Lou Sullivan (June 16, 1951 – March 2, 1991), c. 1983..Lou Sullivan, who died twenty-six years ago t
Lou Sullivan (June 16, 1951 – March 2, 1991), c. 1983..Lou Sullivan, who died twenty-six years ago today, was an American author and activist, best known for his work on behalf of trans men and as a founding member of the GLBT Historical Society..Born in 1951 to a religious Catholic family in Milwaukee, Sullivan began keeping a diary at age ten, and his writings provide a glimpse into the evolution of a queer pioneer. “I want to look like what I am but I don’t know what someone like me looks like,” a fifteen-year-old Sullivan wrote. “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.”.In 1975, Sullivan’s family gave him their support, a new suit, and his grandfather’s pocket watch, and he left to seek greater access to hormonal treatments in San Francisco. At the time, the expectations for those seeking gender affirming surgery was to adopt heterosexual gender roles; as a gay man, therefore, Sullivan repeatedly was denied access to surgery..It took years of Sullivan’s tireless campaigning before homosexuality was removed from the contraindications for gender affirming surgery. In other words, because of Lou Sullivan and other activists, conforming to heterosexual norms no longer was an expectation for those seeking gender affirming surgery..In addition to his activism on behalf of non-heterosexual trans individuals, Sullivan was a founding member of San Francisco’s GLBT Historical Society, which remains an invaluable resource for the community..Lou Sullivan died of AIDS-related complications on March 2, 1991; he was thirty-nine. #lgbthistory #HavePrideInHistory #LouSullivan #Resist #ProtectTransKids (at San Francisco, California) -- source link
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