1 00:00:02,000 --> 00:00:07,000 Downloaded from YTS.MX 2 00:00:08,000 --> 00:00:13,000 Official YIFY movies site: YTS.MX 3 00:00:37,328 --> 00:00:38,413 I want a car. 4 00:00:39,456 --> 00:00:44,377 I wanna be with the man I love. I wanna get married in church in white. 5 00:00:46,046 --> 00:00:48,339 I want children. I want to adopt. 6 00:00:49,174 --> 00:00:55,305 I wanna be a professional model behind cameras in a high-fashion world. 7 00:00:56,598 --> 00:00:59,476 I want this. This is what I want. 8 00:01:00,060 --> 00:01:01,686 And I'm gonna go for it. 9 00:01:21,956 --> 00:01:25,877 Strut, strut, strut, strut 10 00:01:25,960 --> 00:01:29,297 Strut, strut, strut, strut 11 00:01:29,798 --> 00:01:31,132 Fuck the sidewalk 12 00:01:31,758 --> 00:01:32,926 It's a runway 13 00:01:33,510 --> 00:01:34,594 Fuck the sidewalk 14 00:01:35,261 --> 00:01:36,554 It's a runway… 15 00:01:37,889 --> 00:01:40,058 Venus is iconic. 16 00:01:40,141 --> 00:01:41,726 You wanna talk about reading? 17 00:01:41,810 --> 00:01:43,144 She's so famous, man. 18 00:01:43,228 --> 00:01:44,938 Let's talk about reading. 19 00:01:45,772 --> 00:01:48,316 My sister was Venus Xtravaganza. 20 00:01:48,399 --> 00:01:52,403 Xtravaganza power! 21 00:01:53,613 --> 00:01:55,323 Our House is our family. 22 00:01:55,907 --> 00:01:57,117 There you go. 23 00:01:58,201 --> 00:01:59,869 Venus was our family. 24 00:02:00,495 --> 00:02:03,915 -She'll always be a Pellagatti. -We had each other's back. 25 00:02:04,791 --> 00:02:07,127 I protected all my brothers and sisters. 26 00:02:07,210 --> 00:02:08,253 Your family loves you. 27 00:02:08,336 --> 00:02:11,089 Fuck the Hilton, it's the Waldorf… 28 00:02:11,172 --> 00:02:14,467 I protect my kids because that's my family. 29 00:02:14,968 --> 00:02:16,761 If you walk into the 7-Eleven, 30 00:02:16,845 --> 00:02:20,098 you better make that motherfucker look like the runway. 31 00:02:20,181 --> 00:02:22,308 We have stood the test of time. 32 00:02:23,518 --> 00:02:25,019 Strut, strut… 33 00:02:25,103 --> 00:02:26,521 Xtravaganza! 34 00:02:26,604 --> 00:02:28,690 Strut, strut, strut, strut 35 00:02:30,358 --> 00:02:31,860 Strut, strut… 36 00:02:31,943 --> 00:02:34,070 I am Pellagatti. 37 00:02:34,154 --> 00:02:38,700 Strut, strut, strut, strut, strut… 38 00:02:49,586 --> 00:02:51,629 So I used to work over there. 39 00:02:51,713 --> 00:02:55,466 After work, we'd always cruise around and have the top down, 40 00:02:55,550 --> 00:02:58,970 checking out, you know, some of the ladies. 41 00:03:00,096 --> 00:03:02,557 So I'd pass the red light over here 42 00:03:04,017 --> 00:03:05,476 on Montgomery and Marin, 43 00:03:06,144 --> 00:03:09,939 and as I… as I'm driving down the block, 44 00:03:10,815 --> 00:03:13,985 right over there, I see a blonde. 45 00:03:14,986 --> 00:03:15,862 Pretty sexy. 46 00:03:15,945 --> 00:03:19,157 I roll the windows down, and as I pull up, 47 00:03:20,867 --> 00:03:22,952 the girl turns around and looks at me, 48 00:03:24,913 --> 00:03:26,414 and it's my sister Venus. 49 00:03:27,207 --> 00:03:29,834 And I was like, "No." 50 00:03:30,543 --> 00:03:34,505 And when she seen me, she took her high heels off, 51 00:03:34,589 --> 00:03:36,257 and she made a mad dash. 52 00:03:36,758 --> 00:03:40,261 I see her going down the PATH station. I try to get down there. 53 00:03:40,345 --> 00:03:41,888 She jumps the turnstile. 54 00:03:41,971 --> 00:03:44,015 Train comes, jumps in the train. 55 00:03:44,849 --> 00:03:48,937 I miss her, so I come back. And I see my friend Sam. 56 00:03:49,020 --> 00:03:53,233 I said, "You didn't see that, right?" He goes, "I didn't see nothing." 57 00:03:53,316 --> 00:03:54,776 So I was like, "Okay." 58 00:03:55,568 --> 00:03:57,237 Spoke to my grandmother. 59 00:03:57,320 --> 00:04:00,990 I was like, "Gran, you know… dresses up like a woman?" 60 00:04:01,950 --> 00:04:03,952 "Ah, mijo, where you been?" 61 00:04:04,035 --> 00:04:08,248 "She's been dressing up like a woman for years." I'm like, "News to me." 62 00:04:08,873 --> 00:04:10,166 Newsflash. 63 00:04:11,209 --> 00:04:13,586 The funny thing was when she took her shoes off. 64 00:04:15,380 --> 00:04:16,881 She's got some wheels on her. 65 00:04:23,096 --> 00:04:27,392 I am Venus' older brother, second in the family. 66 00:04:29,102 --> 00:04:32,647 I try to keep to myself. I'm, uh, from the old school. 67 00:04:33,856 --> 00:04:38,111 My brother John is the oldest, and he tried to keep everybody in line. 68 00:04:39,821 --> 00:04:41,906 And then Louie is the youngest. 69 00:04:43,700 --> 00:04:45,243 It was a different time. 70 00:04:45,743 --> 00:04:48,371 Everybody was trying to be a macho guy, you know. 71 00:04:49,872 --> 00:04:53,793 But Venus was different from day one. From day one. 72 00:04:53,876 --> 00:04:57,880 She didn't play ball like me and my brothers did. You know? 73 00:04:57,964 --> 00:05:01,134 She was dancing on a corner with my ex-girlfriends. 74 00:05:03,386 --> 00:05:06,556 I just wish, you know, you can go back in time 75 00:05:06,639 --> 00:05:09,225 and have a crystal ball and see, you know, 76 00:05:10,184 --> 00:05:11,311 what was gonna happen. 77 00:05:20,361 --> 00:05:23,740 There's a lot of people in here that aren't with us anymore. 78 00:05:24,866 --> 00:05:26,409 -Look-- -Where'd you get that? 79 00:05:27,035 --> 00:05:30,455 -I have this in my stuff from Mommy. -Okay. 80 00:05:31,789 --> 00:05:33,875 -That's Venus. -Look at the hair. 81 00:05:34,751 --> 00:05:37,670 -I remember the hair dryers going. -Yep. 82 00:05:37,754 --> 00:05:38,671 Mm. How-- 83 00:05:38,755 --> 00:05:41,883 You can see the resemblance in a Pellagatti face. 84 00:05:41,966 --> 00:05:43,259 -Look at that. -Right? 85 00:05:43,885 --> 00:05:45,428 Always looking good. 86 00:05:45,928 --> 00:05:49,265 -Always dancing, and she was so popular. -Yeah. 87 00:05:49,349 --> 00:05:51,476 -I remember. -She was not a good… 88 00:05:51,559 --> 00:05:54,020 -Like in grammar school. Yeah. -Great dancer. 89 00:05:54,103 --> 00:05:56,898 She was ahead of her time for sure. 90 00:05:56,981 --> 00:06:00,026 They're the times that I… I… I cherish, you know, 91 00:06:00,109 --> 00:06:01,861 because them other times, 92 00:06:01,944 --> 00:06:05,573 I gotta tell you, like, it just was really difficult because… 93 00:06:05,656 --> 00:06:06,491 Our parents. 94 00:06:06,574 --> 00:06:10,703 That's-- It seemed like when you guys would leave the house for a couple days, 95 00:06:10,787 --> 00:06:13,247 it gave Hoppy like a… a license 96 00:06:13,331 --> 00:06:15,750 to get fucking ripped out of his mind, you know. 97 00:06:15,833 --> 00:06:18,252 -Yeah. -Hoppy was our stepdad. 98 00:06:18,336 --> 00:06:20,213 I didn't put up with no shit from him. 99 00:06:20,296 --> 00:06:23,591 "Fuck you," I used to tell him. Even at a young age. 100 00:06:23,674 --> 00:06:25,760 -I'll never forget the time… -Yeah. 101 00:06:25,843 --> 00:06:27,303 We had bunk beds, 102 00:06:27,387 --> 00:06:30,181 so I was on the top, and John was on the bottom. 103 00:06:30,264 --> 00:06:32,016 -He was like, "Fuck him." -Yeah. 104 00:06:32,100 --> 00:06:34,310 "But he's not my father. Fuck him." 105 00:06:34,811 --> 00:06:39,357 And Mommy just had enough, dude. She came in the room, grabbed John. 106 00:06:39,440 --> 00:06:41,484 John had an Afro back then. Big Afro. 107 00:06:41,567 --> 00:06:43,861 On the radiator, yeah, she was banging my head. 108 00:06:43,945 --> 00:06:47,532 She dragged him out of the bed. I'm like, "John, shut up." 109 00:06:48,658 --> 00:06:50,118 -Yeah. -He wouldn't shut up. 110 00:06:50,201 --> 00:06:53,579 I looked at the vodka bottle one day, I said, "You really love this shit." 111 00:06:53,663 --> 00:06:56,082 I fucking bashed him right over the head with it. 112 00:06:56,165 --> 00:06:58,835 Mommy-- Mommy went nuts, threw me out of the house. 113 00:06:58,918 --> 00:07:02,046 I think that's the reason why Mommy moved to California. 114 00:07:02,130 --> 00:07:05,716 -It was getting physical. -I told him, "I'm gonna kill you." 115 00:07:07,260 --> 00:07:10,346 -So, Venus… -Kept quiet, goes to the corner. 116 00:07:10,430 --> 00:07:13,266 She kept quiet, and she really didn't come out 117 00:07:13,766 --> 00:07:15,810 until my mother moved to California. 118 00:07:15,893 --> 00:07:16,727 Yeah. 119 00:07:16,811 --> 00:07:19,355 -But I think… -We knew she was gay. 120 00:07:19,439 --> 00:07:21,858 -Everybody knew. -We didn't know she was trans. 