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Lou Sullivan- FTM Pioneer in the US

Louis Sullivan (June 16, 1951) was a Milwaukee-born author and activist known for his work on behalf of trans men and the gay community generally. He is credited as one of the first transgender men to publicly identify as gay and is largely responsible for the modern understanding of sexual orientation and gender identity as distinct concepts. Sullivan moved to San Francisco in 1975 in hopes of finding community and medical support, although he was repeatedly denied hormones/surgery because of an expectation that transgender people should be heterosexual in order to ‘correctly’ transition. This contributed to Sullivan’s life work of bringing attention to the existence and needs of both straight and gay trans men.

Sullivan was a pioneer of the female-to-male (FTM) movement and was instrumental in helping individuals obtain peer-support, counseling, endocrinological services and reconstructive surgery outside of gender dysphoria clinics. Sullivan wrote Information for the Female to Male Crossdresser and Transsexual for this purpose. The second edition, printed in 1985, serves as a guidebook for trans men, providing definitions of identities, tips and tricks for gender presentation, and a list of print and film sources for further study. The selections shown here comprise the history of trans men that Sullivan pieced together and interspersed throughout the guidebook.  

Sullivan was diagnosed HIV positive in 1986 and died from AIDS related complications on March 2nd, 1991. Even after his passing, Lou continues to make a significant impact on the contemporary queer community. His papers can be found at the San Francisco GLBT Historical Society.

This book can be found in the Eldon Murray UWM Manuscript Collection 256, in the UWM Special Collections, and in UWM’s Digital Collections. 

- Julia, Archives Graduate Intern

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