"Lou Sullivan kept candid diaries from the age of ten. Through these vivid extracts, we see Lou navigate his gay and trans identities in a world with few role models, and hear his eperiences in his own words: from 'playing boys' in his childhood in Wisconsin, to cruising San Francisco's gay bars for handsome 'youngmen'; from first hearing about gender non-conforming communities, to becoming a vital part of them as activist, author and archivist. Successfully campaigning to remove heterosexuality from the medical requirements for gender affirming surgery, Lou was pivotal in our modern understanding of gender and sexuality as distinct identities. This selection shows Lou's joyous love of life, men and sex."--Page 4 of printed paper wrapper.
Lou Sullivan Book order
Lou Sullivan was a pioneering activist and author credited with modern acknowledgment that sexual orientation and gender identity are distinct concepts. He was a vital figure in the grassroots trans male movement, facilitating peer support, counseling, and medical services outside of traditional gender dysphoria clinics. Sullivan founded FTM International, one of the first organizations specifically for trans men, and was instrumental in the community's growth during the late 1980s. His work aimed to shift attitudes toward trans homosexuals and reform medical transition processes, advocating for orientation-blind access to hormones and surgery.


- 2021
- 2019
We Both Laughed in Pleasure
- 440 pages
- 16 hours of reading
Drawn from Sullivan's meticulously kept journals, this landmark book records the life of arguably the first publicly gay trans man to medically transition. Sensual, lascivious, challenging, quotidian and poetic, the diaries complicate and disrupt normative trans narratives.