121 00:07:21,941 --> 00:07:23,067 So we didn't… 122 00:07:23,860 --> 00:07:28,531 -We couldn't comprehend that in 1980. -Eighty. 123 00:07:28,614 --> 00:07:31,909 -Eighty-one. -I went ballistic on her, I did. 124 00:07:31,993 --> 00:07:36,205 I remember I picked her up by her ankles and turned her upside down. 125 00:07:36,289 --> 00:07:39,667 "There's something wrong with you. You're out of your fucking mind." 126 00:07:41,752 --> 00:07:44,547 For me, when I seen, 127 00:07:44,630 --> 00:07:49,385 in Paris Is Burning, my sister explain in her words, 128 00:07:50,136 --> 00:07:53,306 "All I wanna do is be loved, and be married, 129 00:07:53,389 --> 00:07:56,601 and have a house with a white picket fence." 130 00:07:57,101 --> 00:08:00,021 When I heard that, it started making sense. 131 00:08:01,272 --> 00:08:05,401 But when we found out about how she was taken from us, 132 00:08:05,485 --> 00:08:06,986 that brought a lot of anger. 133 00:08:07,069 --> 00:08:08,237 Yeah. 134 00:08:08,321 --> 00:08:11,324 I'll tell you what got it started, to be honest with you, 135 00:08:11,407 --> 00:08:15,870 is when that fucking asshole did that thing, uh… 136 00:08:15,953 --> 00:08:17,955 He did an off-Broadway play, 137 00:08:18,039 --> 00:08:21,709 Solve the Mystery: Murder of Venus Xtravaganza. 138 00:08:21,792 --> 00:08:25,213 So that kind of opened up some wounds, and that's when we said, 139 00:08:25,296 --> 00:08:28,341 "There's gotta be something we can do better than this bullshit." 140 00:08:29,008 --> 00:08:33,095 We always knew what happened, where it happened, when it happened. 141 00:08:33,179 --> 00:08:37,141 -At least we thought. -We thought. But we didn't know who. 142 00:08:38,392 --> 00:08:41,604 Cold cases have been happening now for years. 143 00:08:41,687 --> 00:08:42,813 What if there's DNA? 144 00:08:45,149 --> 00:08:47,026 -Yeah. -If that's possible. 145 00:08:47,109 --> 00:08:48,486 This is long overdue, 146 00:08:48,569 --> 00:08:51,822 but I know the Xtravaganzas are still around. 147 00:08:51,906 --> 00:08:53,157 -You know? -Yeah. 148 00:08:53,241 --> 00:08:56,536 What's the chances you're gonna meet people that knew her over there? 149 00:08:56,619 --> 00:08:59,121 -It's very slim. -Thin. 150 00:08:59,205 --> 00:09:01,123 -Yeah, but you never know. -You never know. 151 00:09:01,207 --> 00:09:02,792 Because of who she was, 152 00:09:03,501 --> 00:09:07,713 I think we'll be able to get people to help us, you know? 153 00:09:07,797 --> 00:09:10,591 -She deserves it. Venus deserves it. -I agree. 154 00:09:10,675 --> 00:09:12,510 -Yeah. -Do what we gotta do. 155 00:09:19,976 --> 00:09:22,812 Well, I always knew I was going to become a girl. 156 00:09:23,312 --> 00:09:27,233 Ever since the age of maybe seven or eight years old, 157 00:09:28,150 --> 00:09:31,821 I always felt like I wanted to be a pretty lady, 158 00:09:32,780 --> 00:09:34,532 and I wanted to do… 159 00:09:36,534 --> 00:09:37,994 fashion shows. 160 00:09:38,077 --> 00:09:40,204 But for those who can't accept me… 161 00:09:42,456 --> 00:09:45,334 I guess it's just because they refuse to see it, 162 00:09:46,335 --> 00:09:48,421 and they don't wanna understand it. 163 00:10:01,517 --> 00:10:02,393 A House? 164 00:10:03,352 --> 00:10:05,479 They're families. You can say that. 165 00:10:05,563 --> 00:10:10,067 They're families for a lot of children who don't have families. 166 00:10:10,151 --> 00:10:13,446 When someone has rejection from their mother and father, 167 00:10:13,529 --> 00:10:17,783 their family, when they get out in the world, they search. 168 00:10:17,867 --> 00:10:19,785 They search for someone to fill that void. 169 00:10:19,869 --> 00:10:21,537 I know this from experience, 170 00:10:21,621 --> 00:10:24,248 because I've had kids come to me 171 00:10:25,124 --> 00:10:29,420 and latch hold of me like I'm their mother. 172 00:10:31,088 --> 00:10:35,635 My mother is Angie Xtravaganza, and my father is David Xtravaganza. 173 00:10:37,094 --> 00:10:39,221 I had just turned 15 years old, 174 00:10:39,305 --> 00:10:43,309 and they all liked me, all the rest of the Xtravaganzas. 175 00:10:43,976 --> 00:10:47,021 And they decided, "If you wanna become an Xtravaganza, 176 00:10:47,104 --> 00:10:49,398 you have to walk a ball first, 177 00:10:49,482 --> 00:10:52,985 and if you snatch a trophy, then you can become the Xtravaganza. 178 00:10:56,405 --> 00:10:58,949 The society, going to a football game, basketball, 179 00:10:59,033 --> 00:11:00,284 that's their entertainment. 180 00:11:00,368 --> 00:11:02,745 You know, a ball is ours. We prepare for a ball. 181 00:11:02,828 --> 00:11:04,747 We may spend more time preparing for a ball 182 00:11:04,830 --> 00:11:07,208 than anybody would spend preparing for anything else. 183 00:11:07,291 --> 00:11:09,293 -Exactly. So true. -The ball is our world. 184 00:11:28,646 --> 00:11:31,899 See how she's turning to the side? Don't look to the side, Chi. 185 00:11:32,483 --> 00:11:35,361 -Your eyes should never go to the side. -You should be… 186 00:11:36,612 --> 00:11:38,823 The trick of everything is your eyes. 187 00:11:39,740 --> 00:11:41,701 Forget about the walk, about everything. 188 00:11:41,784 --> 00:11:43,119 It's your energy, and it's… 189 00:11:46,622 --> 00:11:47,456 All of this. 190 00:11:48,624 --> 00:11:50,501 Juan, bring it! 191 00:12:01,721 --> 00:12:03,597 Give me, give me, give me one! 192 00:12:08,728 --> 00:12:10,521 Attitude. Yes. 193 00:12:11,105 --> 00:12:12,732 Give me tens across the board. 194 00:12:13,816 --> 00:12:15,526 Syd Xtravaganza? 195 00:12:15,609 --> 00:12:19,363 Syd Xtrava… X, what? Xtravaganza! 196 00:12:23,117 --> 00:12:26,787 Steph Xtravaganza, Steph Xtravaganza 197 00:12:26,871 --> 00:12:30,374 Derrick, Derrick, Derrick Xtravaganza 198 00:12:30,458 --> 00:12:34,128 Derrick, Derrick, Derrick Xtravaganza 199 00:12:34,211 --> 00:12:37,631 Derrick, Derrick, yeah! 200 00:12:37,715 --> 00:12:39,133 Yes! 201 00:12:41,385 --> 00:12:43,095 Mother! 202 00:12:43,179 --> 00:12:46,557 Mother! Mother! 203 00:12:46,640 --> 00:12:48,642 Xtravaganza! 204 00:12:49,143 --> 00:12:50,728 Mother! 205 00:12:51,604 --> 00:12:54,231 Okay, y'all was ready for the ball with the last one. 206 00:13:09,038 --> 00:13:13,125 I came into the House of Xtravaganza in 1999. 207 00:13:18,380 --> 00:13:23,177 But I was 15 years old when I first seen Paris Is Burning 208 00:13:23,260 --> 00:13:25,262 at my trans brother's house. 209 00:13:26,931 --> 00:13:28,974 It was a turning point in my life. 210 00:13:31,101 --> 00:13:33,854 Venus's story is our story. 211 00:13:35,105 --> 00:13:37,733 I never got to meet her, but I feel her. 212 00:13:40,820 --> 00:13:44,198 There's been many times that I almost lost my life, 213 00:13:44,281 --> 00:13:46,534 and I'm still here. 214 00:13:47,451 --> 00:13:49,370 I'm just lucky. 215 00:13:52,623 --> 00:13:57,002 I've cried so much, I'm tired of crying. It's time for doing. 216 00:14:17,356 --> 00:14:19,191 I never got to meet Venus. 217 00:14:20,526 --> 00:14:24,405 I was born seven years after she was murdered. 218 00:14:24,488 --> 00:14:26,115 -Seventh floor. -Okay, Jill. 219 00:14:26,198 --> 00:14:30,327 What I know of her is, you know, through my family and through a screen. 220 00:14:32,121 --> 00:14:35,457 She's probably up there saying, "What took you so friggin' long?" 221 00:14:35,541 --> 00:14:36,458 "It's about time." 222 00:14:37,585 --> 00:14:40,754 Hopefully, she's guiding a lot of the stuff that's going on here, 223 00:14:40,838 --> 00:14:43,173 which I believe she really is. 224 00:14:43,257 --> 00:14:47,219 To bring the team together that is moving this forward. 225 00:14:47,303 --> 00:14:49,013 -Jillian. -Hello. 226 00:14:49,680 --> 00:14:52,349 I finally get to meet you in person. 227 00:14:52,433 --> 00:14:53,267 Hi. 228 00:14:54,560 --> 00:14:56,645 -Hi. -It's so wonderful to meet you. 229 00:14:57,187 --> 00:14:59,648 It's so wonderful to meet you too. 230 00:14:59,732 --> 00:15:00,816 Hi, I'm Joe. 231 00:15:00,900 --> 00:15:03,110 -Yes, how are you? -Pleasure's mine. How are you? 232 00:15:03,193 --> 00:15:06,071 -The pleasure likewise. -Nice to finally meet you. 233 00:15:06,780 --> 00:15:08,365 This is an amazing… 234 00:15:08,449 --> 00:15:10,910 Yeah. We have a million questions. 235 00:15:10,993 --> 00:15:12,828 -Yeah? John? -How you doing? 