John E. Fryer

John E. Fryer
Born November 7, 1937[1]
Winchester, Kentucky[1]
Died February 21, 2003(2003-02-21) (aged 64)
Nationality American
Fields Psychiatry
Institutions Temple University
Alma mater Vanderbilt University
Known for His role in persuading the American Psychiatric Association to remove homosexuality from the Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders
Notable awards Distinguished Service Award from the Association of Gay and Lesbian Psychiatrists

John Ercel Fryer, M.D. (November 7, 1937[1] – February 21, 2003) was an American psychiatrist and gay rights activist best known for his anonymous speech at the 1972 American Psychiatric Association annual conference where he appeared in disguise and under the name Dr. Henry Anonymous. This event has been cited as a key factor in the decision to de-list homosexuality as a mental illness from the Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders. The American Psychiatric Association John E. Fryer, M.D., Award is named in his honor.[2]

Early life

Fryer was born in Winchester, Kentucky to Ercel Ray Fryer and Katherine Zempter Fryer.[1][3] He completed his medical studies at Transylvania College in Lexington, Kentucky and Vanderbilt University in Nashville, Tennessee. Around 1964 he held a residency at the University of Pennsylvania in Philadelphia.[4] Not long afterwards, c.1965, he began to receive referrals from Alfred A. Gross,[5] the Executive Secretary of the George W. Henry Foundation – co-founded by Gross and Henry in 1948[5] to help those "who by reason of sexual deviation aee in trouble with themselves, the law or society"[4] – to treat homosexual men who had run afoul of the law, and to testify on their behalf in court cases.[5] Fryer joined the medical faculty of Philadelphia's Temple University in 1967. As of January 1969, he was an instructor in psychiatry there.[6]

1972 speech

Barbara Gittings, Franklin Kameny and John E. Fryer as "Dr. Henry Anonymous" at a 1972 dialogue discussing psychiatry and homosexuality.

At a time when homosexuality was still listed as a mental illness, Fryer was the first gay American psychiatrist to speak publicly about his sexuality. A year earlier, at the 1971 convention in Washington, gay activist Dr. Franklin E. Kameny had seized the microphone at the conference[7] as part of a long-standing protest about the diagnosis of homosexuality, a fight that Kameney, a Harvard University astronomer, has been waging since at least 1964, when he appeared on television to declare that being gay was "not a disease, a pathology, a sickness, a malfunction or a disorder of any sort."[7] Kameny's statement at the 1971 convention initiated the first gay-rights protest at an American Psychiatric Association conference.

This protest led to a session at the association's annual 1972 meeting on homosexuality and mental illness entitled "Psychiatry: Friend or Foe to Homosexuals: A Dialogue" with Kameny – who had never met Fryer; lesbian activist Barbara Gittings had been the one to convince Fryer to speak[8] – sitting on the panel. Listed only as "Dr. Henry Anonymous", Fryer appeared on stage wearing a rubber joke shop face mask – which was sometimes described as a mask of Richard M. Nixon, but which was probably altered from its original state[4] – a wig, and a baggy tuxedo and spoke through a microphone which distorted his voice. At the time of his speaking, Fryer was on the faculty of Temple University in Philadelphia, but did not have the security of tenure, so was in real danger of losing his position if he had been identified - he had already lost a residency at the University of Philadelphia.[8] Although some of his colleagues knew who he was, Fryer did not formally acknowledge having been "Dr. Henry Anonymous" until the APA's 1994 convention in Philadelphia.[7][4] But it was not only fear of repercussion which lead to the theatricality of Fryer's physical appearance: he would later chair a meeting of the International Work Group on Death, Dying, and Bereavement in 1974 wearing loudly patterned dashikis and a using ceramic cow bell to keep order; he had a propensity for theatricality.[8]

Dr. Fryer's speech started with the words "I am a homosexual. I am a psychiatrist" and continued to describe the lives of the many gay psychiatrists among the American Psychiatric Association who had to hide their sexuality from their colleagues for fear of discrimination, and from fellow homosexuals owing to the disdain in which the psychiatric profession was held among the gay community. Fryer's speech also suggested ways in which gay psychiatrists could subtly and 'creatively' challenge prejudice in their profession without disclosing their sexuality, and help gay patients adjust to a society that considered their sexual preferences a sign of psychopathology. There were more than 100 gay psychiatrists at the convention.[7]

Homosexuality was removed from the Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders a year later, – leading at least one newspaper to print the headline "Homosexuals gain instant cure"[8] and Fryer's speech has been cited as a key factor in persuading the psychiatric community to reach this decision.[9] Gittings later said of it: "His speech shook up psychiatry. He was the right person at the right time."[8]

Later life and death

Fryer became a professor at Temple, both of psychiatry, and of family and community medicine. Sometime after 1973, he began treating gay men with AIDS who were dying, seeing them in his home office rather than in his practice at Temple, for reasons of patient confidentiality.[4] He was involved in setting up Physicians in Transition, Temple's Family Life Development Center, the APA's International Work Group on Death, Dying, and Bereavement and the Philadelphia AIDS Task Force. In 1980, at the behest of Dame Cicely Saunders, founder of London's St Christopher's Hospice, he took a sabbatical from Temple and helped to restructure the hospice's education department.[8]

Fryer was also a musician, playing organ and acting as choirmaster in the churches he belonged to;[3] he also played the organ for Temple University graduations.[4]

Fryer was being treated for diabetes and pulmonary sarcoidosis, and eventually died from gastrointestinal bleeding and aspiration pneumonia.[10][7]

Awards and honors

Fryer was awarded a Distinguished Service Award from the Association of Gay and Lesbian Psychiatrists. After his death, the Association of LGBTQ Psychiatrists endowed American Psychiatric Association's "The John E. Fryer MD" award in his memory, to honor a person whose work has contributed to the mental health of sexual minorities, and includes both a lecture at the Fall conference of the ALGP and an honorarium.[2][11]

See also

References

  1. 1 2 3 4 Birth certificate in the John E. Fryer archive at the Historical Society of Pennsylvania
  2. 1 2 Moran, Mark (November 3, 2006). Activists Forced Psychiatrists To Look Behind Closet Door. Psychiatric News
  3. 1 2 "Dr John Ercel Fryer" at Find-a-Grave
  4. 1 2 3 4 5 6 John E. Fryer archive at the Historical Society of Pennsylvania
  5. 1 2 3 "Profile: Dr Alfred A. Gross" Religious Archives Network
  6. ↑ Stokes, Marion (producer) (January 26, 1969) "Input - #18 - The Anatomy of Life - Part 5 - 'Puppet or Person?'" (video) WCAU-TV Philadelphia
  7. 1 2 3 4 5 Clendinen, Dudley (March 5, 2003) "Dr. John Fryer, 65, Psychiatrist Who Said in 1972 He Was Gay" (obituary) The New York Times
  8. 1 2 3 4 5 6 Lenzer, Jeanna (March 22, 2003) "John Fryer" British Medical Journal
  9. ↑ Scasta D. L. (2002) "John E. Fryer, MD, and the Dr. H. Anonymous Episode" Journal of Gay & Lesbian Psychotherapy Volume:6 Issue:4 pp.73–84.
  10. ↑ Staff (March 08, 2003) "Dr. John E. Fryer, 65; Trailblazing Psychiatrist in Gay Rights Movement" Los Angeles Times
  11. ↑ "AGLP Awards". www.aglp.org. Retrieved 2016-03-03.

External links

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