Man-i-fest: FTM Mentorship in San Francisco from 1976 - 2009
Curated by Megan M. Rohrerin partnership with the GLBT Historical Society
Facing hostility and discrimination from the medical community and hypersexualization by both gay and straight communities, transgender individuals have relied on mentor relationships, personal stories and photos to educate each other about transition.
In order to mentor and provide education for each other, many transmen have chosen to make public the most intimate details of their private lives. While some may be tempted to objectify the individuals in these photos, letters and publications, now as when they were created there is a desperate need for the education they provide.
Man-i-fest follows the letters of Lou Sullivan to David, highlighting the topics and mentors that shape the FTM community in San Francisco from 1976-2009. The central items in the exhibit will come from Gateway: the newsletter of Golden Gate Girls/Guys; FTM; and Lou Sullivan’s photos of his transition.
INDEX
Introduction: Letters, Privacy and Ethics
Gateway: FTM Mentoring Through Newsletters
Manhood: Puberty, Packing and Passing
Heros: (Trans)Male Role Models
AIDS: The FTM Response and the Death of Lou Sullivan
Harry Benjamin and GID: Health Advocacy
Violence: The Transmen on Both Sides of the Story
Timeline
- 1973: Lou Sullivan starts dressing and passing as a man
- 1976: Lou Sullivan applies to the gender clinics for the first time, but they do not answer.
- April 1979: First Issue of Gateway
- July 1979: Lou Sullivan becomes the editor of the 2nd Volume of Gateway
- November 1979: Lou Sullivan begins taking hormones
- 1980 Transsexualism first appears in DSM III
- March 3, 1980: Lou Sullivan's first letter to David
- April 28, 1980: Lou Sullivan's second letter to David
- October 21, 1980: Lou Sullivan's third letter to David
- 1980: Lou Sullivan has chest surgery
- April 1986: Lou Sullivan has what his doctor calls "genitalplasty," which included testicle implants and a clitoral extension.
- December 1986: Lou Sullivan is diagnosed with HIV and told he has 10 months to live.
- September 1987 First issue of FTM
- May - July 1988 Lou Sullivan gets an MAI infection and loses a lot of weight.
- 1991: Lou Sullivan becomes the first transman to die of AIDS
- 1991: Jamison Green transforms FTM into FTM International or FTMI
- 2007: The Lou Sullivan Society (LSS) is created to continue the mentoring begun by Lou Sullivan.
Curator Biography:
Rev. Megan Rohrer, the first openly transgender pastor ordained in the Lutheran church, received a master of divinity at Pacific School of Religion in Berkeley, where Megan is currently a candidate for the Doctorate of Ministry degree. As the Executive Director of Welcome in San Francisco, pastor Megan enabled more than 200 chronically homeless individuals to move indoors, educates communities how to creatively respond to poverty and created the Homeless Identification Project and the Urban Share Community Gardening Project. Megan is also an accomplished musician, artist, reiki master, black belt,the author of Queerly Lutheran and co-editor of Letters For My Brothers: Transitional Wisdom in Retrospect (Wilgefortis) with Zander Keig.
Megan's work with the homeless is featured in the Polk Street Exhibit <comments />
