Louis Graydon Sullivan Papers, 1755-1991 (bulk 1961-1991)

Summary

Creators:

Sullivan, Louis Graydon

Language:

English.

Background

Scope and content:

Sullivan's papers include photographs as well as extensive diaries, short stories, poems, essays, and correspondence that fully document--at an extraordinarily intimate level--his transition from heterosexual female to gay man during the period 1961-1991. These writings and the records of his other activities between 1973 and 1991 are invaluable foundational documents for any history of the FTM community, and are important primary sources for any study of transsexuality, but particularly of homosexually identified transsexuals. The collection includes versions of all of his published works, including notes, drafts, and related correspondence. The collection also includes research files on gender, transsexuality, cross-dressing, and sex-reassignment techniques. Sullivan compiled extensive clippings files from newspapers and magazines during the 1970s and 1980s, which are roughly organized by subject matter and date. He also collected photostatic copies of rare and obscure historical accounts of transgender practices, as well as scientific and academic works on transvestism, transsexuality, and gender dysphoria, dating from the 1950s through 1989. Some of this material was indexed by Sullivan in a card file. The research files also contain print-outs of exhaustive on-line bibliographic database subject searches on transgender-related topics through 1986. This portion of the collection also contains other miscellaneous material gathered by Sullivan that would be of interest to archival users concerned primarily with transgender history.

Biographical Material. Contains curriculum vitae, obituaries, tributes, testimonials, memorial service emphemera, as well as three lengthier documents notable for their biographical content: "Sullivan's Travels," an autobiographical article that appeared in The Advocate; a social-scientific case study of Sullivan published by a gender-dysphoria specialist, and an intake questionnaire completed by Sullivan for the Stanford Gender Dysphoria Progam in 1976.

Photographs (c.1960-1990). Mostly candid snapshots of Sheila/Lou, c. 1965-1990. The series also includes school portraits of childhood friends, Sullivan family portraits, snapshots of Sullivan's friends and lovers in Milwaukee and San Francisco, and some historical photographs of female-to-male cross-dressers. Of particular interest is the photo-documentation of Sullivan's physical transition through hormonal therapy, mastectomy, and genitoplasty.

A framed, hand-tinted photograph of three women dressed as men was removed and stored with other works of graphic art in the GLHS Archives.

Childhood Memorabilia (1951-1970). Birth certificate, YMCA swimming class certificates of completion, Beatles' fan club card, Catholic youth organization membership cards, school report cards.

Diaries and Journals (1961-1991). Ten-yer-old Sheila began keeping a fairly regular diary in 1961, a practice that Lou continued until shortly before his death in 1991. These diaries present a detailed personal record of gender identity formation, transsexual transition, coming out as homosexual, the gay liberation movement in the upper Midwest, late-1960s and early 1970s counterculture, life in the gay male and transgender communites of the San Francisco Bay area between 1975 and 1991, the establishment of an international FTM transsexual community, and coping with AIDS. Material from 1961-1974 has been transcribed in typescript form. This series also contains typescript excerpts from the diaries c. 1966-67, pertaining to the "Velvet Whip," and photostatic reproductions of newspaper clippings inserted into Sullivan's diaries c. 1967. Sullivan kept a separate journal of his experiences with genitoplasty, 1986-87.

Personal Writings (1964-c.1974). Several pieces of short fiction, poetry, and essays, much of which documents Sullivan's early preoccupation with gender identity, gay male sexuality, and sadomasochistic fantasy. The series contains material related to an adolescent infatuation with the Beatles, especially Paul McCartney. Some of the other material was apparently written as high school composition assignments, and is notable for its well developed social and political views. Of particular interest is a folder of sex fantasies.

AIDS-Related Materials (1986-1991). Sullivan's medication schedules, hospitalization records, and material related to his participation as a human subject in scientific studies of AIDS.

Medical Correspondence Regarding Sex-Reassignment (1976-1990). Of particular interest is the correspondence with the Stanford Gender Dysphoria Clinic. The other material in this series provides good documentation of the state of FTM sex-reassignment in the 1980s, as well as Sullivan's personal quest to achieve his anatomical sex of choice.

