Casa Susanna
• Ambiguously Gendered
Casa Susanna was a rare place where in the early 1960s crossdressers could express themselves without having to hide alone in their rooms or become entertainers in a dive.
These men had one foot in the mainstream and the other in the margins, Mr. Hill said the other day. Im fascinated by that position and their paradox, which is that the strict gender roles of the time were both the source of their anxiety and pain, and also the key to escaping that pain.
Sadly most parts of the world still don’t tolerate transvestites or at best accept them as freakish amusements. Better is not good enough.
