Lou Sullivan was a
brave soul to document the transition process in order to help other
transgender individuals. Transitioning is an arduous and difficult process, but
the stoicism needed to document that process is remarkable. Taking the alarming
and unsettling statistics regarding anti-trans violence, I am in awe of the
bravery of those who do take a public stand, even if it is in the simple form
of documenting the transition in photographs.
The fact that
Sullivan established the LGBT Historical Society and that his photos, letters,
and documents are archived within the society is all the more touching. Saving
such information and photographs for posterity was a wise and tremendously
useful legacy to leave behind.
I found the
letters to David of particular interest. One of the letters mentions that Sullivan
was given the green light from Wardell Pomeroy to go ahead with hormones.
Kinsey, Gebhard, and Pomeroy continued conducting research and collecting data
on transvestitism and transexualism into the 1950s. Kinsey had intended to
publish more data concerning research in human sexuality. Sadly, Kinsey died in
1956, just two years after J. Edgar Hoover and the Red Scare forced the
Rockefeller Foundation to cut funding for Kinsey’s research. Later, in 1976, Pomeroy
became dean to the Institute for the Advanced Study of Human Sexuality and
continued researching and assisting transsexuals. Pomeroy died fairly recently,
in 2001.
Another letter to
David addresses the fact that FTMs are sparse, and that one should “beat the
bushes” in order to bring new FTM members to the bi-monthly meetings. Having
grown up in the transsexual community, I have to agree that FTMs are definitely
in the minority. The transexual community I was in always said that this was
due to higher numbers of MTF, yet the statement by a classmate in our class
that FTM simply blend/pass better, thus hiding better in the general population
makes me re-think the former opinion.
It is interesting
to note that Dr John Money was mentioned in the 1979 “Family Circle” article
about a male-to-female transexual. Dr Money was an early pioneer in sexual
re-assignment surgery, despite his notorious downfall regarding the John-Joan
case. He was one of the first American doctors to conduct the sex re-assignment
surgery. It is ironic that he pioneered the field of pediatric endocrinology,
the same field which, in the end gave rise to the notorious John-Joan case,
which in turn, lead to his discredit within the transexual and intersex
communities. Despite Dr Money’s obvious major mistake of his career, his
research in the field of sexology was tremendous; for example, he coined the
term “lovemap” which refers to the psycho-sexual unique blueprint/script of an
individual’s behaviour, feelings, and fears based on their sexual history,
cultural and familial background. It is what makes each person’s sexuality
distinctly different, thus requiring a specialized approach to both couple and
single therapy, as well as a more intricate study of the psychology of
pair-bond relationships.
The exhibit
demonstrated the usefulness of a magazine for a minority group which suffers
from societal discrimination. It brings to mind a conversation I had with a
transexual who is an activist in the bisexual movement. She told me that she
suffers more discrimination as a bisexual than as a transsexual. She was also
speaking about starting a newsletter for the bisexual community for many of the
same reasons that Gateway was created for the trans community. The more things
change, the more they stay the same.
Francoeur, Robert
T (ed), A Descriptive Dictionary and Atlas of Sexology, Greenwood Press,
New York ,
1991
Jones, James S, Alfred
Kinsey: A Public/Private Life, Norton, 1997
Money, John, Lovemaps:
Clinical Concepts of Sexual/Erotic Health and Pathology, Paraphilia, and Gender
Transpostion in Childhood, Adolescence, and Maturity, Irvington
Publishers, New York ,
1993
No comments:
Post a Comment