Abstract
Sullivan and Tom continue their long-distance relationship, with Sullivan in Milwaukee and Tom in San Francisco. Sullivan still experiments with his male identity as Lou, while informally advising others who identify in some way as trans. Eventually Tom moves back to Milwaukee, where he is depressed, unemployed, and drinking heavily. Sullivan and Tom struggle with Tom’s depression, Sullivan’s identity as Lou, and Sullivan’s close relationship with Lawrence. Later, Sullivan and Tom develop a friendship with Mitchel, with whom Sullivan also has intimate relations. Finally, Sullivan and Tom decide to move to San Francisco together. There, Sullivan tries to find a job while dressing in men’s clothes, which are now his normal couture. The chapter concludes as he secures employment, an event that he communicates in diary-letters to friends and family in Milwaukee.
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Notes
- 1.
“Looking Toward Transvestite Liberation” (Sullivan 1979). According to Sullivan’s vitae, after being published in the March issue of Milwaukee’s GPU News, it was published in Gay Liberator (Detroit, MI, Sept/Oct 1974); Shocks: The Androgyny Issue (Momo’s Press, San Francisco, CA, 1976); Female Impersonator magazine (Neptune Productions, 1974); and The New Gay Liberation Book (Ramparts Press, Palo Alto, CA, 1979).
- 2.
“A transvestite answers a feminist” (Sullivan 2006) was Sullivan’s first published article. Sullivan’s vitae lists his second article with GPU News (“Looking Toward Transvestite Liberation”, Sullivan 1979) as being published in Detroit’s Gay Liberator, rather than his first. See also entry on 9/10/1974.
Works Cited
Rechy, J. (1963). City of night. New York: Grove.
Sullivan, L. (2006). A transvestite answers a feminist. In S. Stryker & S. Whittle (Eds.), The transgender studies reader (pp. 159–164). New York: Routledge.
Sullivan, Sheila [Lou]. (1979). Looking toward transvestite liberation. In L. Richmond & G. Noguera (Eds.), The new gay liberation book: Writings and photographs about gay (men’s) liberation (pp. 147–153). Palo Alto: Rampart.
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Rodemeyer, L.M. (2018). Lou Sullivan Diaries: 1974–1975. In: Lou Sullivan Diaries (1970-1980) and Theories of Sexual Embodiment. Crossroads of Knowledge. Springer, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-63034-2_3
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