Louis Graydon Sullivan (June 16, 1951 – March 2, 1991) was an American

author An author is the writer of a book, article, play, mostly written work. A broader definition of the word "author" states: "''An author is "the person who originated or gave existence to anything" and whose authorship determines responsibility f ...

and

activist Activism (or Advocacy) consists of efforts to promote, impede, direct or intervene in social, political, economic or environmental reform with the desire to make changes in society toward a perceived greater good. Forms of activism range fro ...

known for his work on behalf of

trans men A trans man is a man who was assigned female at birth. The label of transgender man is not always interchangeable with that of transsexual man, although the two labels are often used in this way. ''Transgender'' is an umbrella term that incl ...

. He was perhaps the first transgender man to publicly identify as gay,Highleyman, Liz
"Who was Lou Sullivan?"
Seattle Gay News. February 22, 2008. Archived fro
the original
on November 4, 2015. and is largely responsible for the modern understanding of

sexual orientation Sexual orientation is an enduring pattern of romantic or sexual attraction (or a combination of these) to persons of the opposite sex or gender, the same sex or gender, or to both sexes or more than one gender. These attractions are generall ...

and

gender identity Gender identity is the personal sense of one's own gender. Gender identity can correlate with a person's assigned sex or can differ from it. In most individuals, the various biological determinants of sex are congruent, and consistent with the i ...

as distinct, unrelated concepts.Susan Stryker (1999). "Portrait of a Transfag Drag Hag as a Young Man: The Activist Career of Louis G. Sullivan," in Kate More and Stephen Whittle (eds). ''Reclaiming Gender: Transsexual Grammars at the Fin de Siecle,'' pp. 62-82. Cassells, Sullivan was a pioneer of the grassroots female-to-male (FTM) movement and was instrumental in helping individuals obtain peer-support, counselling, endocrinological services and reconstructive surgery outside of gender dysphoria clinics. He founded FTM International, one of the first organizations specifically for FTM individuals, and his activism and community work was a significant contributor to the rapid growth of the FTM community during the late 1980s."Guide to the Louis Graydon Sullivan Papers, 1755-1991 (bulk 1961-1991)"
The Gay, Lesbian, Bisexual, Transgender Historical Society. San Francisco, 1999. Accessed November 4, 2015.

Early life

Sullivan grew up in

Milwaukee, Wisconsin Milwaukee ( ), officially the City of Milwaukee, is both the most populous and most densely populated city in the U.S. state of Wisconsin and the county seat of Milwaukee County, Wisconsin, Milwaukee County. With a population of 577,222 at th ...

. Sullivan was born the third child of six in a very religious

Catholic The Catholic Church, also known as the Roman Catholic Church, is the largest Christian church, with 1.3 billion baptized Catholics worldwide . It is among the world's oldest and largest international institutions, and has played a ...

family and attended Catholic primary and secondary school. Sullivan started keeping a journal at the age of 10, describing his early childhood thoughts of being a boy, confusing adolescence, sexual fantasies of being a gay man, and his involvement in the Milwaukee music scene.Stryker, Susan. "The Difficult Decades." In Transgender History. Berkeley, CA: Seal Press, 2008. During his adolescence he expressed continued confusion about his identity, writing at age 15 in 1966 that "I want to look like what I am but don't know what some one like me looks like. I mean, when people look at me I want them to think— there's one of those people ��that has their own interpretation of happiness. That's what I am."Sullivan, Lou. Diary. 1966. As quoted i
"FTM Newsletter", Summer 2007
edited by Susan Stryker. Archived fro
the original
on November 4, 2015. Sullivan was attracted to the idea of playing different

gender role A gender role, also known as a sex role, is a social role encompassing a range of behaviors and attitudes that are generally considered acceptable, appropriate, or desirable for a person based on that person's sex. Gender roles are usually cent ...

s, and his attraction for male roles was outlined in his writings, specifically in his short stories, poems and diaries; he often explored the ideas of

male homosexuality Human male sexuality encompasses a wide variety of feelings and behaviors. Men's feelings of attraction may be caused by various physical and social traits of their potential partner. Men's sexual behavior can be affected by many factors, incl ...

and

. At the age of seventeen he began a relationship with a self-described "

feminine Femininity (also called womanliness) is a set of attributes, behaviors, and roles generally associated with women and girls. Femininity can be understood as socially constructed, and there is also some evidence that some behaviors considered fe ...

" male lover, and together they would play with gender roles and gender-bending.

