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Information for the female-to-male; crossdresser and transsexual
An overview and guide on FTM transsexualism and crossdressing, with chapters on The Difference between Sexual Identity and Gender-Role Preference; What is Transsexuality?; Crossdressing; Possible Biological Causes; Psychological Treatment; Sex Reassignment; Your Sex Life, Contacts and Referrals; and more. Includes useful information on passing with regards to clothing, face and hair, clothing and shoe sizes, breast binding, the crotch, etc.; homologues in female and male urogenital anatomy, family issues, true stories of females who crossed over, bibliography and filmography.
Paperback
First published January 1, 1985
About the author
Lou Sullivan
4 books79 followersQuoted from Wikipedia 11/25/2016:
Louis Graydon Sullivan (16 June 1951 – 2 March 1991), better known as Lou Sullivan, was an American author and activist known for his work on behalf of trans men. He founded FTM International, one of the first FTM organizations, along with SHAFT in the UK and Rupert Raj's Metamorphosis in Toronto, and is largely responsible for the modern acknowledgment that sexual orientation and gender identity are totally different concepts.
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 trans male individuals, and his activism and community work was a significant contributor to the rapid growth of the FTM community during the late 1980s.
trans male persons, and also a biography of the San Francisco trans man, Jack Bee Garland. Sullivan was instrumental in demonstrating the existence of trans men who were themselves attracted to men. Lou Sullivan began peer counselling through the Janus Information Facility which was an organization that provided support for transgender issues. He is also credited for being the first to discuss the eroticism of men’s clothing.
Sullivan was a founding member and board member of the GLBT Historical Society (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.
Sullivan lobbied the American Psychiatric Association and the World Professional Association for Transgender Health for them to recognize his existence as a gay trans man. He was determined to change people's attitudes towards trans homosexuals 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".
Sullivan was diagnosed as HIV positive in 1986 after his surgery, and was told he only had 10 months to live. It is likely that Sullivan was HIV- 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-related complications on March 2, 1991.
Louis Graydon Sullivan (16 June 1951 – 2 March 1991), better known as Lou Sullivan, was an American author and activist known for his work on behalf of trans men. He founded FTM International, one of the first FTM organizations, along with SHAFT in the UK and Rupert Raj's Metamorphosis in Toronto, and is largely responsible for the modern acknowledgment that sexual orientation and gender identity are totally different concepts.
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 trans male individuals, and his activism and community work was a significant contributor to the rapid growth of the FTM community during the late 1980s.
trans male persons, and also a biography of the San Francisco trans man, Jack Bee Garland. Sullivan was instrumental in demonstrating the existence of trans men who were themselves attracted to men. Lou Sullivan began peer counselling through the Janus Information Facility which was an organization that provided support for transgender issues. He is also credited for being the first to discuss the eroticism of men’s clothing.
Sullivan was a founding member and board member of the GLBT Historical Society (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.
Sullivan lobbied the American Psychiatric Association and the World Professional Association for Transgender Health for them to recognize his existence as a gay trans man. He was determined to change people's attitudes towards trans homosexuals 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".
Sullivan was diagnosed as HIV positive in 1986 after his surgery, and was told he only had 10 months to live. It is likely that Sullivan was HIV- 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-related complications on March 2, 1991.
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Displaying 1 - 9 of 9 reviews
July 14, 2022
Content warnings are listed at the end of my review! Available to read for free at the Digital Transgender Archive website.
I was so pleasantly surprised by reading this pamphlet, as it serves as an amazing slice of transmasculine life at the time, with some information that still proves useful today. It was created to fill the lack of resources for trans men at the time, and it really fulfills that job well. Using historical anecdotes, science, tips, resources- Lou paints a fairly broad picture to create a great transmasculine 101 for the time. He really wastes no space or opportunity to educate, filling the margins with tales of people assigned female at birth who have crossed the lines of gender.
Lou comes from an incredibly motivational and supportive standpoint, you can tell his goal is to empower the reader to feel comfortable with their emotions and know they aren’t alone. It really reads like a conversation with him, making me wish all the more that we still had him around today to continue his advocacy. He does a great job at providing resources and information to help affirm these feelings aren’t bad, surrounded with encouragement and love. Giving dating advice for trans people attracted to men and women, movie recommendations, information for family members, changes on hormones, explanation of top and bottom surgeries at the time, he truly covers most of the bases!