FTM Correspondence (1979-1990) [RESTRICTED]. Sullivan apparantly came in contact with many of the early correspondents (c. 1979-1981) through his work at the Janus Information Facility. Although in some instances a personal relationship developed through the correspondence, most of the exchanges were rather business-like. Still, the documents offer revealing glimpses of FTM lives across the United States and Canada. Most of the later correspondence is related to Sullivan's association with FTM, the peer-support group he founded in 1986. Consult GLHS Archivist for access.

General Correspondence, (1973-1991). The series is arranged alphabetically by correspondent's last name, with two exceptions which are arranged according to subject matter, and follow the alphabetically arranged material in the physical organization of the papers. One is a folder of responses and replies to personal ads Sullivan placed in Coming Up! in 1984-85; the other is correspondence with various medical/psychotherapeutic professionals Sullivan met while attending the annual Harry Benjamin Gender Dysphoria Symposia, 1986-1989. For a description of Sullivan's principal correspondents, see Appendix A.

Information for the Female-to-Male Transsexual and Cross-Dresser (1980-1990). Copies of all three editions of Sullivan's path-breaking guide for females who chose to live as men. Some manuscript notes and revisions of first edition.

From Female to Male: The Life of Jack Bee Garland (1984-1990). Various drafts of the manuscript, working notes, some research material, graphic images, publisher's correspondence, publicity material, reviews, and advertisements.

Short Published Works (1973-1990). The series contains copies of Sullivan's early articles and reviews in GPU News, Metamorphosis, and other gay or transsexual publications. Manuscript drafts, notes, and related correspondence exist for some of the published works. One particularly rich folder pertains to Sullivan's negative review of Leslie Lothstein's Female-to-Male Transsexualism, the first major clinical investigation of the topic. The series also contains material related to a preliminary article on Jack Garland written by Sullivan for the San Joachin Historian, a local history newsletter; the article is notable for its straight-forward presentation of minority sexuality in a publication not oriented toward the homosexual or transgender communities. Other material in the series relates to "Sullivan's Travels," an autobiographical article published in The Advocate, and to "Passing Fancy II," an article on the history of cross-dressing written for the same publication. For a bibliography of Sullivan's publications, see Appendix B.

Activities and Interests (1979-1990). This record group contains documents related to Sullivan's participation in various groups and organizations, ranging in seriousness from the Jack and Jill sex parties to the ACLU Transsexual Rights Commission. It includes records of his association with the Small Club--a group for men who consider themselves to have small penises--and C.I.P. (Cruising Impaired Persons); participation in both groups is indicative of how Sullivan successfully dealt with issues of his physical differences from other gay men. The series contains minutes of the GLHS Archives Committee and copies of the GLHS newsletter which Sullivan helped edit and publish. Three folders of material relate to Sullivan's FTM peer-support group. One contains flyers announcing FTM Get-togethers and other social events; another contains correspondence and membership questionnaires concerning a medical study of the effects of testosterone on the cardiovascular health of FTMs; a third contains material related to the club's video library. The richest material in this series pertains to Golden Gate Girls/Guys, the transgender organization in which Sullivan participated, c. 1979-1981; it includes membership surveys, TV/TS networking directories, transgender resource guides, officers' correspondence, orientation materials, bylaws, and some business papers. Issues of Gateways, the GGG/G newsletter, have been removed to the GLHS periodicals collection.

Clippings Files, (1886-1991). Sullivan kept clippings files on a variety of topics, arranged by subject in rough chronological order. The series contains clippings of FTM cross-dressers and "passing women" from the late 19th century through 1990. Other files, drawn largely from sources in the 1980s, pertain to graphic images of FTMs, male-to-female cross-dressing and transsexuality, and miscellaneous material about gender and sexuality.

Books, Pamphlets, and Articles (1755-1989). Sullivan collected a wide range of published works on gender dysphoria, transsexuality, cross-dressing, and genital reconstruction surgery. The material contained in this series constitutes a relatively complete collection of the major academic and scientific works on these topics through 1990, as well as several rare biographies of female-to-male cross-dressers. A few folders contain correspondence and other materials related the published work. For a bibliography of published works contained in the Sullivan Collection, see Appendix C.

