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Author, Activist, Speaker Born: June 16th, 1951 Died: March 2nd, 1991 Lou Graydon Sullivan was born on June 16th, 1951 in Wauwatosa, Wisconsin. Beloved within his community of transsexual men, he was the first public trans man to identify as homosexual. Also, he was a prolific writer and activist, who often spoke at medical conventions regarding transsexual health, despite not being a doctor himself (Milks). Lou’s brother, Flame Sullivan, commented that “...they usually put him at the end of the conference, so he could blow everybody away… He knew what he was talking about. More than some of these doctors did.” (Milks). Among many other published works, Sullivan is most well-known for his book, Information for the Female-to-Male Crossdresser and Transsexual , which he first published in 1980, which has since been revised and updated twice. He is also known for his work We Both Laughed in Pleasure – a selection of his diary entries, published posthumously. Sullivan’s main goal was to further the understanding of transsexual men and to push for better research into FTM medical procedures. At this time, when a trans* person medically transitioned, it was thought that they did so to live as a heterosexual (Lybarger). Sullivan, being openly gay, challenged that by being in a relationship with a cisgender man for eleven years before leaving him to pursue medical transition (Milks).   Sullivan expertly used his own personal testimony to convince doctors and other medical professionals that not only should he receive medical intervention by nature of being a transsexual man, but that he should regardless of whom he loves. A series of four interviews he gave with Dr. Ira Pauly are available on the Internet Archive, where Sullivan discusses the arguments he’d heard from medical professionals and other activists on his transition. The video interviews can be accessed by clicking here. Sullivan appeared to be largely successful in spreading the idea that gender and sexuality have no correlation to one another (Rawson), though there was a significant challenge from the then-present psychology community, who believed that only heterosexual trans* people could exist.   Outside of the medical world, Sullivan was a prolific activist. In 1986 he began hosting quarterly F.T.M. get-togethers and wrote about the meetings in a newsletter called, very simply, FTM (Milks). Many copies of FTM are still available for free reading on the Digital Transgender Archive . The newsletter accepted all sorts of writing and media from trans men and masculine folk throughout the world. Articles ranged from poems about masculinity, rituals for gaining stronger manhood, ads for “Menace Man” t-shirts and silicone packers, to studies on medical transitioning, erotic articles and short stories, photos of surgery, and state-by-state resources for newsletter readers.   In June of 1986, Sullivan underwent bottom surgery. In early 1987, he was diagnosed with AIDS (Lybarger). In the time before his death, he published his book, as well as a biography on Jack Bee Garland – someone also assigned female at birth who lived as a man and published many pieces of writing, and is assumed by contemporary standards to have been a trans man. Sullivan is known to be the first publicly recognized trans man to live – and die – from AIDS-related complications. The now famous quote from this difficult point in his life: “They told me at the gender clinic that I could not live as a gay man… but it looks like I will die as one.” (Milks) Sullivan passed away on March 2nd, 1991, in San Francisco at the age of thirty-nine. We Both Laughed in Pleasure would not be published until 2019. Sullivan has since been honored on the National LGBTQ Wall of Honor at the Stonewall National Monument in 2019 (Keehnen) and Sullivan’s work has received widespread recognition online and in in-person trans* circles. Gallery Bibliography Keehnen, Owen. “Lou Sullivan.” Edited by Carrie Maxwell. Legacy Project Chicago. Accessed May 28, 2025. https://legacyprojectchicago.org/person/lou-sullivan .  ​ Lybarger, Jeremy. “Lou Sullivan’s Diaries Are a Radical Testament to Trans Happiness.” The New Yorker, September 16, 2019. https://www.newyorker.com/books/page-turner/lou-sullivans-diaries-are-a-radical-testament-to-trans-happiness .  ​ Milks, Megan. “Overlooked No More: Lou Sullivan, Author and Transgender Activist.” The New York Times, June 9, 2023. https://www.nytimes.com/2023/06/09/obituaries/lou-sullivan-overlooked.html .  ​ Rawson, K.J. “Living and Dying as a Gay Trans Man: Lou Sullivan’s Rhetorical Legacy.” Peitho: Journal of the Coalition of Feminist Scholars in the History of Rhetoric & Composition , August 15, 2020. https://wac.colostate.edu/docs/peitho/article/living-and-dying-as-a-gay-trans-man-lou-sullivans-rhetorical-legacy/ .  ​ Stryker, Susan. "The Difficult Decades." In Transgender History. Berkeley, CA: Seal Press, 2008. Last updated: December 6th, 2025. Edited by Aidrian.