236 00:15:12,912 --> 00:15:14,747 I'm good. Nice to meet you. 237 00:15:14,830 --> 00:15:18,375 Nice to meet you too. It's really, really nice of you to come. 238 00:15:18,459 --> 00:15:21,253 I'm really, really thinking of my sister right now. 239 00:15:21,337 --> 00:15:22,171 And… 240 00:15:23,380 --> 00:15:26,216 …it's a little emotional. 241 00:15:26,926 --> 00:15:29,094 -I can imagine, you know. -Yeah. 242 00:15:29,178 --> 00:15:33,891 There was a perception out there that we didn't care about her, 243 00:15:33,974 --> 00:15:35,893 which was so far from the truth. 244 00:15:36,477 --> 00:15:39,772 Yeah, I heard some stories of the family, you know, 245 00:15:39,855 --> 00:15:44,193 but you never know until you speak to the family in person. 246 00:15:44,276 --> 00:15:45,903 And Louie said it best too. 247 00:15:45,986 --> 00:15:49,573 Louie said, "Listen, that's Venus' other family." So… 248 00:15:49,657 --> 00:15:54,286 We think it's very important that the House is involved 249 00:15:54,370 --> 00:15:55,996 with everything that's going on. 250 00:15:57,331 --> 00:16:00,334 Venus was not the only one murdered in this House. 251 00:16:00,417 --> 00:16:04,964 This is one of the reasons I wanted to do this because it'll open up the door 252 00:16:05,047 --> 00:16:07,925 for other girls to get their cases solved. 253 00:16:08,592 --> 00:16:12,179 To see family members caring about that is very powerful. 254 00:16:13,681 --> 00:16:16,100 -Yeah. -You know, there's a saying, um… 255 00:16:16,600 --> 00:16:18,435 "Sometimes things fall apart 256 00:16:19,853 --> 00:16:21,605 so they can fall together." 257 00:16:22,564 --> 00:16:24,108 And that's what we're trying to do. 258 00:16:25,109 --> 00:16:26,568 Okay. Sit anywhere? 259 00:16:26,652 --> 00:16:27,611 Wherever you want. 260 00:16:28,779 --> 00:16:30,698 Hey. How are you doing? 261 00:16:32,700 --> 00:16:34,994 Gisele, that's our baby brother, Louie. 262 00:16:35,077 --> 00:16:36,453 Hi, baby brother Louie. 263 00:16:36,537 --> 00:16:39,456 Good morning, Gisele. Very… very nice to meet you. 264 00:16:40,040 --> 00:16:43,210 -Thanks for coming in. -Thank you for what you're doing. 265 00:16:43,961 --> 00:16:48,298 We know that you have been trying to reopen the investigation 266 00:16:48,382 --> 00:16:52,636 into your sister's murder and, if possible, get a copy of the case. 267 00:16:52,720 --> 00:16:55,848 But you've been running into roadblocks with the New York Police Department. 268 00:16:55,931 --> 00:16:57,266 Monster roadblocks. 269 00:16:57,349 --> 00:17:03,689 I'm a little bit surprised because NYPD is generally very victim-family friendly. 270 00:17:04,273 --> 00:17:07,443 They're not a customer service agency by any stretch of the imagination, 271 00:17:07,526 --> 00:17:11,488 but when it comes to victims' family members, they're usually great. 272 00:17:11,572 --> 00:17:16,243 We never got anything back of hers ever, ever! 273 00:17:16,326 --> 00:17:19,121 -I-- -The only thing I got back was her body. 274 00:17:19,621 --> 00:17:21,123 Right. So… 275 00:17:21,206 --> 00:17:25,169 -So they still have the file, right? -Absolutely. Yes. 276 00:17:25,836 --> 00:17:27,588 I want to see them documents. 277 00:17:28,213 --> 00:17:32,426 We're hoping to help facilitate that and, if necessary, file litigation 278 00:17:32,509 --> 00:17:35,596 and ask a court to authorize disclosure of the case file for you. 279 00:17:36,597 --> 00:17:39,058 The case file should have the investigative steps 280 00:17:39,141 --> 00:17:43,520 that detectives had taken at the time, if there was any DNA recovered, 281 00:17:43,604 --> 00:17:48,150 if there was any sort of suspects they had that they may have spoken to, 282 00:17:48,650 --> 00:17:52,237 and what they did to wrap up, if they wrapped up the investigation. 283 00:17:52,321 --> 00:17:54,698 Wow. What a… Amazing. 284 00:17:55,199 --> 00:17:57,159 They will give us the file at the end, 285 00:17:57,242 --> 00:17:59,119 and I will be able to walk you through it 286 00:17:59,203 --> 00:18:02,581 and hopefully give you guys the closure that you deserve. 287 00:18:02,664 --> 00:18:06,043 Yeah. That's what we want. That's the bottom line. 288 00:18:06,543 --> 00:18:11,381 I got more answers from this guy in… in two days 289 00:18:11,465 --> 00:18:13,050 than I did in 30 fucking years. 290 00:18:13,133 --> 00:18:15,010 And excuse my language, please. 291 00:18:15,094 --> 00:18:17,805 Oh. There's always one character in the family. 292 00:18:19,598 --> 00:18:20,641 That's all right. 293 00:18:31,276 --> 00:18:32,152 Come on. 294 00:18:33,987 --> 00:18:35,989 This is, uh… this is where it all began for me. 295 00:18:36,073 --> 00:18:39,952 Right on this corner. What's up, buddy? How are you doing? 296 00:18:40,035 --> 00:18:41,370 -All right. -Good. Good. 297 00:18:43,831 --> 00:18:46,708 -Paying attention? Okay. -I'm paying attention. 298 00:18:46,792 --> 00:18:49,545 Watch this. I'm gonna show you how nuts this was. 299 00:18:50,546 --> 00:18:54,091 -Aunt Priscilla was here, 342. -Yeah, all right. Huh. 300 00:18:54,174 --> 00:18:56,718 Three-forty-three and a half was Meemaw. 301 00:18:56,802 --> 00:19:00,055 -The Puerto Rican side. -That's the Puerto Rican side, yes. 302 00:19:00,139 --> 00:19:04,518 And that's where they filmed Paris Is Burning. Right there, inside. 303 00:19:04,601 --> 00:19:08,105 And that's where Venus used to watch you when I used to sleep at night. 304 00:19:09,189 --> 00:19:11,275 Over here, that's where we lived. 305 00:19:12,442 --> 00:19:17,030 Me, Uncle Joe, Uncle Louie, and Uncle Frankie. 306 00:19:17,781 --> 00:19:21,827 Venus was there for a little bit, but then she went across the street to Grandma's. 307 00:19:22,536 --> 00:19:24,288 Right here. All my family. 308 00:19:24,371 --> 00:19:28,709 My aunts, my uncles, my cousins, my friends. 309 00:19:29,209 --> 00:19:31,837 All of us. Come on, I'm gonna show you Grandma's house. 310 00:19:32,880 --> 00:19:33,839 Crazy. 311 00:19:37,885 --> 00:19:41,847 I live here in Jersey City with my grandmother. 312 00:19:41,930 --> 00:19:45,767 She's the closest thing that I have to me in my family. 313 00:19:45,851 --> 00:19:48,562 She has taken care of me all my life, 314 00:19:48,645 --> 00:19:51,481 ever since, you could say, almost childbirth. 315 00:19:52,691 --> 00:19:55,402 And, um, I'm her baby. 316 00:19:56,987 --> 00:19:58,614 She's overprotective of me, 317 00:19:59,239 --> 00:20:01,992 and, uh, she doesn't like me to be around men. 318 00:20:02,492 --> 00:20:04,995 She doesn't like me to have boyfriends, 319 00:20:05,746 --> 00:20:07,915 because she thinks that they're all gonna use me 320 00:20:07,998 --> 00:20:11,919 and take advantage of me and get me in trouble and make me suffer. 321 00:20:21,553 --> 00:20:22,596 Look at that. 322 00:20:26,183 --> 00:20:27,476 She was styling, man. 323 00:20:33,023 --> 00:20:33,982 She looks angry. 324 00:20:34,733 --> 00:20:38,237 Like, "What am I doing here? I'm supposed to be a woman." You know? 325 00:20:41,949 --> 00:20:44,868 And then, how about that? 326 00:20:46,578 --> 00:20:48,664 "Jersey City Public Library." 327 00:20:51,083 --> 00:20:55,003 Um… "November 17, 1988." 328 00:20:56,546 --> 00:21:00,217 She just got this card before she was murdered. 329 00:21:02,427 --> 00:21:04,763 They have her given name on here. 330 00:21:05,514 --> 00:21:06,473 Not "Venus." 331 00:21:12,688 --> 00:21:13,814 She hated that. 332 00:21:15,148 --> 00:21:17,484 Her deadname is also on her tombstone, 333 00:21:18,860 --> 00:21:21,697 which my brothers and I are hopefully changing it. 334 00:21:28,662 --> 00:21:29,538 All right. 335 00:21:35,043 --> 00:21:35,961 Good stuff. 336 00:21:46,305 --> 00:21:48,432 I'm gonna pull over right up here 337 00:21:49,850 --> 00:21:51,435 and shut my truck off. 338 00:21:51,518 --> 00:21:53,937 How long are we gonna be on this video? Do you know? 339 00:21:54,021 --> 00:21:55,230 Not too long. 340 00:21:55,314 --> 00:21:59,443 The reason why I'm calling you is because I got this mail, you know, 341 00:21:59,526 --> 00:22:01,987 from New York State Vital Statistics. 342 00:22:02,070 --> 00:22:03,613 -You know? -Right. 343 00:22:04,489 --> 00:22:07,284 -Ready? You wanna open it? -No, you can open it. 344 00:22:09,494 --> 00:22:10,871 How's the weather there? 