Dee Mosbacher

In 1995, Mosbacher co-directed and co-produced (with Frances Reid) Straight From the Heart, a documentary that explored relationships between heterosexual parents and their adult lesbian and gay children. The film includes emotional interviews with parents who felt conflicted between the teachings of their religious communities and their love of their lesbian daughters and gay sons. One couple discussed their disapproval of homosexuality until they learned that their son, who was dying of AIDS, was gay. The film was nominated for an Oscar in the Documentary (Short Subject) category.[5]

In 2010, Mosbacher co-directed and co-produced with Fawn Yacker the documentary film Training Rules, an hour-long movie about Rene Portland, a women's basketball coach from Penn State University. Portland allegedly banned lesbians from playing on her team. The film contains interviews with former athletes and faculty members at Penn State who say that Portland actively pursued and harassed members of her team whom she suspected were gay.

Training Rules was shown at dozens of film festivals in the United States, Canada, and Europe, and won three audience choice awards.[6]

From 1994 to 2002, Mosbacher served on the Pitzer College Board of Trustees. In 2011, she established the Mosbacher Fund for Media Studies and the Mosbacher/Gartrell Center for Media Experimentation and Activism at Pitzer College.[7]

Mosbacher is the daughter of the late Jane Pennybacker Mosbacher and Robert Mosbacher (1927–2010),[8] who served as U.S. Secretary of Commerce under George H.W. Bush from 1989 to 1992. She has two sisters (Kathryn and Lisa) and a brother (Robert Jr.).[8]

Mosbacher and her father had a close relationship despite the Republican Party's largely anti-gay position. In 1992, on a day when the two were both giving commencement speeches, she told a Washington Post reporter that she began her speech: "Dad and I had breakfast this morning. We looked at each other's speeches. He would have used mine but he's not a lesbian. I would have used his, but I'm not a Republican."[9] Dr. Mosbacher spoke out against the gay-bashing and anti-woman focus of the Republican Party's 1992 campaign.[10][11]

Mosbacher earned a bachelor's degree from Pitzer College in Claremont, California, a doctorate in social psychology from Union Graduate School, and a medical degree from Baylor College of Medicine.[12]

Mosbacher is married to Nanette Gartrell, MD,[12] a researcher, psychiatrist, and author of six books, including My Answer Is NO... If That's Okay With You.[13][14]

• 1985: Closets are Health Hazards: Gay and Lesbian Physicians Come Out - Director/Producer
• 1991: Lesbians on Practice, Patients, and Power - Director/Producer
• 1994: Straight From the Heart - Director/Producer (with Frances Reid and Deborah Hoffman)
• 1995: Out for a Change: Addressing Homophobia in Women's Sports - Director/Producer
• 1996: All God's Children - Director/Producer (with Sylvia Rhue and Frances Reid)
• 2001: De Colores - Executive Producer
• 2002: Radical Harmonies - Director/Producer (with Boden Sandstrom and June Millington)[15]
• 2006: No Secret Anymore: The Times of Del Martin and Phyllis Lyon - Producer (with Joan E. Biren)
• 2009: Training Rules - Director/Producer (with Fawn Yacker)[1]

• 1992: Creating Change Award, from the National Gay and Lesbian Task Force
• 1995: Jerry E. Berg Leadership Award, from the Human Rights Campaign Fund
• 1997: Liberty Award, from Lambda Legal Defense[16]
• 2009: Barbara Gittings Memorial Award, from Equality Forum[17]
• 2014: Mathew O. Tobriner Public Service Award, from the Legal Aid Society (San Francisco), Employment Law Center[18]

• List of female film and television directors
• List of lesbian filmmakers
• List of LGBT-related films directed by women

• Tyrkus, Michael J (1997). Gay & lesbian biography. St. James Press. p. 333. ISBN 9781558622371.

• Dee Mosbacher on IMDb
• Woman Vision - official website
• Training Rules - official website