Kelly shortandqueer has been publishing shortandqueer zine since 2004, incorporating his queer and transgender identities into his writing about lots of other subjects, including friendships/relationships, navigating family dynamics, health issues, baseball, periods, his love of potatoes and more! All of Kelly's zines are available for purchase on his website. All zines are between $1.50-2, or the full set for $30.

by Santos J. Arce originally published February 7, 2024 When I open hookup apps like Scruff or Grindr, I often feel like I’m walking to school in my neighborhood growing up. I lived in the areas of Brooklyn and Queens that artists like Notorious B.I.G. and Nas wrote about, during the time when their classics were first released. I wasn’t into hip-hop back then, though; I was a punk, and it felt like everyone on the street commented on my style of dress either because it was so different from the prevailing culture, or because they didn’t understand why such a cute young woman would choose to dress so butch. Looking back, I get that it came from a heritage of oppression and scarcity. Othering me was a backwards way of guarding community integrity. In any event, all the street chatter eventually just became irrelevant stuff I learned to tune out. Years later, I’m tuning out different chatter, and facing a similar mix of misconceptions, othering, and protectiveness, from guys on the apps. This is not another piece about how terrible the apps are. We know they’re chaotic. I do have good experiences off the apps, and I’m gonna talk about them, but after 18 years of medical transition, and so many iterations of myself, it does bear stating why and how messages like “so ur a woman?” or “I wanna fuck some pussy” feel basic, irrelevant, and draining. ** Read the rest of the article for free on THEM ** *The Trans Guy Archive claims no ownership over this article. All rights go directly to Santos Arce and THEM magazine. This article is shared for the express purpose of visibility and ease of access.

A select few photos from the Trans March, 2010. All images belong to the Trans March account on Flickr.  The TGA only shares them here for the purposes of archival protection. The whole Trans March library can be accessed for free at the link provided above.

A select few photos from the Trans March, 2009. All images belong to the Trans March account on Flickr . The TGA only shares them here for the purposes of archival protection. The whole Trans March library can be accessed for free at the link provided above.

A select few photos from the Trans March, 2008. All images belong to the Trans March account on Flickr. The TGA only shares them here for the purposes of archival protection. The whole Trans March library can be accessed for free at the link provided above.

A select few photos from the Trans March, 2007. All images belong to the Trans March account on Flickr. The TGA only shares them here for the purposes of archival protection. The whole Trans March library can be accessed for free at the link provided above.

A select few photos from the Trans March, 2006. All images belong to the Trans March account on Flickr.  The TGA only shares them here for the purposes of archival protection. The whole Trans March library can be accessed for free at the link provided above.

A select few photos from the Trans March, 2004. All images belong to the Trans March account on Flickr. The TGA only shares them here for the purposes of archival protection. The whole Trans March library can be accessed for free at the link provided above.

(via Google Books) Americans have long cherished romantic images of the frontier and its colorful cast of characters, where the cowboys are always rugged and the ladies always fragile. But in this book, Peter Boag opens an extraordinary window onto the real Old West. Delving into countless primary sources and surveying sexological and literary sources, Boag paints a vivid picture of a West where cross-dressing—for both men and women—was pervasive, and where easterners as well as Mexicans and even Indians could redefine their gender and sexual identities. Boag asks, why has this history been forgotten and erased? Citing a cultural moment at the turn of the twentieth century—when the frontier ended, the United States entered the modern era, and homosexuality was created as a category—Boag shows how the American people, and thus the American nation, were bequeathed an unambiguous heterosexual identity. Support Boag by buying his book on... University of California Press Amazon Read the book for free on other sites... JSTOR Trans Reads The Internet Archive (requires free account + only accessible to patrons w/ print disabilities) Or download it directly from the Trans Guy Archive by clicking the link below!