345 00:22:10,954 --> 00:22:12,331 -Beautiful today. -Nice. 346 00:22:12,914 --> 00:22:14,583 Yeah. Yeah. 347 00:22:15,375 --> 00:22:17,127 Oh. I think this is it, bro. 348 00:22:18,295 --> 00:22:19,546 This is definitely it. 349 00:22:21,590 --> 00:22:22,424 Check it out. 350 00:22:23,091 --> 00:22:24,676 Let me see this. 351 00:22:24,760 --> 00:22:27,346 Wow. That's what we've been waiting for. 352 00:22:27,429 --> 00:22:29,431 Yeah, I got two of them. Look, brother. 353 00:22:31,558 --> 00:22:34,227 What's it say on the top? "Certificate of…" 354 00:22:34,311 --> 00:22:37,522 "The City of New York. Vital records certificate." 355 00:22:37,606 --> 00:22:38,690 You got glasses. 356 00:22:38,774 --> 00:22:43,362 Uh, "Vital Records, Department of Health, Borough of Manhattan." Wow. 357 00:22:44,363 --> 00:22:45,447 Go ahead. 358 00:22:45,530 --> 00:22:47,282 So, "Name of the deceased…" 359 00:22:48,825 --> 00:22:49,659 "…Pellagatti." 360 00:22:49,743 --> 00:22:52,704 -They spelled the name wrong. -Motherfuckers. 361 00:22:52,788 --> 00:22:54,915 "December 21st, 1988." 362 00:22:55,749 --> 00:22:57,959 I think that's when they pronounced her dead. 363 00:22:58,752 --> 00:23:02,339 Yeah, so the location, "264 West 46th Street." 364 00:23:02,422 --> 00:23:03,673 "Strangulation." 365 00:23:04,174 --> 00:23:06,593 -Yeah. -It's… 366 00:23:06,676 --> 00:23:10,931 You know what? I… I don't want to… It's just fucking miserable. 367 00:23:11,014 --> 00:23:14,601 Does this help if we were talking about trying to get 368 00:23:14,684 --> 00:23:16,478 a name change or anything? 369 00:23:16,561 --> 00:23:18,772 -Does that help? -Absolutely, it would help. 370 00:23:18,855 --> 00:23:21,691 This is a bunch of information that we need. 371 00:23:23,568 --> 00:23:26,613 -The detectives didn't tell us anything. -No. 372 00:23:26,696 --> 00:23:28,156 So it was like this big mystery. 373 00:23:28,240 --> 00:23:31,118 Yeah. "It's under investigation." They didn't care. 374 00:23:32,619 --> 00:23:33,453 Yeah. 375 00:23:39,501 --> 00:23:42,796 This fucking sucks though, looking at that. 376 00:23:43,964 --> 00:23:47,342 Somebody got away with murder, and that just don't sit well with me. 377 00:23:56,268 --> 00:23:58,562 So, uh, we spoke on Zoom. 378 00:23:58,645 --> 00:24:01,690 I wanna make sure that what I got from you is where we're going, 379 00:24:01,773 --> 00:24:03,900 which is you had a sister, Venus, 380 00:24:03,984 --> 00:24:08,530 and she is no longer with us, and she hasn't been since 1988? 381 00:24:08,613 --> 00:24:09,448 Correct. 382 00:24:09,531 --> 00:24:12,909 She was a transgender woman, and she also has a House family. 383 00:24:12,993 --> 00:24:16,580 And so both you and you folks and the House family are on the same page 384 00:24:16,663 --> 00:24:19,583 that you'd like to get a posthumous name change, 385 00:24:19,666 --> 00:24:23,253 like a fancy word for "now that she's no longer with us, get her name changed." 386 00:24:23,336 --> 00:24:26,423 Correct. Because she was taken away from us so early, 387 00:24:26,506 --> 00:24:31,136 us, as her surviving siblings, decided that, 388 00:24:31,219 --> 00:24:33,722 "You know what? We're gonna do something in her honor 389 00:24:33,805 --> 00:24:36,641 and give her what she would have done anyway, 390 00:24:36,725 --> 00:24:38,894 and that's to change her name." 391 00:24:38,977 --> 00:24:39,895 She was Venus. 392 00:24:39,978 --> 00:24:40,979 Yeah. 393 00:24:41,062 --> 00:24:44,816 So once you get a legal name change, you get a certified copy. 394 00:24:44,900 --> 00:24:48,862 And then if there's anything else that has her name on it that you want to change, 395 00:24:48,945 --> 00:24:52,657 it shouldn't be an issue to take that golden ticket copy of an order 396 00:24:52,741 --> 00:24:54,826 and show it to anybody who needs to see it and say, 397 00:24:54,910 --> 00:24:56,536 "Hey, this is actually her name." 398 00:24:56,620 --> 00:24:59,122 "We need to correct whatever it is we need to correct." 399 00:24:59,206 --> 00:25:00,165 That's great. 400 00:25:00,248 --> 00:25:02,250 Part of my concern, although I'm excited, 401 00:25:02,334 --> 00:25:05,712 is who's gonna come out of the woodwork and have a problem with this? 402 00:25:05,795 --> 00:25:09,508 Maybe it goes super smoothly, and then maybe it's a shit show. 403 00:25:09,591 --> 00:25:11,134 But either way, we figure it out. 404 00:25:11,218 --> 00:25:13,345 This wasn't easy for us to do as a family. 405 00:25:13,428 --> 00:25:16,181 -Yes. -I have a business, a corporation. 406 00:25:16,264 --> 00:25:21,436 Is this gonna affect me getting a job because Venus was my sister? 407 00:25:21,520 --> 00:25:23,313 I mean, and those people are out there. 408 00:25:23,396 --> 00:25:24,648 -Yeah. -They're out there. 409 00:25:24,731 --> 00:25:28,527 Understand the gravity, and I understand that that is exactly why we're doing this. 410 00:25:28,610 --> 00:25:33,114 But what you feel about what could potentially happen to your business 411 00:25:33,198 --> 00:25:35,450 is why people stay in the closet. 412 00:25:40,247 --> 00:25:42,249 It's not easy to take on this system, 413 00:25:42,332 --> 00:25:45,585 but just the very first paragraph on the page is… 414 00:25:47,796 --> 00:25:49,506 -Powerful, right? -Yes. 415 00:25:49,589 --> 00:25:51,550 So, "Scope of representation." 416 00:25:52,509 --> 00:25:55,720 "You are seeking a posthumous name change for your sibling, 417 00:25:55,804 --> 00:26:00,559 Venus Pellagatti Xtravaganza, in order to affirm her gender identity." 418 00:26:01,601 --> 00:26:07,148 "You understand that to the knowledge of the attorney responsible at TAA, 419 00:26:07,232 --> 00:26:09,276 this has never been attempted in New Jersey, 420 00:26:09,359 --> 00:26:12,445 and there is no established procedure for the same." 421 00:26:13,446 --> 00:26:16,866 "TAA has undertaken this representation of you 422 00:26:16,950 --> 00:26:18,493 in order to advance the rights 423 00:26:18,577 --> 00:26:21,496 of transgender and non-binary New Jerseyans." 424 00:26:22,497 --> 00:26:24,165 "This is impact litigation 425 00:26:24,249 --> 00:26:27,085 because its reach may extend beyond your family." 426 00:26:29,296 --> 00:26:31,548 It's kind of exciting thinking that, 427 00:26:31,631 --> 00:26:34,718 "Oh my God, I think we're gonna be bringing some awareness 428 00:26:34,801 --> 00:26:36,011 and possibly some change." 429 00:26:37,178 --> 00:26:39,139 It's a green light. It's a green light. 430 00:26:43,435 --> 00:26:44,436 Oh man. 431 00:26:45,478 --> 00:26:47,272 Bringing out the Jersey City in me. 432 00:26:57,324 --> 00:27:00,452 When I learned about O'Shae's murder earlier this week, 433 00:27:00,535 --> 00:27:01,620 I was overwhelmed. 434 00:27:02,412 --> 00:27:06,041 Angry that another one of our brothers had to die. 435 00:27:06,916 --> 00:27:11,755 O'Shae was a core part of the young, thriving LGBTQ community here in New York. 436 00:27:11,838 --> 00:27:13,340 He represented the best of us. 437 00:27:14,049 --> 00:27:18,053 He was creative, upbeat, and brought out the best in those around him 438 00:27:18,136 --> 00:27:21,640 and frequently expressed his love of life through fucking dance. 439 00:27:22,849 --> 00:27:25,352 That was no different on the night he was murdered. 440 00:27:26,728 --> 00:27:31,024 Having to grieve the loss of a community member over and over again. 441 00:27:31,107 --> 00:27:31,983 This shit is tiresome. 442 00:27:33,860 --> 00:27:35,195 Amen. 443 00:27:35,278 --> 00:27:38,031 I wanna recognize everyone for coming out, 444 00:27:38,114 --> 00:27:40,742 coming together to create a safe space 445 00:27:41,242 --> 00:27:43,536 where we attempt to process and heal. 446 00:27:45,246 --> 00:27:46,915 Voguing is not a crime. 447 00:27:46,998 --> 00:27:48,625 Voguing is not a crime. 448 00:27:48,708 --> 00:27:50,752 Voguing is not a crime! 449 00:27:50,835 --> 00:27:52,879 Voguing is not a crime! 450 00:27:52,962 --> 00:27:55,465 Voguing is not a crime! 451 00:27:55,548 --> 00:27:58,176 Voguing is not a crime! 