Lyn Duff

Lyn Duff is a journalist with the Pacific News Service and KPFA radio's [http://www.flashpoints.net Flashpoints] , an evening drive-time public affairs show heard daily on Pacifica Radio.

Early years

Born in California in 1976, Lyn Duff began her journalistic career as the founder of an underground school newspaper, "The Tiger Club", while an 8th grader at South Pasadena Junior High School [http://www.qrd.org/qrd/usa/utah/lgb.youth.detention.center.in.utah Subject: A Lesbian & Gay Youth Detention Center in Utah] Accessed July 10, 2007] in 1989. After five published issues, she was suspended from school by principal Ed Tucker for refusing to stop disseminating the newspaper.

After seeking help from the ACLU, the South Pasadena Unified School District agreed to allow Lyn Duff to return to school. She completed her 8th grade year and was then accepted as an early entrance student to California State University, Los Angeles (CSULA), which she attended for a year and a half.

While a student at Cal State LA, Lyn Duff was on the staff of another alternative newspaper published by Los Angeles art-critic [http://coagula.livejournal.com/ Mat Gleason] who, at the time, was a graduate student in the school of journalism and president of an alternative Greek organization, Omega Omega Omega.

Involuntary Conversion Therapy

In 1991, at the age of 14, Lyn Duff came out publicly as a lesbian.

Reportedly concerned about her daughter's sexual orientation, Lyn Duff's mother had her transported against her will to Rivendell Psychiatric Center (now known as [http://www.copperhillsyouthcenter.com/ Copper Hills Youth Center] in West Jordan, Utah. [ [http://gibe.com/forum/messages.asp?forumid=23&topicid=2161&pagenum=2 Right-Wing Christians and the Anti-Gay Agenda] Accessed July 10, 2007] During the drive from California to Utah, Lyn Duff managed a quick call to journalist [http://gaytoday.badpuppy.com/garchive/people/012599pe.htm Bruce Mirken] , a friend who then wrote for both the "Los Angeles Weekly" and "The Advocate". The two had had plans to meet for dinner before her "kidnapping" and upon hearing of her plight, Mirken quickly phoned Public Council, a public interest legal aid society which secured the pro bono services of corporate attorney [http://stjohns.edu/academics/graduate/law/faculty/profiles/Calabrese Gina M. Calabrese] of the Los Angeles firm Adams, Duque & Hazeltine to advocate on Lyn's behalf.

Lyn Duff was admitted to [http://health.utah.gov/hda/st1/st1_95/index.html Rivendell Psychiatric Center] on December 19, 1991. She was 15 years old.

Although the treatment center was not officially affiliated with the Mormon Church, Lyn Duff later said that she was visited by LDS missionaries during her six months at the Utah facility and that the treatment she received had strongly religious overtones. Duff says that Rivendell therapists told her that a homosexual orientation was caused by negative experiences with people of the opposite gender and that having a lesbian identity would lead her to sexually abuse other people or engage in bestiality. [ [http://www.glaad.org/action/al_archive_detail.php?id=1723&PHPSESSID= GLAAD Alert: Marie Claire Makes Clear the Dangers of 'Conversion Therapy'] Accessed July 10, 2007] Duff was diagnosed with Gender Identity Disorder and depression.

Lyn Duff was subjected to a regimen of conversion therapy. This involved aversion therapy, which consisted of being forced to watch same-sex pornography while smelling ammonia, [ [http://www.kuro5hin.org/?op=displaystory;sid=2001/3/30/4410/84525 Defending the Right to Pleasure] Accessed July 10, 2007] . She was also subjected to hypnosis, psychotropic drugs, solitary confinement, and therapeutic messages linking lesbian sex with "the pits of hell." [http://www.qrd.org/qrd/usa/utah/lgb.youth.detention.center.in.utah Subject: A Lesbian & Gay Youth Detention Center in Utah] Accessed July 10, 2007] Behavior modification techniques were also used [ [http://imprint.uwaterloo.ca/issues/112897/2Forum/forum03.shtml Imprint Online] Accessed July 10, 2007] including: requiring girls to wear dresses, unreasonable forms of punishment for small infractions (punishments included trimming grass with small scissors and scrubbing floors with a toothbrush), [ [http://www.qrd.org/qrd/religion/anti/exgay/exgay.ministries.txt ABOUT EX-GAY MINISTRIES] by David Williams, Accessed July 10, 2007] and "positive peer pressure" groups in which patients deemed and belittled each other for both real and perceived inadequacies.Fact|date=July 2007

