"Cured" Writers and Directors Patrick Sammon and Bennett Singer Discuss their Award-Winning Documentary During Pride Month Celebration

In celebration of Pride Month, Winston & Strawn hosted a virtual screening and discussion with Patrick Sammon and Bennett Singer for their award-winning new documentary, Cured. They were joined by Reverend Magora Kennedy, one of the key interviewees featured in the film.

Patrick and Bennett co-wrote and co-directed the film which takes viewers inside the David-versus-Goliath battle that led the American Psychiatric Association to remove homosexuality from its manual of mental illnesses in 1973. Patrick explained that he and Bennett, “…quickly realized how significant this moment was in the history of the movement for equality because as long as [gay people] were classified as mentally ill, businesses and the government were going to use that as an excuse to discriminate. So this really had to be the first domino to fall.”

The documentary is the result of five years of research, including extensive in-person interviews and selections from fifty years’ worth of archived content. The team “scoured the globe” for information, from the CBS News archives and medical school libraries to people’s attics, basements, and film vaults.

Bennett points out, the crucial thread that ties their recent interviews together with the original footage is the fearlessness that defines the advocates who successfully challenged and changed the formidable medical industry.

This special presentation was sponsored by the Diversity & Inclusion Committee and our Winston Pride. Learn more about Winston & Strawn’s diversity initiatives here.