Background
Clark was born as Michael Clark, and served as a United States Navy chief petty officer (East-7), serving as an instructor in anti-submarine warfare.
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Mary Clark
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She later underwent a sex change operation and became Joanna Clark. Knowing of her past, a United States. Army Reserves recruiter signed her up for the Army, which she enlisted in in 1976. A year-and-a-half later she was discharged from the Army when her history became known to higher-ups.
During the 1970s, she was an activist for the rights of transsexuals and was instrumental in winning the right of Californians to have their gender changed on their birth-certificates and driver"s licenses.
In 1980, she founded and led the American Civil Liberties Union Transsexual Rights Committee. In the 1980s, she felt a religious calling and worked to become an Episcopal nun.
In 1990, inspired by meeting an isolated young man with Acquired Immune Deficiency Syndrome in rural Missouri, she returned to her family home in San Juan Capistrano, taking on the bulletin board system AEGiS begun by Jamie Jemison and eventually building it into the largest Acquired Immune Deficiency Syndrome information database in the world. In 2005 she was nominated for the Nobel Peace Prize.
Achievements
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She brought suit against the Army and won a settlement of $25,000 and an honorable discharge. She is the recipient of the Award of Courage from the American Foundation for Acquired Immune Deficiency Syndrome Research, the Jonathan Mann Award for Health and Human Rights from the International Association of Physicians in Acquired Immune Deficiency Syndrome Care, the Crystal Heart award from the San Diego GLBT Center and the Joan of Arc award from the Orange County Community Foundation.
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Born
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Nationality
United States