On May 19, 1992, after 168 days of incarceration, Duff escaped [ [http://www-rcf.usc.edu/~usclrev/pdf/072502.pdf Controlling Desires: Sexual Orientation Conversion and the Limits of Knowledge and Law] By David B. Cruz, Accessed July 10, 2007] from the Rivendell Psychiatric Center and traveled to San Francisco. [ [http://www.findarticles.com/p/articles/mi_m1589/is_n746/ai_20004115?pi=cal Boys in the dollhouse, girls with toy trucks - gender identity disorder] The Advocate, Nov 11, 1997 by Robrt L. Pela. Accessed July 10, 2007]

While in San Francisco, Duff was homeless, living on the streets [ [http://www.digitalalliance.org/action/al_archive_detail.php?id=2301&PHPSESSID=73e2c0e955fc81e2b81c8898e8f259e6 GLAAD ALERT: 20/20 Exposes Lesbian Teenager's Torture in Psychiatric Hospital] Accessed July 10, 2007] and attending high school at the [http://www.larkinstreetyouth.org/ Larkin Street Youth Center] and [http://www.hospitalityhouse.org/ Central City Hospitality House] . For a time she also lived in a series of safe houses through a network of gay adult advocates who had created a modern underground railroad for youth in her position. [ [http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/uk_news/magazine/3258041.stm When gays were 'cured'] BBC News Online Magazine, 11 November 2003, By Brian Wheeler. Accessed July 10, 2007]

Emancipation and Adoption

In late 1992, with the help of [http://www.lsc-sf.org/web/index.html Legal Services for Children] and the [http://www.nclrights.org/ National Center for Lesbian Rights] , and with legal assistance provided by the National Center for Youth Law, Lyn Duff petitioned the courts to have her mother's parental rights terminated. She was one of a handful of children who "divorced" their parents that year; [ [http://www.abanet.org/publiced/focus/f96poli.html Family Law, Public Policy and New Federalism] by Steven K. Wisensale, Accessed July 10, 2007] an issue that gained national attention when reporters revealed that first lady Hillary Rodham Clinton had completed her master's thesis on the legal right of children to divorce their parents. [ [http://www.planetout.com/pno/news/article.html?1999/07/29/2 The Advocate News and Politics: A Reporter's Nightmare, Pt. 4] by Bruce Mirken, Accessed July 10, 2007]

In October 1992, a lesbian couple in San Francisco adopted Duff. She lived with them until the age of 18, when she began living independently and returned to college.

Youth rights activist

From 1992 through 1998, Duff was an outspoken critic of the mental health system, appearing on CNN, ABC's "20/20", and numerous print, radio and television media outlets. She also spoke at a number of human rights, civil rights, mental health and youth services conferences [ [http://www.northcoast.com/~starfish/kinike08.htm Itinerary of CNMHC Program] , 3/16/ (year unknown) showing Duff as speaker. Accessed July 10, 2007] about her experiences and the rights of young people to live free of discrimination and oppression on the basis of their sexual orientation. [ [http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?file=/examiner/archive/1998/01/18/NEWS6218.dtl Disciplinary camps, schools put teens' rights on the line] SFGate.com, January 18, 1998, by Marianne Costantinou. Accessed July 10, 2007]

During these years she also served on the board of several national organizations including the National Center for Youth Law (board member from 1994-2001) and the National Child Rights Alliance (board member from 1992-1993, board chairperson from 1994-1999). In 1996, Duff was honored as a keynote speaker and given a human rights award at the international conference of the Metropolitan Community Church.