Several books and periodicals have been removed from the Sullivan's papers to other collections in the Archives of the Gay and Lesbian Historical Society; consult Appendices D and E for futher information about these works.

Miscellaneous Gender-Related Material (1980-1990). Included in this series are flyers and other ephemera, transcripts of television talk shows about transsexuality, testosterone package inserts, the Benjamin Standards of Care, a subject file pertaining to Les Nichols and Annie Sprinkle, the script for a movie about gender ambiguity for which Sullivan was a reader, and other difficult-to-classify materials.

Bibliographies and Indexes (1967-1986). Print-outs of exhaustive on-line bibliographic database subject searches on transgender-related topics through 1986. Sullivan also indexed many of the clippings and articles in his research files.

Audio Tapes (1988-1990). Recordings of radio programs on transsexuality and cross-dressing, interview with Lou Sullivan about his biography of Jack Garland, recordings of presentations at FTM Get-Togethers and ETVC meetings. For a list of tapes, see Appendix F.

Video Tapes (1935-1990). Most of the twenty video tapes in this series are recordings of televison talk shows that treat the topics of transsexuality and cross-dressing. Some of the video tapes are theatrical motion pictures that treat the topics of transsexuality and cross-dressing, or in which female actors play male roles. For a list of titles, see Appendix G.

Computer-Readable Documents. Currently unusable, due to an inability to locate the software in which they were written. Most of the disks merely contain back-up files for the Jack B. Garland biography and for transcripts of Sullivan's diaries, but there is some evidence that the computer files also contain correspondence for which no hard copy exists. Hopefully, this information can be retrieved before it deteriorates.

Biographical / historical:

Louis Graydon Sullivan, a female-to-male transsexual gay man, was born Sheila Jean Sullivan in Milwaukee, Wisconsin on June 16, 1951, the daughter of John Eugene Sullivan, who owned a small hauling and moving company, and Nancy Louise Sullivan, a homemaker and sales clerk in a stationary store. Sullivan was the third child of six: Kathleen Marie (1948), John Eugene, Jr. (1949), Bridgit Therese (1953), Maryellen (1955), and Patrick Rory (1957). Sullivan grew up in an emotionally close-knit Catholic family in suburban Wauwatosa, Wisconsin, in modest economic circumstances. Extremely religious as a child, Sullivan attended Catholic primary and secondary schools, where he compiled an above-average academic record. Following high school graduation in 1970, Sullivan began working as a secretary in the Slavic Languages Department of the University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee.

Sullivan's intense, life-long, but rather unfocussed concern with male gender identity and male same-sex relationships began to take on greater definition in the early 1970s. Sullivan recalled that as a child he had always enjoyed "playing boys" and realized even then that it "meant more to me than it did to the other kids." By his early teens, Sullivan's diaries, poems and short stories reflected an interest in male homosexuality and questions about gender identity. At age seventeen, Sullivan began a long-term relationship with a self-described "feminine" male lover, and play with gender roles figured in the relationship from the beginning. Both Sullivan and his companion were attracted to the gay liberation movement, and to the gender-bending aesthetic then evident in much of popular culture.

By 1973, Sullivan identified as a "female transvestite" and began a career of transgender community activism with the publication of "A Transvestite Answers a Feminist," an article which appeared in the Gay People's Union [GPU] News. Another article, "Looking Towards Transvestite Liberation," published the next year in the same periodical and widely reprinted in the gay and lesbian press, remains a landmark article for its early investigation of the question of gender identity in homosexual culture. Sullivan continued to contribute articles and reviews to the GPU News through 1980, and donated valuable type setting and copy editing services as well.