452 00:27:58,259 --> 00:28:00,428 So today, we will vogue in honor of O'Shae. 453 00:28:03,890 --> 00:28:06,142 -Say his name! -O'Shae! 454 00:28:06,226 --> 00:28:08,311 -Say his name! -O'Shae! 455 00:28:08,395 --> 00:28:10,105 -Say his name! -O'Shae! 456 00:28:10,188 --> 00:28:12,232 -Say his name! -O'Shae! 457 00:28:12,315 --> 00:28:14,150 -Say his name! -O'Shae! 458 00:28:14,234 --> 00:28:16,111 -Say his name! -O'Shae! 459 00:28:16,194 --> 00:28:19,823 Voguing is not a crime Voguing is not a crime 460 00:28:19,906 --> 00:28:21,324 Voguing is not a crime 461 00:28:21,408 --> 00:28:23,702 Voguing is not a crime 462 00:28:23,785 --> 00:28:27,247 Voguing is not a crime Voguing is not a crime 463 00:28:27,330 --> 00:28:31,251 Voguing is not a crime Voguing is not a crime 464 00:28:33,586 --> 00:28:37,340 Voguing is not a crime Voguing is not a crime 465 00:28:37,424 --> 00:28:39,384 Voguing is not a crime 466 00:28:56,109 --> 00:28:58,111 I grew up in a world 467 00:28:58,194 --> 00:29:01,197 where I thought that I was the only person like me. 468 00:29:01,281 --> 00:29:03,491 -Good. -How are you? 469 00:29:03,575 --> 00:29:07,036 Venus was confidence personified, 470 00:29:07,120 --> 00:29:09,456 and I'm thankful that she shared her story 471 00:29:09,539 --> 00:29:12,083 because it provided me the tools that I needed 472 00:29:12,167 --> 00:29:14,127 to be able to share mine one day. 473 00:29:14,210 --> 00:29:15,754 Oftentimes you don't get a chance. 474 00:29:15,837 --> 00:29:18,214 You have your heroes in community, 475 00:29:18,298 --> 00:29:21,176 and you don't get a chance to meet their biological family. 476 00:29:21,259 --> 00:29:22,385 She was fierce. 477 00:29:22,469 --> 00:29:25,013 -Yes. She was. -She was. She was before her time. 478 00:29:25,096 --> 00:29:26,014 Yes. Yes. 479 00:29:26,097 --> 00:29:29,100 And we were fortunate enough to live with her for many… 480 00:29:29,184 --> 00:29:31,019 We were her siblings, so… 481 00:29:33,855 --> 00:29:38,318 So this person loved Venus as much as we all did and suffered. 482 00:29:38,401 --> 00:29:40,195 Maybe we can put him at ease. 483 00:29:41,404 --> 00:29:43,031 -Hey. -Hey, I'm Louie. 484 00:29:43,114 --> 00:29:45,950 -José. Nice to meet you. -Hey, José. I'm Joe. 485 00:29:46,034 --> 00:29:47,869 -Nice to meet you. -Nice to meet you. 486 00:29:47,952 --> 00:29:49,537 -How are you? -Good. Thanks. 487 00:29:49,621 --> 00:29:50,622 Sit down. 488 00:29:51,623 --> 00:29:53,500 Thanks for being here with us, José. 489 00:29:53,583 --> 00:29:55,084 Appreciate you calling, man. 490 00:29:55,168 --> 00:29:56,878 We appreciate meeting you. 491 00:29:59,088 --> 00:30:03,468 I've often wondered what I would say to you guys when I met you in person. 492 00:30:05,345 --> 00:30:06,179 Um… 493 00:30:09,974 --> 00:30:11,935 Venus was, um… 494 00:30:12,811 --> 00:30:16,189 She was my House sister and my niece. 495 00:30:18,191 --> 00:30:20,527 She was beautiful. She was a free spirit. 496 00:30:21,319 --> 00:30:24,030 She was funny. She was feisty too. 497 00:30:29,118 --> 00:30:30,829 She was comfortable with who she was. 498 00:30:32,330 --> 00:30:37,585 And families don't realize the damage that they do. 499 00:30:40,672 --> 00:30:43,925 The House of Xtravaganza was composed… 500 00:30:47,428 --> 00:30:51,224 of people who were scarred because of their family's neglect. 501 00:30:54,143 --> 00:30:55,353 Venus was one of those. 502 00:30:59,899 --> 00:31:04,362 I have found peace in my life. I have made peace with a lot of things. 503 00:31:05,613 --> 00:31:07,949 Thirty years ago, I wouldn't be so sure 504 00:31:08,032 --> 00:31:10,618 that this would go as civil as it's going. 505 00:31:10,702 --> 00:31:11,995 And I'll be honest. 506 00:31:12,078 --> 00:31:16,416 Because I held a lot of resentment 507 00:31:17,250 --> 00:31:20,628 just from talking to Venus 508 00:31:20,712 --> 00:31:24,090 and the pain that she felt. 509 00:31:28,261 --> 00:31:31,848 She… she had bad things to say about her family? 510 00:31:32,348 --> 00:31:37,896 -Not bad things, per se. -Because I find that hard to believe. 511 00:31:38,479 --> 00:31:39,564 -Really? -Yeah. 512 00:31:39,647 --> 00:31:40,648 How so? 513 00:31:40,732 --> 00:31:44,235 Because, you know, we come from a broken family. 514 00:31:44,319 --> 00:31:45,904 Mother and Father split up. 515 00:31:46,821 --> 00:31:48,114 Um… 516 00:31:48,197 --> 00:31:50,450 -Venus lived with my grandmother. -She did. 517 00:31:50,533 --> 00:31:52,785 My grandmother was like her mom. 518 00:31:53,286 --> 00:31:57,832 She didn't feel that love from the rest of her family. 519 00:31:59,042 --> 00:32:03,254 -Her brothers or her family per se? -He's saying everybody. 520 00:32:03,338 --> 00:32:04,422 Oh. 521 00:32:04,923 --> 00:32:10,553 Yeah, and that's probably the reason why she went and explored a new family 522 00:32:10,637 --> 00:32:13,222 with the Xtravaganzas. Right? 523 00:32:13,306 --> 00:32:14,265 Right. 524 00:32:14,766 --> 00:32:18,978 I could only say, like, I don't blame Venus 525 00:32:19,062 --> 00:32:21,481 because where was she getting her love? 526 00:32:21,564 --> 00:32:26,778 Where was she getting her recognition and her prize and her flowers, you know? 527 00:32:28,071 --> 00:32:30,448 But I also have to say, like, 528 00:32:30,531 --> 00:32:36,704 that I will stand here and say, like, "I love my sister." 529 00:32:37,246 --> 00:32:40,333 -You know? -It wasn't that you guys didn't love her. 530 00:32:40,416 --> 00:32:43,878 I'm sure she came and bitched and moaned because I gave her hell. 531 00:32:43,962 --> 00:32:47,423 Part of it may have been true, but that she felt rejected… 532 00:32:47,924 --> 00:32:50,176 -That's understood. -Yeah. 533 00:32:50,259 --> 00:32:53,054 But I knew Venus before she was Venus, 534 00:32:53,137 --> 00:32:55,515 you know, as her little baby brother. 535 00:32:55,598 --> 00:33:00,228 I have that deep, you know, bond of a sibling. 536 00:33:01,479 --> 00:33:02,480 Okay? 537 00:33:02,563 --> 00:33:03,982 That was… 538 00:33:05,608 --> 00:33:06,693 That was real. 539 00:33:07,819 --> 00:33:12,699 And sure, at the time, maybe things came out where it was confusing. 540 00:33:12,782 --> 00:33:16,452 You know, how can I understand something I know nothing about? 541 00:33:17,203 --> 00:33:22,583 But I understand her pain because how much she loved us and her family 542 00:33:22,667 --> 00:33:24,335 and how she must have felt. 543 00:33:24,419 --> 00:33:26,295 And that breaks my heart too. 544 00:33:26,796 --> 00:33:29,841 Because who did this to my sister 545 00:33:30,341 --> 00:33:31,551 stole her from you 546 00:33:32,593 --> 00:33:34,137 and stole her from us. 547 00:33:35,179 --> 00:33:37,807 And I… I am truly sorry for your pain. 548 00:33:39,559 --> 00:33:40,810 But I know one thing. 549 00:33:40,893 --> 00:33:44,939 I will stand with my brothers and say, "We loved our sister." 550 00:33:45,440 --> 00:33:50,570 Maybe we didn't know how to really show it the way she needed it. 551 00:33:50,653 --> 00:33:52,071 I'll live with that. 552 00:33:52,155 --> 00:33:56,534 But as I stand here today, I'm gonna say how much I loved her 553 00:33:57,035 --> 00:33:59,037 and mean it from the bottom of my heart. 554 00:34:00,329 --> 00:34:03,541 And I believe you. You know why? Because you're here. 555 00:34:05,043 --> 00:34:07,462 -It means a lot. -And in life, we evolve. 556 00:34:07,545 --> 00:34:09,255 -Right or wrong? -Yeah, we do. 557 00:34:09,338 --> 00:34:12,341 -Absolutely. -Evolution. We all have to. 558 00:34:25,980 --> 00:34:29,108 So this used to be her neighborhood. 559 00:34:29,609 --> 00:34:30,860 -Yeah. -Yeah. 560 00:34:32,028 --> 00:34:34,572 To be here is very personal to me. 561 00:34:34,655 --> 00:34:38,993 Diving into who Venus is and what she went through. 562 00:34:40,828 --> 00:34:42,288 Here it is, 343 and a half. 563 00:34:42,371 --> 00:34:44,832 -Oh Jesus. -Are you serious? And a half. 564 00:34:44,916 --> 00:34:46,584 -And a half. -And a half. 565 00:34:46,667 --> 00:34:48,836 -Point-five. -Oh, wow. 566 00:34:51,047 --> 00:34:54,509 -So this used to be… -So this is the house where she lived. 567 00:34:55,093 --> 00:34:56,886 -Oh wow. -Was nurtured. 568 00:35:02,016 --> 00:35:05,728 It's wild to be here 34 years after she's murdered. 569 00:35:05,812 --> 00:35:08,981 And so much has changed, but at the same time, 570 00:35:09,065 --> 00:35:10,817 so much has not changed. 571 00:35:10,900 --> 00:35:15,113 To be Puerto Rican, Italian, and trans, 572 00:35:15,196 --> 00:35:16,489 what it meant. 573 00:35:16,572 --> 00:35:19,659 What her home meant as a sanctuary, right? 574 00:35:19,742 --> 00:35:23,496 What her bedroom meant as a space that she could envision 575 00:35:23,579 --> 00:35:26,624 that one day someone like you could be possible. 576 00:35:27,125 --> 00:35:30,795 Yeah. How important this is. 577 00:35:30,878 --> 00:35:33,631 -Yeah, I love this. -This is so important. 