Transition and adulthood

In 1973, Sullivan identified himself as a "female

transvestite Transvestism is the practice of dressing in a manner traditionally associated with the opposite sex. In some cultures, transvestism is practiced for religious, traditional, or ceremonial reasons. The term is considered outdated in Western c ...

" and by 1975 he identified himself as a "female-to-male

transsexual Transsexual people experience a gender identity that is inconsistent with their assigned sex, and desire to permanently transition to the sex or gender with which they identify, usually seeking medical assistance (including sex reassignment ...

". In 1975, it "became apparent" that Sullivan needed to leave Milwaukee for somewhere where he could find "more understanding" and access hormones for his transition, so he decided to move to

San Francisco San Francisco (; Spanish language, Spanish for "Francis of Assisi, Saint Francis"), officially the City and County of San Francisco, is the commercial, financial, and cultural center of Northern California. The city proper is the List of Ca ...

.Murray, Eldon E. "I Remember Lou Sullivan"
"FTM Newsletter", Summer 2007
Archived fro
the original
on November 4, 2015. His family was supportive of the move and gave him "a handsome man's suit and isgrandfather's pocket watch" as going-away presents. Upon arrival in San Francisco, Sullivan began working at the Wilson Sporting Good Company, where he was employed as a woman but cross dressed as a man much of the time. In his personal life, Sullivan lived as an out gay man, but he was repeatedly denied

sex reassignment surgery Gender-affirming surgery (GAS) is a surgical procedure, or series of procedures, that alters a transgender or transsexual person's physical appearance and sexual characteristics to resemble those associated with their identified gender, and alle ...

(SRS) because of his sexual orientation and the expectation of the time that transgender people should adopt stereotypical heterosexual opposite-sex gender roles. This rejection led Sullivan to start a campaign to remove homosexuality from the list of contraindications for SRS. In 1976, Sullivan suffered a severe crisis of

and continued living as a

heterosexual Heterosexuality is romantic attraction, sexual attraction or sexual behavior between people of the opposite sex or gender. As a sexual orientation, heterosexuality is "an enduring pattern of emotional, romantic, and/or sexual attractions" to ...

woman for the next three years. In 1978 he was shaken by the death of his youngest brother. In 1979, Sullivan was finally able to find doctors and therapists who would accept his sexuality and began taking testosterone, with double

mastectomy Mastectomy is the medical term for the surgical removal of one or both breasts, partially or completely. A mastectomy is usually carried out to treat breast cancer. In some cases, women believed to be at high risk of breast cancer have the operat ...

surgery following a year later. He then left his previous job to work as an engineering technician at the Atlantic-Ritchfield Company so that he could fully embrace his new identity as a man with new co-workers. In 1986, Sullivan obtained

genital A sex organ (or reproductive organ) is any part of an animal or plant that is involved in sexual reproduction. The reproductive organs together constitute the reproductive system. In animals, the testis in the male, and the ovary in the female, a ...

reconstruction surgery. He was diagnosed as HIV positive shortly after his surgery, and told he only had 10 months to live. It is likely that Sullivan was

HIV The human immunodeficiency viruses (HIV) are two species of ''Lentivirus'' (a subgroup of retrovirus) that infect humans. Over time, they cause acquired immunodeficiency syndrome (AIDS), a condition in which progressive failure of the immune ...

- infected in 1980, just after his chest surgery. He wrote, "I took a certain pleasure in informing the gender clinic that even though their program told me I could not live as a Gay man, it looks like I'm going to die like one." Sullivan died of

AIDS Human immunodeficiency virus infection and acquired immunodeficiency syndrome (HIV/AIDS) is a spectrum of conditions caused by infection with the human immunodeficiency virus (HIV), a retrovirus. Following initial infection an individual m ...

-related complications on March 2, 1991. Sullivan kept a journal throughout his life: selected excerpts were released in 2019 as We Both Laughed in Pleasure.

