XVII Harry Benjamin International Gender Dysphoria Association Symposium
31 October - 4 November 2001, Galveston, Texas, U.S.A.

The Sublimation and Emergence of FTM Transsexualism

GREEN, JAMISON U.S.A.
E-mail: jamisong@aol.com

Comparatively little attention has been paid to the existence of Female-to-Male (FTM) transsexual (and transgendered) people from either a cultural or a medical/psychological perspective. However, the contemporary face of the transgender movement and the transsexual treatment paradigm would be very different without the continually re-asserted existence of FTM-identified people. A number of pioneer FTM people have made important contributions to the development of transgender community, and these men should not be forgotten, but by far one of the most significant contributors at the pivotal point in history was Mr. Louis G. Sullivan, founder of the FTM Newsletter and the FTM peer support group based in San Francisco, which, after Sullivan’s death in March, 1991, grew into the organization FTM International, Inc. (under this author’s leadership). This paper examines the nature of FTM community prior to 1990, looks at the pivotal contribution of Mr. Sullivan, and presents an overview of the contemporary FTM community, the points of departure from traditional concepts of transsexualism, and the particularities of FTM influence on the wider transsexual and transgender culture.