578 00:35:34,215 --> 00:35:36,509 -We know this is important. -Right. 579 00:35:36,592 --> 00:35:41,514 But for it to be recognized by the other communities… 580 00:35:41,597 --> 00:35:42,765 Absolutely. 581 00:35:44,058 --> 00:35:45,768 How can we landmark this? 582 00:35:46,435 --> 00:35:48,646 We need to make those conversations happen. 583 00:35:48,729 --> 00:35:49,689 Yes. 584 00:35:50,606 --> 00:35:52,525 Oh, look at all the Xs. 585 00:35:52,608 --> 00:35:55,945 -Okay. -Xtravaganza! 586 00:35:56,028 --> 00:35:56,988 Okay. 587 00:35:59,949 --> 00:36:01,784 "What's the matter, Pedro?" 588 00:36:01,868 --> 00:36:04,579 -"You going through it?" -"Are you going through it?" 589 00:36:05,079 --> 00:36:07,290 What is wrong with you, Pedro? Are you going through it? 590 00:36:07,373 --> 00:36:10,751 You're going through some kind of psychological change in your life? 591 00:36:11,586 --> 00:36:14,755 -She went back to being a man. -You went back to being a man? 592 00:36:14,839 --> 00:36:17,133 Touch this skin, darling. 593 00:36:17,216 --> 00:36:18,593 Touch this skin, honey. 594 00:36:18,676 --> 00:36:20,678 Touch all of this skin. 595 00:36:20,761 --> 00:36:23,639 Okay? You just can't take it. 596 00:36:36,277 --> 00:36:41,574 I am looking for a bag that I placed here many years ago. 597 00:36:44,327 --> 00:36:47,371 You know, I had my spikes in it. I had baseball gloves in it. 598 00:36:50,041 --> 00:36:52,043 I had shit from California, 599 00:36:52,543 --> 00:36:57,131 where I played baseball, and I had photos of my dad 600 00:36:57,215 --> 00:37:00,009 and the gift I had for Venus 601 00:37:01,177 --> 00:37:02,428 for Christmas. 602 00:37:04,180 --> 00:37:07,975 The first women item that I ever got for her. 603 00:37:11,020 --> 00:37:13,064 It was a Halston bottle for women. 604 00:37:14,565 --> 00:37:15,816 It was a perfume spray. 605 00:37:18,194 --> 00:37:19,195 Halston. 606 00:37:19,278 --> 00:37:23,366 I don't know if they still make it, but, you know, we had no money. 607 00:37:23,449 --> 00:37:28,412 But I had a few bucks then. So she would have liked it. 608 00:37:30,248 --> 00:37:33,000 I had it wrapped up, put it under the tree, and then… 609 00:37:35,294 --> 00:37:38,297 the unfortunate thing happened. 610 00:37:40,049 --> 00:37:41,550 We had no Christmas that year. 611 00:37:52,061 --> 00:37:54,313 I would always talk to her and tell her, 612 00:37:54,397 --> 00:37:56,357 "Please, be careful out there." 613 00:37:56,440 --> 00:38:00,903 "It's crazy. You're in New York." You know, cocaine wars. 614 00:38:00,987 --> 00:38:03,447 And it was… it was very scary. 615 00:38:04,240 --> 00:38:06,325 Seventeen hundred and thirty-four people 616 00:38:06,409 --> 00:38:08,369 have been killed in New York this year. 617 00:38:08,452 --> 00:38:11,664 New York City had its highest homicide rate ever in 1980, 618 00:38:12,248 --> 00:38:13,666 and that has renewed calls… 619 00:38:13,749 --> 00:38:15,501 Since crack has been around 620 00:38:15,584 --> 00:38:17,878 and has turned the streets into shooting galleries, 621 00:38:17,962 --> 00:38:20,881 crime, including murder and other violent crimes, 622 00:38:20,965 --> 00:38:22,800 has just skyrocketed. 623 00:38:23,301 --> 00:38:26,804 We're scared to ride the trains in the day. We don't ride them at night. 624 00:38:34,478 --> 00:38:37,857 I was with a guy, and he touched me down there. 625 00:38:37,940 --> 00:38:41,152 He felt it, and he seen it, and he totally flipped out. 626 00:38:41,777 --> 00:38:45,072 He said, "You fucking faggot. You're a freak." 627 00:38:45,156 --> 00:38:47,908 "You're a victim of AIDS, and you're trying to give me AIDS." 628 00:38:47,992 --> 00:38:50,870 "What are you, crazy? You're a homo. I should kill you." 629 00:38:50,953 --> 00:38:52,747 You know, stuff like that. 630 00:38:53,247 --> 00:38:58,544 And, like, I was really terrified, so I just jumped out the window. 631 00:38:59,045 --> 00:39:01,589 I grabbed my bag and just jumped out the window. 632 00:39:02,089 --> 00:39:04,717 She was like my right hand, as far as I'm concerned. 633 00:39:04,800 --> 00:39:07,219 I miss her. Every time I go anywhere, I miss her. 634 00:39:07,303 --> 00:39:11,474 That was my main… the main daughter of my House, in other words. 635 00:39:15,019 --> 00:39:17,313 I used to tell her, "You take too many chances." 636 00:39:17,396 --> 00:39:20,358 "You're too wild in the streets. Something's gonna happen to you." 637 00:39:20,441 --> 00:39:21,567 But that was Venus. 638 00:39:22,109 --> 00:39:25,071 She always took a chance. She always went into a stranger's car. 639 00:39:25,154 --> 00:39:29,075 She always did what she wanted to get what she wanted. 640 00:39:31,660 --> 00:39:34,413 The DTs came to me with a picture of her murdered, 641 00:39:34,497 --> 00:39:39,126 and I was the one that had to give all this information down to her family. 642 00:39:45,174 --> 00:39:47,051 I remember my mom calling. 643 00:39:48,260 --> 00:39:51,847 She said, "Get to your grandmother's. Something terrible happened." And… 644 00:39:53,682 --> 00:39:55,726 my father had a station wagon at that time. 645 00:39:55,810 --> 00:40:00,481 We just went… really quiet. 646 00:40:02,691 --> 00:40:04,068 No words were said, 647 00:40:04,151 --> 00:40:09,615 you know, until we got to where we were at the medical examiner's office, 648 00:40:09,698 --> 00:40:11,909 and so we talked. 649 00:40:13,702 --> 00:40:15,246 Me, Joe, and my dad. 650 00:40:16,831 --> 00:40:18,582 And he said, "Go get your brother." 651 00:40:19,792 --> 00:40:20,626 "All right." 652 00:40:21,669 --> 00:40:23,963 I went with the examiner or whatever. 653 00:40:27,007 --> 00:40:31,637 I said, "Pull out the hand," because Venus had a mark on her hand. 654 00:40:32,346 --> 00:40:33,681 She had a hawk. 655 00:40:34,473 --> 00:40:35,724 Did you ever see a hawk? 656 00:40:38,227 --> 00:40:40,896 It was some medicine from when she was a baby. 657 00:40:40,980 --> 00:40:43,065 Meningitis. It spilled on her. 658 00:40:43,149 --> 00:40:45,818 Put a little burn, but it healed like a hawk. 659 00:40:48,154 --> 00:40:50,906 And that's when I said, "Pull out the hand." 660 00:40:52,450 --> 00:40:53,742 "Let me see." 661 00:40:53,826 --> 00:40:55,202 And there it was. 662 00:40:56,287 --> 00:40:57,496 I knew that was her. 663 00:40:57,580 --> 00:41:00,583 And it was… It's something you don't wanna remember. 664 00:41:00,666 --> 00:41:03,377 You don't wanna see your sister decomposed like I did. 665 00:41:06,630 --> 00:41:07,506 Yeah. 666 00:41:08,466 --> 00:41:09,383 Terrible. 667 00:41:15,431 --> 00:41:18,893 What I'm looking for, I did not find, 668 00:41:20,603 --> 00:41:21,896 and that sucks. 669 00:41:51,342 --> 00:41:53,761 I was just thinking, when I was younger, 670 00:41:54,803 --> 00:41:59,016 I always felt like Venus' presence was, like, protecting me. 671 00:42:00,059 --> 00:42:02,603 My mom, I told you, would take us to the car 672 00:42:02,686 --> 00:42:05,356 when they'd argue, and we'd have to sleep in the car. 673 00:42:05,439 --> 00:42:08,317 And Venus, even at that age, 674 00:42:08,400 --> 00:42:11,695 was protecting me and holding me. 675 00:42:12,947 --> 00:42:15,115 I can remember that like it was yesterday. 676 00:42:23,415 --> 00:42:25,417 -How are you? -Very well. 677 00:42:29,797 --> 00:42:31,006 How do you feel? 678 00:42:31,090 --> 00:42:33,759 I'm all right. I just wanna see what's going on. 679 00:42:33,842 --> 00:42:36,971 We'll see what the deal is once and for all. 680 00:42:37,054 --> 00:42:40,224 My mind is, like, moving 100 miles an hour. 681 00:42:43,978 --> 00:42:44,937 Ready? 682 00:42:46,564 --> 00:42:49,984 That coffee's horrible. I'm letting you know right away. Horrible. 683 00:42:55,072 --> 00:42:59,952 It's ironic that the meeting fell today because today's the 34th anniversary. 684 00:43:00,035 --> 00:43:01,370 -Right? -That's right. 685 00:43:02,788 --> 00:43:06,083 This has been a little bit of an odyssey from our perspective. 686 00:43:06,166 --> 00:43:09,628 We didn't get a physical copy of the entire file for you. 687 00:43:10,212 --> 00:43:12,798 Uh, what we were able to get, which we're gonna give you today, 688 00:43:12,881 --> 00:43:16,927 is a very high-level summary of the investigation, 689 00:43:17,511 --> 00:43:20,222 but some of the details that we learned from the file 690 00:43:20,306 --> 00:43:22,182 are not gonna be easy to hear. 691 00:43:24,768 --> 00:43:27,771 So Venus's body was found at the Fulton Hotel. 