Summary:
Readability: ★★★★☆, The language and phrasing isn’t difficult at all, but the vocabulary and practices are a bit dated. Particularly in the first half, feminine pronouns are used to describe transmasculine people, and male pronouns are used to describe trans women.
Usefulness: ★★★★★, For the modern trans person, some of the outdated information isn’t helpful, but the historical value is absolutely here. Regardless, I even learned a few things from him! But a look at the medical understandings, theories, vocabulary, and community at the time is really fascinating.
Audience: This is very insightful for anyone interested in the history of cross dressing and transitioning for those assigned female at birth. As a trans man, you get a great sense of how things have changed, but get to see similarities that you can still relate to. It’s comforting to be seen like that.
Content warning: masturbation, misgendering, transphobia, sex, surgery
I was so pleasantly surprised by reading this pamphlet, as it serves as an amazing slice of transmasculine life at the time, with some information that still proves useful today. It was created to fill the lack of resources for trans men at the time, and it really fulfills that job well. Using historical anecdotes, science, tips, resources- Lou paints a fairly broad picture to create a great transmasculine 101 for the time. He really wastes no space or opportunity to educate, filling the margins with tales of people assigned female at birth who have crossed the lines of gender.
Lou comes from an incredibly motivational and supportive standpoint, you can tell his goal is to empower the reader to feel comfortable with their emotions and know they aren’t alone. It really reads like a conversation with him, making me wish all the more that we still had him around today to continue his advocacy. He does a great job at providing resources and information to help affirm these feelings aren’t bad, surrounded with encouragement and love. Giving dating advice for trans people attracted to men and women, movie recommendations, information for family members, changes on hormones, explanation of top and bottom surgeries at the time, he truly covers most of the bases!
Summary:
Readability: ★★★★☆, The language and phrasing isn’t difficult at all, but the vocabulary and practices are a bit dated. Particularly in the first half, feminine pronouns are used to describe transmasculine people, and male pronouns are used to describe trans women.
Usefulness: ★★★★★, For the modern trans person, some of the outdated information isn’t helpful, but the historical value is absolutely here. Regardless, I even learned a few things from him! But a look at the medical understandings, theories, vocabulary, and community at the time is really fascinating.
Audience: This is very insightful for anyone interested in the history of cross dressing and transitioning for those assigned female at birth. As a trans man, you get a great sense of how things have changed, but get to see similarities that you can still relate to. It’s comforting to be seen like that.
Content warning: masturbation, misgendering, transphobia, sex, surgery
July 4, 2014
Before going on to my review I need to emphasize the time period of this text. Information for the Female-to-Male Cross Dressers and Transsexual was originally written by Louis Sullivan in 1980 and is followed by two further editions in 1985 and 1990, respectively. This review is about the second edition (1980). Due to its relative early position in trans writings it includes some archaic terminology, including calling female to male/trans men "women" or "she" and male to female/trans women "men" or "he." This method is no longer used in trans communities, but can be found in books written in the 1980s by both trans and cis authors about the trans community.
Sullivan's text is groundbreaking. It is one of the first guide books written for FTMs and the first written by a trans man. It frankly addresses issues such as sexuality, health care, and "passing" in a way that is still useful today. The text is worth reading in particular because of Sullivan's inclusion of various historical examples of crossdressing and trans men.
Sullivan's text is groundbreaking. It is one of the first guide books written for FTMs and the first written by a trans man. It frankly addresses issues such as sexuality, health care, and "passing" in a way that is still useful today. The text is worth reading in particular because of Sullivan's inclusion of various historical examples of crossdressing and trans men.
December 25, 2025
as other commenters have said, this should not be used as a guide in today's day and age as it is veeeerryyyy outdated (reading it was a bit confusing/shocking at times because of this lol) BUT it's still an interesting read, especially concerning the more medical aspects and how they've changed/haven't changed and the many historical portraits of ftms (to me at least haha)
you can find the book here!
you can find the book here!
