The FTM Newsletter
An Introduction
‘FTM’, or ‘Female to Male’, describes the transition process of a person born female later identifying with a male gender identity. The FTM newsletter was created by Lou Sullivan, and published quarterly from 1987 to 2008. FTM promoted the connection and community-building of like-minded transmasculine individuals, as well as included articles, book and film reviews, and the ‘malebox’, where readers could write to the Editors and ask questions or seek advice. Many readers writing to FTM or writing articles for FTM did so using a pseudonym, although some prominent activists’ work can be traced back to the pages of FTM.
Sullivan had started an in-person FTM Support Group in the early 1980s in San Francisco. Inspired by Rupert Raj’s Metamorphosis newsletter in Toronto (1982–1985), Sullivan began publishing a newsletter for the transmasculine community in San Francisco. After Sullivan passed away in 1991 due to AIDS related complications, Jamison Green agreed to take over the FTM Newsletter and FTM Support Meetings.
While the FTM newsletter was in print, Jamison Green and additional volunteers reached up to 1,500 members in 17 countries around the world (Green, 2014). FTM is widely understood to be the largest publication exploring and supporting the transmasculine experience.
Today, all 67 issues of FTM can be accessed in person or online via the Trans Archives in Special Collections at the University of Victoria in Victoria, B.C., Canada. Additional documents on the FTM newsletter as well as the Lou Sullivan Fonds can be accessed at the archive of the GLBT Historical Society in San Francisco, CA, USA, and online via the Digital Transgender Archives. Communications between Rupert Raj and Lou Sullivan can also be found in the Rupert Raj Fonds in the ArQuives in Toronto, ON, Canada.
The Publication
[in progress]
Final Thoughts
This publication was lifechanging for many transmasculine men feeling alienated or isolated, both from the transgender community and from cisgender friends or family members. During the late 1980s and throughout the 1990s, gender affirming surgeries and hormones were not discussed as casually as they are today. Thus, having a forum to ask questions, review surgery outcomes and preperation, and address healthcare professionals with approaches informed by gender dysphoria was an invaluable resource.
Notably, each FTM issue included a glimpse behind the scenes of the newsletter: always listing FTM International Board Members, sometimes including financial records and receipts, and often including full page spreads elaborating on the current printing and publishing set-up. As volunteers stepped in and out so frequently, this information was constantly changing. Thus, writing a publication history seemed like an impossible task! However, the team behind the FTM newsletter kept their comings and goings well documented for the future academic reading these documents. They did so because these activists knew just how special and influential these movements were as FTM was in print. FTM's influence was concretely felt when printing lists of protests against gender oppression beginning in 1996, along with when Jamison Green joined the World Professional Association for Transgender Health (WPATH) to amend laws and policies in the USA to be more inclusive of transgender peoples.