692 00:43:27,855 --> 00:43:29,607 Uh, she was under a mattress. 693 00:43:29,690 --> 00:43:33,736 Uh, there was a plaid scarf tied around her neck tightly. 694 00:43:33,819 --> 00:43:37,448 She clearly had ligature marks, uh, on her wrists, 695 00:43:37,531 --> 00:43:41,827 so that confirms that she was bound before she was murdered. 696 00:43:41,910 --> 00:43:47,082 Her body was discovered by a housekeeper, uh, but the police interviewed her. 697 00:43:47,166 --> 00:43:51,086 The police interviewed a number of other hotel employees, 698 00:43:51,170 --> 00:43:52,671 but the bottom line is, 699 00:43:52,755 --> 00:43:56,258 as of the… the time of the murder, 700 00:43:56,342 --> 00:43:58,093 there were no live suspects, 701 00:43:58,177 --> 00:44:01,680 and so the trail could have gone cold there. 702 00:44:01,764 --> 00:44:03,557 So in February 1990, 703 00:44:03,641 --> 00:44:07,853 the police were able to identify someone by the name Robinson. 704 00:44:08,354 --> 00:44:10,689 And the way this name came to them, 705 00:44:10,773 --> 00:44:14,193 he was incarcerated in Nassau on an unrelated rape case. 706 00:44:14,276 --> 00:44:16,195 This guy Robinson 707 00:44:16,278 --> 00:44:20,282 called the detective who arrested him in Nassau County 708 00:44:20,366 --> 00:44:22,534 and confessed to the detective 709 00:44:22,618 --> 00:44:26,455 about murdering a prostitute in a Manhattan hotel. 710 00:44:26,538 --> 00:44:28,624 He-- The DD-5 from that one 711 00:44:28,707 --> 00:44:31,543 does not say the words, "I strangled her." 712 00:44:32,127 --> 00:44:34,672 It literally just says, "I bound her," 713 00:44:34,755 --> 00:44:36,382 and then says, 714 00:44:36,465 --> 00:44:39,843 "Once I believed that, that she was dead, um, 715 00:44:39,927 --> 00:44:43,013 I put a mattress over her to hide her body." 716 00:44:44,139 --> 00:44:48,268 And then, apparently, within a day or two of that confession happening, 717 00:44:48,352 --> 00:44:49,520 he hangs himself. 718 00:44:52,439 --> 00:44:55,734 This is what gets me. This is what gets me. 719 00:44:56,318 --> 00:44:57,653 You're in jail on rape. 720 00:44:57,736 --> 00:45:00,447 Why in the world do you wanna confess to a murder 721 00:45:00,531 --> 00:45:02,074 if you're in jail on rape? 722 00:45:02,157 --> 00:45:05,119 -John, people have consciences. -Oh, you think so? 723 00:45:05,202 --> 00:45:07,454 -Yeah, I think so. -You think so? 724 00:45:07,538 --> 00:45:09,206 I just can't get over a fact 725 00:45:09,289 --> 00:45:11,709 somebody's in jail, and you're too fucking naive, 726 00:45:11,792 --> 00:45:15,129 the both of youse, to think somebody's in jail on rape-- 727 00:45:15,212 --> 00:45:18,298 John, you don't think this ever happens? It happens. 728 00:45:19,133 --> 00:45:21,093 -You think people wanna say-- -They commit… 729 00:45:21,176 --> 00:45:24,722 Yeah, they kill themselves, but they don't admit to killing people. 730 00:45:25,431 --> 00:45:26,724 I mean, obviously, 731 00:45:26,807 --> 00:45:29,810 he said something that only the murderer would know. 732 00:45:30,310 --> 00:45:32,521 -Where did this guy live? -We don't have any details. 733 00:45:32,604 --> 00:45:34,815 You don't have any of that information? 734 00:45:34,898 --> 00:45:37,609 I'm telling you what's in the police file. 735 00:45:37,693 --> 00:45:41,488 I don't know what's true or not, but I very much agree with you 736 00:45:41,572 --> 00:45:43,782 that it's really unusual 737 00:45:43,866 --> 00:45:47,494 for a guy that is in prison for a rape 738 00:45:47,578 --> 00:45:49,037 to confess to a murder. 739 00:45:49,621 --> 00:45:51,874 Maybe he knew he was gonna take his own life. 740 00:45:51,957 --> 00:45:53,083 Well, maybe, yeah. 741 00:45:53,167 --> 00:45:55,919 Is there anything in the file 742 00:45:56,003 --> 00:45:58,797 saying that this physical evidence 743 00:45:58,881 --> 00:46:01,216 may be pointing to a suspect? 744 00:46:01,925 --> 00:46:06,054 So Lieutenant Russo did say that, to give you guys closure, 745 00:46:06,138 --> 00:46:10,934 NYPD would reopen the case and see if there was corroborating evidence. 746 00:46:11,018 --> 00:46:12,853 Like you said, if there was DNA, 747 00:46:12,936 --> 00:46:15,397 they would reach out to the medical examiner's office 748 00:46:15,481 --> 00:46:18,525 and see if they also had DNA or any other evidence. 749 00:46:18,609 --> 00:46:21,904 You should do what you feel is necessary, 750 00:46:23,071 --> 00:46:24,782 but in my humble view, 751 00:46:24,865 --> 00:46:26,909 that's just gonna tell you what you already know, 752 00:46:26,992 --> 00:46:29,912 which is that this guy argued with her, 753 00:46:29,995 --> 00:46:32,998 and it escalated, and he strangled her. 754 00:46:33,081 --> 00:46:34,875 And I didn't know about the… 755 00:46:36,835 --> 00:46:38,670 having her hands tied. I didn't… 756 00:46:45,969 --> 00:46:47,054 Oh man. 757 00:46:49,181 --> 00:46:50,057 Damn. 758 00:46:52,893 --> 00:46:56,438 He's gotta be a fucking jerk-off because she was tiny anyway. 759 00:46:56,522 --> 00:46:58,524 So… a piece of shit. 760 00:46:59,107 --> 00:47:00,818 -A coward. -Yeah, a coward. 761 00:47:00,901 --> 00:47:02,569 Absolutely. I said that. 762 00:47:05,572 --> 00:47:07,950 Part of me is mad at Venus. 763 00:47:08,033 --> 00:47:10,244 I'll tell you what. She was cracking. 764 00:47:10,953 --> 00:47:12,204 She smoked crack. 765 00:47:13,747 --> 00:47:15,499 -Yeah. -She liked to party. 766 00:47:16,792 --> 00:47:19,294 She was still a human being. It doesn't matter. 767 00:47:20,879 --> 00:47:23,924 Regardless of what she did, she was still a human being. 768 00:47:24,007 --> 00:47:25,467 Nobody deserves that. 769 00:47:25,551 --> 00:47:28,220 Everyone has issues. Nobody's perfect. 770 00:47:28,303 --> 00:47:30,264 I know that better than anyone. 771 00:47:33,058 --> 00:47:36,562 I wanna see the file. I wanna see that file. 772 00:47:36,645 --> 00:47:37,938 -This is… -I know. I know. 773 00:47:38,021 --> 00:47:40,566 John, I mean… What else do you wanna see? 774 00:47:40,649 --> 00:47:43,485 -I want to see it though. -I'm okay. 775 00:47:43,569 --> 00:47:46,572 Youse do what you wanna do. Just do what youse wanna do. 776 00:47:46,655 --> 00:47:48,407 -Agreed. -Too many inconsistencies. 777 00:47:48,490 --> 00:47:50,784 They got the guy's name. They know who he was. 778 00:47:50,868 --> 00:47:51,869 -He did it. -Oh my God. 779 00:47:51,952 --> 00:47:55,247 What else are we gonna-- What is the investigation gonna show? 780 00:47:55,330 --> 00:47:57,916 -Can it bring Venus back? Huh. -Mm-mm. 781 00:47:58,000 --> 00:48:00,210 I told youse that before. She ain't coming back. 782 00:48:00,294 --> 00:48:02,462 It's not for nothing. This is very painful for me. 783 00:48:02,546 --> 00:48:05,257 -I understand. All right. -I can't sit through this stuff. 784 00:48:05,340 --> 00:48:07,050 -Okay? -We got the information, John. 785 00:48:07,134 --> 00:48:08,385 We know who did it. 786 00:48:08,886 --> 00:48:10,679 But I understand your point, 787 00:48:10,762 --> 00:48:12,723 but that's what's gonna eat you away. 788 00:48:18,604 --> 00:48:21,523 You know what we could do is just remember Venus right now. 789 00:48:21,607 --> 00:48:23,942 -Look at this beautiful sunset. -Yeah. 790 00:48:29,114 --> 00:48:31,158 Yeah, that's a beautiful sun. 791 00:48:31,241 --> 00:48:33,201 -Holy cow. -Jersey City. 792 00:48:33,285 --> 00:48:34,119 Yeah. 793 00:48:36,788 --> 00:48:37,623 Wow. Beautiful. 794 00:48:37,706 --> 00:48:39,416 Let me see that copy one more time. 795 00:48:49,676 --> 00:48:51,595 -Yeah. I'm good, bro. -Yeah, same here. 796 00:48:51,678 --> 00:48:52,679 I'm good. 797 00:49:22,459 --> 00:49:24,127 Losing my sister made me… 798 00:49:25,087 --> 00:49:28,382 It weakened me. You want the truth? It weakened me. 799 00:49:30,634 --> 00:49:33,136 You have your regrets. "What did I do wrong?" 800 00:49:35,639 --> 00:49:38,517 I was more worried about my image than her. 801 00:49:42,479 --> 00:49:44,982 I'm gonna go meet a friend of my sister's. 802 00:49:46,400 --> 00:49:47,484 I wanna ask her, 803 00:49:47,567 --> 00:49:51,822 "Hey, listen, tell me the stories now that I didn't know." 804 00:49:51,905 --> 00:49:53,615 "Maybe that would, uh… 805 00:49:55,075 --> 00:49:58,412 help me understand my sister better." 