About Sheila Gilhooly

I’m a 60ish life-long butch lesbian. Raised in the conservative milieu of Canada’s capital, I came out in 1969.

After an unhappy stint in the nuthouse, where I was committed when the counsellor at my catholic college learned I was a lesbian and, worse, didn’t want to change, I found the heady and redemptive days of 70s feminism, where politics ended where sex began and vice versa.

Like what seemed like the entire Ottawa lesbian feminist cadre, I moved to Vancouver in 1981.

With Persimmon Blackbridge, I did Still Sane, a sculpture project and later a book about my experience as a lesbian in the nuthouse—sadly common in those days when being queer was listed as a psychosis in the DSM (psychiatrists’ bible).

I’ve been published in feminist periodicals, including Sinister Wisdom; and have just finished my second book, Mistaken Identity, about my experience being (mis)taken as a man.

I am doing a blog in hopes that others who have had experiences similar to mine will share them here. I haven’t seen them talked about much elsewhere.

So… write on, sisters!