Sullivan identified as a female-to-male transsexual by 1975, when he moved to San Francisco and found work as a secretary for the Wilson Sporting Goods Company. Although still employed as a female, Sullivan spent approximately 75% of his time cross-dressed and living as a gay man. In 1976 Sullivan began seeking sex-reassignment surgery, which was routinely denied him on the basis of his openly declared homosexual orientation. Female-to-gay male transsexuality was not recognized by the medical/psychotherapeutic establishment as a legitimate form of gender dysphoria at that time. As a result of his own frustrations, Sullivan became involved in an eventually successful campaign to remove homosexual orientation from the list of contraindications for sex-reassignment. He pioneered methods of obtaining peer-support, professional counselling, endocrinological services and reconstructive surgery outside the institution of the gender dysphoria clinics, and disseminated this information at the grass-roots level through his booklet Information for the Female to Male Cross-Dresser and Transsexual, which is now in its third edition and is still the only practical guide for FTMs. As a consequence of his efforts, Sullivan became one of the founders of the female-to-male transsexual community, and is responsible to a significant degree for the rapid growth of the FTM population during the late 1980s.

Sullivan began taking testosterone in 1979, at which time he also became a volunteer at the Janus Information Facility (now J2CP), a gender dysphoria clearinghouse and referral service in San Francisco. He also became involved in Golden Gate Girls/Guys, one of the first social/educational transgender organizations to offer support to FTM transsexuals. In 1980 he underwent a double mastectomy and began living full time as a gay man. Sullivan also changed jobs at this time, becoming an associate engineering technician at the Atlantic-Ritchfield Company, so that coworkers would have no knowledge of his previous female life history. That same year he published the first edition of his Information for the FTM. Throughout the decade, Sullivan continued to write about female-to-male issues in the gay and transgender press, and became a popular public speaker on the topic in the San Francisco Bay area. He became involved in the Gay and Lesbian Historical Society, whose newsletter he helped edit and publish. In 1984 Sullivan started his own typesetting and word-processing business. He also began work on a biography of Jack B. Garland, a female who lived as a man for forty years at the turn of the century. The book was published to favorable reviews by Alyson Press in 1990.

In 1986, Sullivan finally obtained genital reconstruction surgery; he also organized FTM, the first peer-support group devoted entirely to female-to-male individuals. Later that year Sullivan was diagnosed with AIDS. In his last years Sullivan devoted himself to work on behalf of FTMs, as well as the broader transgender and homosexual communities. He died of an AIDS-related illness on March 6, 1991, at the age of 39.

Physical location:

Housed at the Gay, Lesbian, Bisexual, Transgender Historical Society

Physical description:

8.4 cubic feet

Related resources

Separated material:

• Ackroyd, Peter. Dressing Up, Transvestism, and Drag: The History of an Obsession. New York: Simon and Schuster, 1979.
• Baker, Michael. Our Three Selves: A Life of Radclyffe Hall. London: Hamisch Hamilton, 1985.
• Benjamin, Harry. The Transsexual Phenomena. New York: Julian Press, 1966.
• Clapp, Patricia. I'm Deborah Sampson. New York: Lathrop, Lee, and Shepard, 1977.
• Conn, Canary. Canary. New York: Bantam Books, 1974.
• Cowell, Roberta. Roberta Cowle's Story. Melbourne: William Heinemann, 1954.
• Dannett, Sylvia. She Rode with the Generals. New York: Thomas Nelson, 1960.
• Dekker, Rudolf, and Lotte van de Pol. The Tradition of Female Transvestism in Early Modern Europe. New York: St. Martin's Press, 1989.
• Devor, Holly. Gender Blending: Confronting the Limits of Duality. Bloomington: Indiana University Press, 1989.
• Dickens, Homer. What a Drag: Men as Women and Women as Men in the Movies. New York: Quill, 1984.
• Eberhardt, Isabelle. Oblivion Seekers. San Francisco: City Lights, 1972; trans. Paul Bowles.
• Feinbloom, Deborah H. Transvestites and Transsexuals. New York: Dell, 1976.
• Foucault, Michel, ed. The Autobiography of Herculine Barbin, Being the Recently Discovered Memoirs of a Nineteenth-Century French Hermaphrodite. New York: Pantheon, 1980.
• Gilbert, O. P. Women in Men's Guise. London: John Lane the Bodely Head, 1932.
• Green, Richard and John Money, eds. Transsexualism and Sex Reassignment. Baltimore: Johns Hopkins University Press, 1969.
• Guerin, Mrs. E. G. Mountain Charley. Norman: University of Oklahoma Press, 1968.
• Hodgkinson, Liz. Bodyshock: The Truth About Changing Sex. London: Columbus Books, 1987.
• ----------. Michael neé Laura. London: Columbus Books, 1989.
• Johnson, Chris, and Cathy Brown. The Gender Trap. New York: Proteus, 1982.
• Jorgensen, Christine. Christine Jorgensen: A Personal Autobiography. New York: Bantam Books, 1967.
• Kobak, Annette. Isabelle: The Life of Isabelle Eberhardt. New York: Knopf, 1989.
• Lothstein, Leslie M. Female-to-Male Transsexualism: Historical, Clinical, and Theoretical Issues. Boston: Routledge and Kegan Paul, 1983.
• Mackworth, Cecily. The Destiny of Isabelle Eberhart. New York: Ecco Press, 1975.
• Martino, Mario (with Harriet). Emergence: A Transsexual Autobiography. New York: Crown Publishers, 1977.
• Newton, Esther. Mother Camp: Female Impersonators in America. Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 1972.
• Prince, Virginia Charles. The Transvestite and His Wife. Los Angeles: Argyle Press, 1967.
• ----------. Understanding Cross Dressing. Los Angeles: Chevalier Press, 1976.
• Rae, Isobel. The Strange Story of Dr. James Barry. London: Longmans, Green and Co., 1958.
• Raymond, Janice. The Transsexual Empire: The Making of the She-Male. Boston: Beacon Press, 1979.
• Singer, Isaac Bashevis. Yentl the Yeshiva Boy. New York: Farrar, Strauss, Giroux, 1983.
• Slide, Anthony. The Great Pretenders: A History of Female and Male Impersonation in the Performing Arts. Lombard, Illinois: Wallace- Homestead Book Co., 1986.
• Snyder, Charles. Doctor Mary Walker. New York: Vantage, 1962.
• Stoller, Robert. Splitting: A Case Study of Female Masculinity. New York: Quadrangle/New York Times Book Co., 1973.
• Stuart, Kim Elizabeth. The Uninvited Dilemma: A Question of Gender. Lake Oswego, Oregon: Metamorphous Press, 1983.
• Thompson, C. J. S. Mysteries of Sex: Women Who Passed as Men and Men Who Impersonated Women. New York: Causeway Books, 1974.
• Zirin, Mary, trans. Nadezhda Durova, the Cavalry Maiden: Journals of a Female Russian Officer in the Napoleonic Wars. London: Angel Books, 1988.

• Claremont Counseling Center Newsletter
• Cross Currents
• ETVC Newsletter
• Femme Mirror
• FTM Newsletter
• Gateways
• Gender Expressions
• Gender Identity Center Newsletter
• Gender Networker
• Gender Review
• Golden Gate Girls/Guys Newsletter
• Metamorphosis
• Metamorphosis Magazine
• Metamorphosis Monthly
• Moonshadow
• NAC Journal
• NNTN Bulletin
• Nova Nebulae
• Our Sorority
• Outreach Beacon
• Phoenix
• Pinnacle
• Primrose
• Renaissance
• Rites of Passage
• Rosebuds
• Satin and Lace
• TV Guy
• TV/TS Journal
• TV/TS Tapestry
• Trans-Scribe
• Transcare
• Transgender Views
• Transition
• Transsexual Voice
• Transvestian
• Twenty Minutes
• We Are

Other descriptive data:

Tape 1:

FTM Get-Together #10, April 9, 1989
Side A--Dr. Walter Bockting, Psychologist, Free University, Amsterdam. Topic: Female-to-Gay Male Transsexuality

Tape 1:

FTM Get-Together #10, April 9, 1989
Side B--Ari Kane, Director, Human Outreach and Achievement Institute, Boston. Midi Onodera, Filmmaker, Toronto, Ontario

Tapes 2-3:

FTM Get-Together # 11, September 24, 1989
Lin Fraser, Psychotherapist, San Francisco
Topic: Report on the 1989 Harry Benjamin Gender Dysphoria Symposium

Tape 4:

FTM Get-Together # 12, January 7, 1990
Steven Kessler, MFCC
Topic: Rites of Manhood and Myths of Masculinity

Tape 5:

FTM Get-Together # 13, March 17, 1990
Sterling Winterhalter, San Francisco AIDS Foundation, and Lou Sullivan
Topic: AIDS in the FTM Community

Tape 6:

FTM Get-Together # 14, June 10, 1990
George Fulmer, MD
Topic: Endocrinology

Tape 7:

E.T.V.C. Meeting, July 20, 1988
Paul Walker, Ph.D., "The Current Psychiatric View of Cross- Dressing."

