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August 12, 2025 70 mins

Lou Sullivan, arguably one of the first out gay trans men, kept diaries from age 11 until his death in 1991. Decades later, Zach Ozma and Ellis Martin compiled those diaries into "We Both Laughed in Pleasure" (aka the Pink Butt Book) which tells the story of Lou's full, freaky, fascinating life. Zach and Ellis talk to us about painstakingly parsing through Lou's Catholic school cursive and learning that the trans experience is really on a historic loop.

Get your copy of "We Both Laughed in Pleasure" from Nightboat Books, or request a copy at your local library. Read up, then join us for a book club discussion with Ellis & Zach by signing up on our Patreon (for just $2) and joining our Discord. Date is TBD and will be announced on Instagram!

For further reading, check out Zach and Ellis' recommendations.

Hosted by Ally Beardsley and Babette Thomas, Gender Spiral is a quest to explore the modern experience of being a human in our gendered world.

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Find transcripts at genderspiralpod.com/episodes, and check out our NEW merch store at genderspiralpod.com/merch!

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