Meet the LGBTQ+ Activists Who Eviscerated the “Mental Disorder” Stigma

On June 14, dig into an important moment of LGBTQ+ history with a screening of “CURED,” the latest installment in the Downtown Alliance’s New York on Film series. The 2020 documentary chronicles the abolishment of the American Psychiatric Association’s classifying homosexuality as a “mental disorder” — and the June 14 event at Alamo Drafthouse will be followed by a conversation with the activists who led the charge in that civil rights victory. 

Here’s a preview of those participating in the post-screening panel. [UPDATE: Tickets for this screening are sold out, but we encourage you to join the waitlist as last-minute seats may become available.]

Reverend Magora Kennedy

In the early 1950s, Magora Kennedy’s mother discovered she was interested in girls and forced her to make an impossible choice: get married or be institutionalized. Kennedy chose the former, even though she was only 14 years old at the time. As an adult, she got involved in the women’s movement, the civil-rights movement and participated in the Stonewall uprising. In 1972, she was one of seven open lesbians who appeared on “The David Susskind Show” to argue why the medical establishment mistakenly labeled homosexuality as a mental-illness.

Jack Drescher, MD 

Jack Drescher is a psychiatrist and psychoanalyst in private practice in New York City. Dr. Drescher is Clinical Professor of Psychiatry at Columbia University and a Faculty Member at Columbia’s Division of Gender, Sexuality, and Health. He is also an adjunct professor at New York University. Dr. Drescher is an expert on the history of psychiatry’s treatment of LGBTQ+ people and served on the National Advisory Board for “CURED.”

Charles Kaiser  

A former reporter for the New York Times and the Wall Street Journal, Charles Kaiser has authored three nonfiction titles. His first, “1968 In America,” was republished in a 30th anniversary edition with a new introduction by Hendrik Hertzberg. “The Gay Metropolis,” his second book, chronicles a landmark history of gay life in America, and his third, 2015’s “The Cost of Courage,” is a critically acclaimed recounting of a WWII family who were part of the French Resistance.  

Kaiser was also a founder and former president of the New York chapter of the National Lesbian and Gay Journalists Association. He has taught journalism at Columbia and Princeton.

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Tickets for the June 14 screening of “CURED” are $5 and include popcorn and a beverage. All proceeds will be donated to Safe Place International.