Tape 8:

E.T.V.C. Meeting, March 17, 1990
Paul Walker, Ph.D., "Gender Dysphoria."

Tape 9:

Tom Leykis Show,
KFI Los Angeles, December 9, 1988. "Transsexualism," w/ Dr. Jane Thomas (MTF) and "Larry" (FTM).

Tape 10:

The Coming Out Show, CSRO Vancouver, B.C., June 21, 1990.
Lou Sullivan being interviewed about his biography of Jack Garland.

Tape 11:

B-D Woman, by Bessie Jackson
Audio Information, Female-to-Male

Tape 12:

The Sound of Your Voice

Tapes 13-14:

Gender Conflict in the Female
Tomye Kelly, M.A. Institute for Gender Study and Treatment, Arvada, Colorado.

Tape 1:

The Sergeant (1968)

Tape 2:

Something Special (1985)
Just One of the Guys (1985)
Victor/Victoria (1982)

Tape 3:

The Mystery of Alexina (1985)
Shelly Mars, male impersonation; includes excerpt from Burlezu II (1986), exerpt from Virgin Machine (1988), and review of The Man Dance, by "Electric City" (1990).
Tonight Show with Johnny Carson, (8/17/90); woman arrested in men's room.

Tape 4:

Second Serve (1986)

Tape 5:

A.M. San Francisco, (1982); w/ Steve Dain, Paul Walker, and MTF Cathryn LaFaux
What Sex Am I? (1984)

Tape 6:

Billy Tipton
A Current Affair, (7/7/89)
Sally Jesse Raphael, (3/15/89)
People Are Talking, (11/2/90)

Tape 7:

Her Life as a Man (1984)

Tape 8:

What Sex Am I (1984)
Phil Donahue Show, (1982); w/ Paul Walker and Mike and Marc Vittiow, FTM twins from Illinois.
Geraldo, (1989), "Transsexual Regrets," with former FTM Jerri Sousa.

Tape 9:

ETVC Gender Panel Discussion with Lou Sullivan (Nov., 1987)

Tape 10:

Geraldo, "Hermaphrodite," (Winter, 1989); FTMs w/ John Money

Tape 11:

Linda/Les and Annie: The First Female-to-Male Transsexual Love Story(1989)

Tape 12:

Sally Jesse Raphael (1988); FTMs
Geraldo (1988); MTFs in Prison
Sally Jesse Raphael (1990); FTMs
k.d. lang on Saturday Night Live
Joan Rivers; MTF w/ imaginary pregnancy

Tape 13:

The Mystery of Alexina (1985)
Calamity Jane's Diary (1981)

Tape 14:

Sonja Live in L.A. (7/31/89); w/ FTM David, MTF Robin, Dr. Richard Green
My Life as a Dog (1985)

Tape 15:

Second Serve (1986)
Sylvia Scarlett (1935)

Tape 16:

FTM Collection

Tape 17:

undated broadcasts of Sally Jesse Raphael and Geraldo

Tape 18:

Yentl (1984)

Tape 19:

Larry King Live (8/23/88); w/ Dr. David Gilbert and FTM Steve Roczeg
A Man Like Eva (1983)
Fun with a Sausage

Tape 20:

SHARP (Nov., 1989)
"TV/TS and AIDS," Panel Discussion, Institute for the Advanced Study of Sexuality, San Francisco

Location of this collection:

GLBT Historical Society

989 Market Street, Lower Level

San Francisco, CA 94103, US

Contact:

(415) 777-5455

reference@glbthistory.org

Website