5:00 a.m. and goes to sleep at midnight. She is truly a gem living in our own backyard."

+++++++++++++++

Here's more from a 1997 article:

James Allan Maytum, who logs on daily from Valencia, Spain, calls himself a "fanatic" about Sister Mary. Maytum, born in Chicago, moved to Spain in 1992 when he was found to be HIV-positive. His drug therapy at the time produced toxic reactions that nearly killed him around Christmas 1995.

A new mix of drugs restored his health, but another toxic episode sent him scrambling to the computer, where he found AEGIS. Ten days later, he received a voluminous package of information on drug therapies from Sister Mary that he brought to his doctor. The new drug combination worked.

"What can I say more than I sort of feel that I owe my life to AEGIS and Sister Mary," Maytum said from Spain. "She's truly God's messenger. She's achieved what really is the largest and best HIV-AIDS database in the world."

Tom Sawyer, senior product manager at Roxane Laboratories, learned of AEGIS about two years ago. At the time, the company--a U.S. subsidiary of a German-based pharmaceutical corporation--was developing its own Internet site and looking for ways to promote AIDS education electronically. After a visit to San Juan Capistrano, Sawyer signed Roxane as a sponsor.

"Sister Mary had a lot of vision about what she wanted to do, and she was very open to ideas," Sawyer said. "So were we. We wanted to be a sponsor and a contributor. We wanted people to point to us with a lot of respect. It was a wonderful decision for us to get involved. We've made a long-term commitment to Sister Mary."

Father John, a priest at San Felipe de Jesus Catholic Church in Capistrano Beach, met Sister Mary in 1990, when she was called to the hospital to help an immigrant farm worker who had lost his legs in a train accident. They've met weekly ever since.

"Her work has turned out to be a tremendous blessing to our brothers and sisters with AIDS," Father John said. "Her work for Juan Carlos had us meet, but I so admire the work she's doing for the AIDS community."

"AEGIS tries to be the journal of record for the epidemic, and it succeeds in doing that," said Wynn Wagner, a software manufacturer from Dallas who helped design the Web page.

Updating AEGIS and responding to e-mail takes Sister Mary up to 18 hours a day. She researches articles and rewrites them into files that can be converted to the language of the Internet and posted on AEGIS.

http://www.whitehouse.gov/citizensmedal/submit-a-nomination?utm_source=email204&utm_medium=text1&utm_campaign=citizensmedal

[Guest Mia J]

Thank you for posting.

Sister Mary has also been very active in the Trans community sense at least the 80s.

This is well deserved.

Mia