FTM // Vault

The FTM Newsletter was published by FTM International (FTMI), the longest continuously running organization for the transmasculine community. The original group was founded in 1986 by Lou Sullivan, a gay trans man who convinced the medical establishment that trans men could be gay. The FTM Newsletter, first published in 1987, promoted understanding of transmasculine people and provided services to improve their lives. The newsletter became a lifeline by connecting transmasculine people worldwide. It became the most widely circulated and highly respected publication exploring transmasculine experience.

Before his 1991 death, Sullivan passed leadership of FTMI to Jamison Green, activist and author of "Becoming a Visible Man."

The majority of the FTM Newsletters digitized for this collection formed a part of the library holdings of the Rikki Swin Institute: Gender Education, Research, Library and Archives (RSI), located in Chicago, Illinois. The RSI collection was donated by Rikki Swin to the University of Victoria Libraries in 2008, and is a foundational resource of UVic’s Transgender Archives. Physical copies of the FTM Newsletter are catalogued with the call number HQ77.9 F176. FTM Newsletter issues not included in the original RSI gift (issues 1-43; 45-53) were donated by Aaron Devor (issues 59-67), Jeffrey Dickeman (issue 44) , and an anonymous donor (issues 54-58).

A limited amount of information about identifiable individuals who were not public figures has been redacted to protect personal privacy.

Please also see the digital exhibit on the history of this publication, a project by Peter and Ana Lowens Fellow Sky Dragushan, available here: https://omekas.library.uvic.ca/s/ftm/page/ftm

Resource type