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@identitymmp
Author’s Note
Hello, and welcome to our Casa Susanna/Gender Identity blog! We hope you enjoy your stay and learn a little something along the way.
For the best experience, start at page two, by going to the link "https://identitymmp.tumblr.com/page/2" and reading upwards. Feel free to use the links to the left of the sidebar for additional purposes as well!
Today, Casa Susanna's legacy has inspired the play Casa Valentina, which carries the same narrative. It follows a group of men who attend a cross-dressing refuge in Catskill, New York. Tickets aren't currently available, but check their official Broadway page for more updates!
Affirmation provides a manageable, understandable, and powerful way to think about moving awareness to action, and it is my hope that by concentrating on the role of affirmation in our everyday lives we can begin to see what form these vital political actions can take.
Tim R. Johnston's analysis on affirmation gives a great insight onto Casa Susanna became a home for cross-dressing and trans* men. Affirmation goes hand-and-hand with gender identity, and as a result, the duo blossoms into the summation of self-acceptance. Safe havens like Casa Susanna and Transvestia are substantial historical actors for the LGBTQ+ community, giving queer individuals today a past we can look back on and love.
More photos of the innards of Casa Susanna.
On the left is an advertisment featured on the back of a Transvestia magazine. This was a way for readers to forward the articles to others. On the right is a code set up by Virginia Prince for cross-dressers or trans* individuals to communicate and find groups such as Casa Susanna. "Many times it has been asked what the code meant and various readers have indicated that they had 'figured it out.' It is not difficult, nor is it intended to be very secret. I devised it in the beginning as a means of avoiding the use of names, but of being able to quickly find names in the file from the code number. Thus this simple system. The first number is the number of the state in which the subscriber lives in alphabetical order. The initial is that of the last name so that I could tell where to look in the card file, and the last number is the number of persons whose last name begins with that same initial in the order of their addition to our files." - Virginia Prince
Additional Transvestia Magazine covers
Various covers of Transvestia Magazine, circa. 1960s
GENDER IDENTITY by VIRGINIA PRINCE
"... her sense of herself as being that kind of person is what is meant by gender identity. Now I hasten to append to the above my awareness of the changing times and activities of of women as a result of women's liberation. But these changes are recent, whereas gender role and gender identity have a very ancient lineage with whose origins I am concerned." - Virginia Prince, ADVERSARIA
This analysis of gender identity by Prince is accurate today. Hetero-Euro ideals are still implemented into U.S. society, gendering subjects like toys, television shows, and clothes. Her experience between her creation of Transvestia, her frequenting at Casa Susanna, and further activism all show how gender expression is essentially silenced by societal norms. She utilizies her education and lifestyle to show how America has been poisoned by the likes of strict sex and gender roles.
VIRGINIA PRINCE
Virginia Prince is one of Casa Susanna's most notable frequenters. Although the refuge was mostly made up of straight men with wives and children, she later identified as transgender at age 55 in the late 1960s. Prince became heavily involved in trans* activism and studies during the 1960s as well. In 1961, Prince had been forwarding and receiving intimate letters from a fellow cross-dresser. She was later caught and charged by authorities, but continued to cross-dress as a result of her lawyer's help. Her organizing in trans* media began here, starting when she became the founder of The Hose & Heels Club, an organization for cross-dressers. Prince's most notable work became Transvestia, a magazine dedicated to the trans* lifestyle which also featured photographs from the Casa Susanna archive. The magazine's issues date from 1960 onwards, and after Prince's death in 2009, continue to capture the essence of trans* life decades before.
Additional photographs featuring frequenter Lily (above), Susanna Valenti and another unknown goer (below)
Susanna Valenti and more frequenters
Casa Susanna's book cover by Robert Swope & Michel Hurst
AVAILABLE NOW!
The Discovery of Casa Susanna’s Archives
The annals of Casa Susanna were found by furniture dealer Robert Swope somewhere in the early 2000s. At a flea market in Manhattan, New York, the gentleman came across over a hundred documents and photographs of the cross-dressing men and trans* women. Fascinated by the discovery, he and his partner Michel Hurst published a book on Casa Susanna of the same name, which contains the archives in their entirety. The piece substantially captures trans* identity in the late 1900s and how self-expression in the queer community has evolved. In a nut shell, Casa Susanna displays some of the rather early depictions of gender-nonconforming individuals.
Photograph of Susanna Valenti in front of Casa Susanna.
Photos of Susanna Valenti and other frequenters of Casa Susanna.
CASA SUSANNA
In the Catskill hills of Jewett, New York, Casa Susanna was born a safe haven for men and trans* women who cross-dressed in peace. The refuge was created by Susanna Valenti, pictured above, and her wife, Marie, and was active between the 1950s and 1970s. Although a lot of the frequenters had wives or whole families, Casa Susanna granted them freedom of gender expression and fluidity outside of patriarchal and heteronormative America.
Identity in LGBTQ History:
"[Queer individuals] exist on social terrain beyond the boundaries of the heterosexual nuclear family. Our Communities have formed in that social space. Our survival and liberation depend on our ability to defend and expand that terrain, not just for ourselves, but for everyone."
— John D'Emilio