Just learned about Lou Sullivan
I don't know why it took me so long to learn about him. But it feels like my soul has been healed, to be honest. I've been crying off and on since last night, just bc it's such a relief to find someone so like me in recent history.
I won't go into full detail about him bc I'm sure many of you know about him already. If you don’t know, I suggest watching his brief bio in this video:
https://youtu.be/HXg-zGeC-SU?si=6Xbj1txrUIHFyKMI
What hit me hardest about his story was how he was repeatedly turned away from San Francisco gender clinics. They turned him away simply bc they knew he was attracted to and loved men. Before hearing his story, I had no idea that clinics only used to accept straight trans men for transition, and gay trans men were strong-armed into living as straight women. Almost nobody believed a trans man could be attracted to other men. It breaks my heart to hear what gay trans men like me had to go through to get transition servives bc of their orientation at that time, in San Francisco of all places.
He was also rejected from most established queer groups, so he started his own FTM support group that grew massive.
I cannot fathom the strength that he had to not give up or break when faced by so much rejection, and repeated denial of healthcare. I'm sure that I wouldn't have survived it. I think him being a white man was likely the main thing that saved him, bc he had more resources available to him, and more people willing to listen to him.
Anyways. Going to read all of his journals and watch all of his interviews now. I thought I would never find a famous gay trans man, but thankfully I was wrong.