I just read a news item in Psychiatric News on the first John E. Fryer M.D. Award, named after the man who appeared in disguise as Dr H. Anonymous at the 1972 American Psychiatric Association conference to declare he was a gay psychiatrist at a time when homosexuality was still classified as a mental illness.
This has been cited as a key factor in getting homosexuality de-listed from the diagnostic manual the following year, and was a landmark event both in the history of psychiatry and gay rights.
Consequently, I was surprised to find that there was nothing about John Fryer on Wikipedia, despite having been honoured by having an award named after him and obituaries in the leading medical journals when he passed away in 2003.
So, I’ve put together a Wikipedia page for John E. Fryer with some of the fascinating story and details, but this is where I need your help.
Although I know a little about the history of psychiatry, I’m afraid I don’t know a great deal about gay culture or history, so if you do, please expand the article and mesh it in with the other relevant articles on Wikipedia.
Also, if anyone knows of any open-licensed pictures of Dr Fryer or Dr Anonymous to include in the article, or can get permission to use any pictures, please do so.
Finally, there are more details in the information in the ‘external links’ section, so if you have a few minutes to rewrite it in your own words to add to the article, this would also be very useful (and any factual corrections or fixes to my dodgy prose are also welcome!).
Link to Wikipedia page for Dr John E. Fryer.
Link to text of Dr H. Anonymous’ 1972 speech.
Mind Hacks 