During these same years, Lyn Duff was emerging as a talented journalist in her own right, writing for "Youth Outlook" (a weekly column in the "San Francisco Examiner") and the "Pacific News Service". She joined the staff of "Flashpoints", a daily hour-long drive-time show broadcast on Pacifica Radio's KPFA in 1994. Her writing appeared in the "San Francisco Chronicle", the "San Francisco Examiner", "Salon" online, the "Utne Reader", "Sassy" Magazine, the "Washington Post", "Seventeen" Magazine, the "Miami Herald" and the "National Catholic Reporter".

In 1995, Duff traveled to Haiti where she established Radyo Timoun ("Children's Radio"), that country's first radio station run entirely by children under the age of 17. [ [http://pangaea.org/street_children/latin/haiti.htm Children's Radio Station Gives Voice to Haiti's Future] San Francisco Examiner ©1996, by Lyn Duff. Accessed July 10, 2007] She reportedly worked closely with Haitian President Jean Bertrand Aristide. [ [http://www.hartford-hwp.com/archives/43a/666.html Jean Bertrand Aristide: Humanist or Despot?] Pacific News Service, 2 March 2004 by Lyn Duff. Accessed July 10, 2007] [ [http://www.dissidentvoice.org/Mar04/Felux0314.htm Debunking the Media's Lies about President Aristide] www.dissidentvoice.org, March 14, 2004 by Justin Felux. Accessed July 10, 2007]

In 1998, Duff graduated with a BA in International Affairs and Labor Law from Skidmore College in Saratoga Springs, New York.

International journalist

By the late 1990s, Duff was a well-established international journalist with postings in Haiti, Israel, Croatia, several African countries, and Vietnam. After the United States invaded Afghanistan, she traveled to the front lines as one of the few non-embedded Western journalists.

In early 2000 she began to cover religious affairs from her posting in Jerusalem, writing widely on the problems and conflicts between Christians, Jews and Muslims. In 2002, Duff earned an MA in Theology.

In February 2004, Duff, who was then living six months out of every year in Jerusalem, was home in the United States on a brief visit when a group of ex-soldiers overthrew the democratically elected government headed by President Jean Bertrand Aristide. She quickly traveled to Haiti, arriving in Port-au-Prince when the coup was only days old and reporting on the situation extensively for several national media outlets.

Since that time, Duff has regularly covered the situation in Haiti for the "San Francisco Bay View", Pacifica Radio's "Flashpoints", and Pacific News Service. Her reporting is a blend of in-depth investigative reports and "as told to" first person commentaries by Haitian nationals. Subjects have included politically motivated mass rape [ [http://www.zmag.org/content/showarticle.cfm?ItemID=7305 Haiti Rapes] Zmag.org, February 24, 2005 by Lyn Duff. Accessed July 10, 2007] , the United Nations mission in Haiti, killings by American Marines in Port-au-Prince [ [http://www.flashpoints.net/archive/index-2003-04-02.html Flashpoints Radio] Special Correspondent Lyn Duff on the ground in Haiti, Wednesday, March 31, 2004. Accessed July 10, 2007] , civilians taking over the neighborhood of Bel Air [ [http://www.zmag.org/content/showarticle.cfm?ItemID=9059 We Won't Be Peaceful and Let Them Kill Us Any Longer] Zmag.orf, November 04, 2005, by Lyn Duff. Accessed July 10, 2007] , murders of street children by police and ex-soldiers [ [http://www.zmag.org/content/showarticle.cfm?ItemID=7035 Killings of Haitian Street Kids Soar] Zmag.org, January 15, 2005, by Lyn Duff. Accessed July 10, 2007] , presidential/legislative elections [ [http://briarpatchmagazine.com/news/?cat=27 Haiti's resurgent majority takes power] Briarpatch Magazine, August 2006 by Brian Annis. Accessed July 10, 2007] , and the general human rights situation. [ [http://www.indybay.org/international/haiti/ Haiti News: Indybay] Accessed July 10, 2007.]

References

External links

* [http://www.selvesandothers.org/view2393.html Profile at Selves and Others]