Activism and community contributions

Sullivan wrote the ''FTM Newsletter,'' one of the first guidebooks for trans men,Sullivan, Louis. ''Information for the female to male cross dresser and transsexual''. Janus Information Society, 1980 and also a biography of the San Francisco FTM Jack Bee Garland.Sullivan, Louis. ''From Female to Male: The Life of Jack Bee Garland.'' Alyson Publications, 1990. Sullivan was instrumental in demonstrating the existence of trans men who were themselves attracted to men.Eli Coleman & Walter O. Bockting. "Heterosexual" prior to Sex Reassignment – "Homosexual" Afterwards: A case Study of a Female-to-Male Transsexual. ''Journal of Psychology and Human Sexuality''. Vol 1(2). 1988 pp69-82Susan Stryker (1998). Lou Sullivan. ''Third International Congress on Sex and Gender''.The Lou Sullivan Memorial Issue. ''FTMi Newsletter'', Issue 58: Spring 2005.Special Issue.
''FTM Newsletter'', Summer 2007. Lou Sullivan began peer counselling through the Janus Information Facility which was an organization that provided transgender issues.
''A Gender Variance Who's Who''. July 11, 2008. Accessed on November 4, 2015. He is also credited for being the first to discuss the

eroticism Eroticism () is a quality that causes sexual feelings, as well as a philosophical contemplation concerning the aesthetics of sexual desire, sensuality, and romantic love. That quality may be found in any form of artwork, including painting, sculp ...

of men's clothing.

Editor of ''The Gateway''

Sullivan was active in the Golden Gate Girls/Guys organization (later called the Gateway Gender Alliance), one of the first social/educational organizations for transgender people that offered support to FTM transsexuals, and in fact successfully petitioned to add "Guys" to its name. From July 1979 to October 1980, Sullivan edited ''The Gateway'', a newsletter with "news and information on transvestism and transsexualism" that was circulated by the Golden Gate Girls/Guys. It was originally primarily focused on the needs of MTF and transvestite readers and read "much like a small town newspaper", but under Sullivan's editing it gained more gender parity between MTF and FTM issues. According to

Megan Rohrer Megan Rohrer (born 1980) is an American Lutheran minister and activist. Rohrer was the first openly transgender minister ordained in the Lutheran tradition. Following their reception as a minister in the Evangelical Lutheran Church in America, Roh ...

, Sullivan "transform dGateway in a way that

ould Ould is an English surname and an Arabic name ( ar, ولد). In some Arabic dialects, particularly Hassaniya Arabic, ولد‎ (the patronymic, meaning "son of") is transliterated as Ould. Most Mauritanians have patronymic surnames. Notable p ...

forever change FTM mentoring" because trans people could still obtain information on how to pass without having to attend group gatherings in person.

GLBT Historical Society

Sullivan was a founding member and board member of the

GLBT Historical Society The GLBT Historical Society (Gay, Lesbian, Bisexual, Transgender Historical Society) (formerly Gay and Lesbian Historical Society of Northern California; San Francisco Bay Area Gay and Lesbian Historical Society) maintains an extensive collection ...

(formerly the Gay and Lesbian Historical Society) in San Francisco. His personal and activist papers are preserved in the institution's archives as collection no. 1991–07; the papers are fully processed and available for use by researchers, and a finding aid is posted on the

Online Archive of California The California Digital Library (CDL) was founded by the University of California in 1997. Under the leadership of then UC President Richard C. Atkinson, the CDL's original mission was to forge a better system for scholarly information management a ...

. The Historical Society has displayed selected materials from Sullivan's papers in a number of exhibitions, notably "Man-i-fest: FTM Mentoring in San Francisco from 1976 to 2009," which was open through much of 2010 in the second gallery at the society's headquarters at 657 Mission St. in San Francisco, and "Our Vast Queer Past: Celebrating San Francsico's GLBT History," the debut exhibition in the main gallery at the society's GLBT History Museum that opened in January 2011 in San Francisco's

Castro District The Castro District, commonly referred to as the Castro, is a neighborhood in Eureka Valley in San Francisco. The Castro was one of the first gay neighborhoods in the United States. Having transformed from a working-class neighborhood throug ...

Lobbying for recognition of gay trans men

Sullivan lobbied the

American Psychiatric Association The American Psychiatric Association (APA) is the main professional organization of psychiatrists and trainee psychiatrists in the United States, and the largest psychiatric organization in the world. It has more than 37,000 members are involve ...

and the

World Professional Association for Transgender Health The World Professional Association for Transgender Health (WPATH), formerly the Harry Benjamin International Gender Dysphoria Association (HBIGDA), is a professional organization devoted to the understanding and treatment of gender identity and ...

for them to recognize his existence as a gay trans man. He was determined to change people's attitudes towards trans homosexualsMore, Kate, and Stephen Whittle. "Reclaiming Genders." October 1, 1999. Page 77 but also to change the medical process of transition by removing sexual orientation from the criteria of gender identity disorder so that trans men who are gay could also access hormones and surgery, essentially making the process "orientation blind".

