Lou Sullivan diaries
1976–1980
pp. 145-186
in: , Lou Sullivan diaries (1970-1980) and theories of sexual embodiment, Berlin, Springer, 2018Abstract
After discovering that Tom is in love with "another" woman again, Sullivan rejects his male identity and buys women's clothes for the first time in three years. While he feels more comfortable dressing as a woman than he ever had before—thanks to addressing his "misogynist" attitudes with a therapist—he also experiences great loss and depression in giving up Lou. When Tom later admits to being in love with "another" woman yet again, Sullivan realizes that even embracing his female side will not keep Tom from infidelity. After an ugly breakup, Sullivan returns to his identity as Lou and to his thoughts of transitioning to male through hormones and surgery. He inquires into and eventually begins taking hormones, with the guidance of Steve Dain, a trans man that Sullivan reads about in the San Francisco Chronicle. The chapter concludes with Sullivan's changing his name and his sex on his California driver's license.