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April 28, 2019this may be obvious, but just in case- i do not recommend this as a guide; it's very dated. i do recommended it if you're interested in trans history
April 1, 2026
read this one for research for my beautiful 90s t4t inferno thing but i simply wanted to put this on my goodreads because i adore lou sullivan madly. also, it's TDOV!!!! some quotes that i liked:
"There is no cure, and gender specialists admit there is no case on record of a total reversal of symptoms. The mind of the transsexual cannot be changed... they must decide whether to live with their contradictory body or to adjust it to agree with their heart."
"(If someone actually has the nerve to ask why you always use the stall, tell them, "Gee, I dunno. I guess I really AM full of it! HAHA" If Joe asks why he never sees you at the urinal, try, "I didn't know you were looking for me there, Joe!" You might get a bloody nose--proof that Joe is convinced you're a man.)"
"Deciding to change your life and your body to that of a man will be the most important decision you will ever make. Don't take the matter lightly."
"You may discover that, when it comes right down to it, YOU have more "balls" than a lot of men!
January 26, 2024
This book(let) definitely shows its age in some of the terms and ideas, but is still very interesting and open-hearted.
May 23, 2024
Comprehensive guide & still very relevant.
December 26, 2024
fantastic piece of trans history & still quite useful to this day. Great to read about surgery techniques & how some techniques that weren't doable then, are now widely used
December 30, 2023
i’m blown away about how modern this is, even with its flaws (but still, it was written in the 80s).
lou sullivan became a model of trans men and FTMs and i see why.
what he writes about gender identity and how it’s completely different from sexuality should be read by anyone, considering that society still thinks that trans men are strictly attracted to women and trans women are strictly attracted to men. i also loved how he said that gender identity is different from people being “masculine” or “feminine”; there are masculine women that still identify as women, and it doesn’t prove anything against trans men.
my favorite part, though, was about how trans men aren’t a threat to women and feminism.
“Feminists have typically lashed out at transsexuals, condemning the male-to-female as a threat to womankind and arguing that female-to-males should accept themselves as strong, liberated women/lesbians, instead of crossing over to the ‘other side’ and ‘denying their femaleness’. But transsexuals don't go to the ‘other side’ to conform to stereotypes. It’s absurd to think people would so readily lop off body parts just to be a ‘more masculine’ corporate executive. They go to the other side because it is the only way to express on the outside how they feel on the inside (the same reason gays come out).”
to me this is the best part because i believe that reason why trans men were far less and less known or out opposing to trans women was (and is) because our own community sometimes abandons us. it’s scary to come out as trans if you know that society won’t support you, but it’s even worse if you know that some lesbians and women won’t support you either. the whole TERF movement is what this is all about. it saddens me that, forty years after, it’s kind of still the same story.
lou sullivan became a model of trans men and FTMs and i see why.
what he writes about gender identity and how it’s completely different from sexuality should be read by anyone, considering that society still thinks that trans men are strictly attracted to women and trans women are strictly attracted to men. i also loved how he said that gender identity is different from people being “masculine” or “feminine”; there are masculine women that still identify as women, and it doesn’t prove anything against trans men.
my favorite part, though, was about how trans men aren’t a threat to women and feminism.
“Feminists have typically lashed out at transsexuals, condemning the male-to-female as a threat to womankind and arguing that female-to-males should accept themselves as strong, liberated women/lesbians, instead of crossing over to the ‘other side’ and ‘denying their femaleness’. But transsexuals don't go to the ‘other side’ to conform to stereotypes. It’s absurd to think people would so readily lop off body parts just to be a ‘more masculine’ corporate executive. They go to the other side because it is the only way to express on the outside how they feel on the inside (the same reason gays come out).”
to me this is the best part because i believe that reason why trans men were far less and less known or out opposing to trans women was (and is) because our own community sometimes abandons us. it’s scary to come out as trans if you know that society won’t support you, but it’s even worse if you know that some lesbians and women won’t support you either. the whole TERF movement is what this is all about. it saddens me that, forty years after, it’s kind of still the same story.
Displaying 1 - 9 of 9 reviews