Honors

In June 2019, Sullivan was one of the inaugural fifty American "pioneers, trailblazers, and heroes" inducted on the

National LGBTQ Wall of Honor The National LGBTQ Wall of Honor is an American memorial wall in New York City dedicated to LGBTQ "pioneers, trailblazers, and heroes." The wall is located inside of the Stonewall Inn and is a part of the Stonewall National Monument, the first U. ...

within the

Stonewall National Monument Stonewall National Monument is a U.S. national monument in the West Village neighborhood of Greenwich Village in Lower Manhattan, New York City. The designated area includes the Stonewall Inn, the Christopher Park, and nearby streets including ...

(SNM) in

New York City New York, often called New York City or NYC, is the List of United States cities by population, most populous city in the United States. With a 2020 population of 8,804,190 distributed over , New York City is also the L ...

Stonewall Inn The Stonewall Inn, often shortened to Stonewall, is a gay bar and recreational tavern in the Greenwich Village neighborhood of Lower Manhattan, New York City, and the site of the Stonewall riots of 1969, which is widely considered to be the s ...

. The SNM is the first

U.S. national monument In the United States, a national monument is a protected area that can be created from any land owned or controlled by the federal government by proclamation of the President of the United States or an act of Congress. National monuments prot ...

dedicated to

LGBTQ rights Rights affecting lesbian, gay, bisexual, and transgender (LGBT) people vary greatly by country or jurisdiction—encompassing everything from the legal recognition of same-sex marriage to the death penalty for homosexuality. Notably, , 33 ...

and

history History (derived ) is the systematic study and the documentation of the human activity. The time period of event before the History of writing#Inventions of writing, invention of writing systems is considered prehistory. "History" is an umbr ...

, and the wall's unveiling was timed to take place during the 50th anniversary of the

Stonewall riots The Stonewall riots (also known as the Stonewall uprising, Stonewall rebellion, or simply Stonewall) were a series of spontaneous protests by members of the gay community in response to a police raid that began in the early morning hours of Ju ...

. In August 2019, Sullivan was one of the honorees inducted in the

Rainbow Honor Walk The Rainbow Honor Walk (RHW) is a walk of fame installation in San Francisco, California to honor notable lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender, and queer (LGBTQ) individuals from around the world "who left a lasting mark on society." Its bronze pla ...

, a

walk of fame A hall, wall, or walk of fame is a list of individuals, achievements, or other entities, usually chosen by a group of electors, to mark their excellence or fame in their field. In some cases, these halls of fame consist of actual halls or muse ...

in San Francisco's Castro neighborhood noting

LGBTQ ' is an initialism that stands for lesbian, gay, bisexual, and transgender. In use since the 1990s, the initialism, as well as some of its common variants, functions as an umbrella term for sexuality and gender identity. The LGBT term is a ...

people who have "made significant contributions in their fields".

Works

* "A Transvestite Answers a Feminist" in ''Gay People's Union News'' (1973) * "Looking Towards Transvestite Liberation" in ''Gay People's Union News'' (1974) * ''Female to Male Cross Dresser and Transsexual'' (1980) * ''Information for the Female to Male Cross Dresser and Transsexual'' (1990) * ''From Female To Male: The Life of Jack Bee Garland'' (1990) * ''We Both Laughed in Pleasure: The Selected Diaries of Lou Sullivan 1961-1991.'' (2019). Edited by Ellis Martin and Zack Ozma

References

External links

Guide to the Louis Graydon Sullivan Papers, 1755–1991
giving an overview of the GLBT Historical Society's collection of Sullivan's papers, photographs, diaries, short stories, poems, essays, and correspondence
Man-i-fest: FTM Mentorship in San Francisco from 1976–2009
an overview of an exhibit by the GLBT Historical Society on the letters and work of Lou Sullivan

at A Gender Variance Who's Who * A special edition o
''FTM Newsletter''
celebrating and remembering Lou Sullivan
"Uncle Lou"
an article on

Daily Kos Daily Kos ( ) is a group blog and internet forum focused on the U.S. Democratic Party and liberal American politics. The site includes glossaries and other content. It is sometimes considered an example of "netroots" activism. Daily Kos was f ...

written by one of Sullivan's relatives for the 20th anniversary of his death
The Lou Sullivan SocietyLou Sullivan Collection
on

Digital Transgender Archive The Digital Transgender Archive (DTA) is an online resource based at Northeastern University in Boston, Massachusetts, in collaboration with more than sixty international colleges, universities, nonprofit organizations, and private collections. It ...

The Life of Lou Project
a digital project dedicated to Lou's writings and achievements