I am embarrassed to admit that until recently, I had never heard of Louis Sullivan, who died in 1991 at the age of 39 from complications related to HIV/AIDS. But his Wikipedia page hails him "as perhaps the first transgender man to publicly identify as gay," and says he is "largely responsible for the modern understanding of sexual orientation and gender identity as distinct, unrelated concepts."
Mr. Sullivan also kept comprehensive diaries beginning at the age of 11, and Nightboat Books has now published selections from 24 of them as We Both Laughed in Pleasure: The Selected Diaries of Lou Sullivan, 1961-1991. If the fascinating excerpt in the Oct. 2 Paris Review is at all representative of his voice, I look forward to reading the book.
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