806 00:50:05,335 --> 00:50:09,047 Venus had all brothers, so if she had a sister, it would be you. 807 00:50:09,131 --> 00:50:11,383 So she would confide in you, 808 00:50:11,466 --> 00:50:13,760 and she would tell you things that we don't know. 809 00:50:13,844 --> 00:50:16,596 So I'm… I'm… I'm looking to find out 810 00:50:18,098 --> 00:50:18,974 what… 811 00:50:20,684 --> 00:50:23,770 what it was like with her, hanging out with her. 812 00:50:23,854 --> 00:50:25,480 Venus loved her brothers, 813 00:50:26,273 --> 00:50:31,611 but she felt safe in a different way around me, okay? 814 00:50:31,695 --> 00:50:34,573 She had a room in my apartment. 815 00:50:34,656 --> 00:50:37,200 She made it her room, okay? 816 00:50:37,284 --> 00:50:38,618 And that was the room, 817 00:50:38,702 --> 00:50:41,538 that was her serenity, when she wanted to get away. 818 00:50:42,581 --> 00:50:45,459 She never used a key, always went through the fire escape, 819 00:50:46,126 --> 00:50:47,919 but she was comfortable, see? 820 00:50:48,003 --> 00:50:48,837 And, you know… 821 00:50:48,920 --> 00:50:50,797 That's crazy. Do you see what I'm saying? 822 00:50:50,881 --> 00:50:53,258 It's what I'm saying, but the thing was 823 00:50:53,341 --> 00:50:54,926 I adored that crazy girl. 824 00:50:55,010 --> 00:50:56,428 -Okay. -So it was okay. 825 00:50:56,511 --> 00:51:00,015 Maybe at her family's, they would have gotten on her case, 826 00:51:00,098 --> 00:51:03,143 or she may have felt like they would have gotten on her case. 827 00:51:03,226 --> 00:51:04,978 Well, that's the difference though. 828 00:51:05,562 --> 00:51:08,648 But Venus loved her brothers, the family and everything, 829 00:51:08,732 --> 00:51:11,610 and she made it clear that she loved you, John. 830 00:51:11,693 --> 00:51:12,986 She really did. 831 00:51:13,070 --> 00:51:14,905 I did a lot of shit to her, 832 00:51:15,655 --> 00:51:18,158 not to toughen her up, but, you know, I… 833 00:51:18,241 --> 00:51:20,869 And I did a lot of shit to fuck her up too. 834 00:51:22,037 --> 00:51:26,458 Mikey was a baby. I told her, "You can watch him, and I'll pay you." 835 00:51:27,084 --> 00:51:28,710 But I said to her, 836 00:51:28,794 --> 00:51:32,839 "If you take the kid out, do not dress like a woman." 837 00:51:32,923 --> 00:51:35,175 I did say that to her, so… 838 00:51:36,093 --> 00:51:41,181 And I kind of feel fucked up about that now because that's who she was. 839 00:51:41,932 --> 00:51:45,143 But out of respect, she would wear sweatpants, a sweatshirt, 840 00:51:46,019 --> 00:51:49,189 put her hair in a ponytail, and have Mikey in a carriage. 841 00:51:50,148 --> 00:51:51,858 You know, so… 842 00:51:53,693 --> 00:51:58,323 You don't say that. I should have never said that, but I did. 843 00:52:01,118 --> 00:52:04,871 -You have pictures of my sister in here? -I do. 844 00:52:08,708 --> 00:52:10,418 This is a really nice picture. 845 00:52:10,502 --> 00:52:11,920 -It is. -Let me see. 846 00:52:13,213 --> 00:52:14,256 So cute. 847 00:52:19,136 --> 00:52:21,304 -This is at a ball? -Yes. 848 00:52:23,140 --> 00:52:28,603 I remember she had gotten a taste of the first show of her in drag, 849 00:52:28,687 --> 00:52:31,940 and then we just started talking about names. 850 00:52:32,440 --> 00:52:33,942 So we come up with a few. 851 00:52:34,025 --> 00:52:37,404 One said Tiny, the other one said Little Bit, Peanut, 852 00:52:37,487 --> 00:52:39,823 and I was like, "Just stupid names," you know? 853 00:52:40,323 --> 00:52:43,493 And I kept remembering that song just crossed my mind, "Venus." 854 00:52:44,077 --> 00:52:47,956 It was, I think, Frankie Avalon. And I said, "What about Venus?" 855 00:52:48,039 --> 00:52:51,376 And her eyes lit up. She goes, "Oh, that sounds so nice." 856 00:52:52,169 --> 00:52:56,131 "And I wanna be different." So she said, "That's gonna be my name." 857 00:52:57,007 --> 00:52:58,717 And that's how she got it. 858 00:52:59,384 --> 00:53:03,555 And it fit her so well because it was different, you see? 859 00:53:03,638 --> 00:53:04,472 Yeah. 860 00:53:04,556 --> 00:53:05,724 And that's… 861 00:53:06,641 --> 00:53:07,642 that's her name. 862 00:53:16,985 --> 00:53:20,071 Hey, Venus 863 00:53:21,198 --> 00:53:24,326 Oh, Venus… 864 00:53:30,373 --> 00:53:31,708 I think this is the front. 865 00:53:32,375 --> 00:53:35,170 Gotta get this big ol' head in this tiny hole, darling. 866 00:53:36,213 --> 00:53:37,130 Ooh. 867 00:53:37,964 --> 00:53:40,592 She's being born. 868 00:53:43,887 --> 00:53:45,931 Mirror, mirror on the wall… 869 00:53:47,098 --> 00:53:49,142 Who's the fem queen at the ball? 870 00:53:51,353 --> 00:53:52,812 Yeah, I feel like 871 00:53:52,896 --> 00:53:56,650 ballroom has really given me the confidence to step out. 872 00:53:56,733 --> 00:54:01,780 When I'm in the ballroom, the chin is up, the head is high, the eyes are straight. 873 00:54:01,863 --> 00:54:06,076 I take a lot of that with me in and out of ballroom for protection. 874 00:54:06,159 --> 00:54:10,330 It has taught me how to be confident just walking the streets of New York City. 875 00:54:10,413 --> 00:54:11,998 Everywhere I go, just making sure 876 00:54:12,082 --> 00:54:15,710 that I'm really, literally putting my best foot forward 877 00:54:15,794 --> 00:54:18,255 when I pump. 878 00:54:21,383 --> 00:54:24,219 -Hello. -Syd! How are you? 879 00:54:24,302 --> 00:54:25,512 I'm good. 880 00:54:28,598 --> 00:54:31,851 Oh my God! Where's Amara? 881 00:54:33,561 --> 00:54:34,813 There. Yeah. 882 00:54:43,154 --> 00:54:44,531 Hello! 883 00:54:44,614 --> 00:54:47,367 It's been so long time to see you! 884 00:54:47,450 --> 00:54:49,703 I know! 885 00:55:26,114 --> 00:55:29,159 So I received a call from Detective Decker 886 00:55:29,242 --> 00:55:31,494 of NYPD's Cold Case Unit. 887 00:55:31,578 --> 00:55:35,040 -They started looking into the case again. -That's great. 888 00:55:35,123 --> 00:55:39,210 We had talked about the possibility that the evidence might have been lost, 889 00:55:39,294 --> 00:55:42,756 either at the NYPD warehouse fire or during Hurricane Sandy. 890 00:55:42,839 --> 00:55:45,050 He was actually able to locate three items, 891 00:55:45,633 --> 00:55:48,303 including the ligature that was used. 892 00:55:48,386 --> 00:55:51,431 And the suspect, when they did the autopsy, 893 00:55:51,514 --> 00:55:53,475 they took a DNA sample from him. 894 00:55:53,558 --> 00:55:55,060 It's called a stain card. 895 00:55:55,143 --> 00:55:58,563 And so NYPD was also able to take a piece of that stain card. 896 00:55:58,646 --> 00:56:02,317 And so they're going to test both of those to see if there's a match. 897 00:56:02,817 --> 00:56:05,528 Well, there's no disputing that. 898 00:56:05,612 --> 00:56:08,406 -If it matches, we… we got our answers. -Yes. Mm-hmm. 899 00:56:08,490 --> 00:56:09,574 Listen… 900 00:56:10,700 --> 00:56:13,995 -Ms. Deanna, thank you so much. -Of course. 901 00:56:17,874 --> 00:56:19,000 Unbelievable. 902 00:56:20,168 --> 00:56:21,628 That's unbelievable. 903 00:56:28,385 --> 00:56:33,306 Where did this idea come from to have this house be a landmark? 904 00:56:33,390 --> 00:56:36,810 Venus Xtravaganza was a trans woman 905 00:56:36,893 --> 00:56:38,478 who was in the House of Xtravaganza. 906 00:56:38,561 --> 00:56:42,524 She joined the House at the early stages 907 00:56:42,607 --> 00:56:44,526 when the House first started. 908 00:56:44,609 --> 00:56:47,779 So she has a huge history in ballroom as well. 909 00:56:48,363 --> 00:56:51,032 And Venus was Puerto Rican and Italian, 910 00:56:51,116 --> 00:56:53,993 and she lived in New Jersey, in Jersey City. 911 00:56:54,077 --> 00:56:56,996 This is where Venus Xtravaganza was raised. 912 00:56:57,080 --> 00:56:59,082 She basically was a trans woman 913 00:56:59,165 --> 00:57:03,253 who inspired and influenced a whole culture and a generation. 914 00:57:03,336 --> 00:57:07,132 You know, she inspired me, she inspired so many girls, 915 00:57:07,215 --> 00:57:10,051 and she was a trendsetter and a pioneer in our community. 916 00:57:10,135 --> 00:57:13,430 And so showing the world this public acknowledgement, 917 00:57:13,513 --> 00:57:17,559 it would be a form of justice for the House of Xtravaganza, 918 00:57:17,642 --> 00:57:19,269 for the family, and for Venus, 919 00:57:19,352 --> 00:57:22,147 and for the trans community, and for the gay community. 920 00:57:22,230 --> 00:57:23,690 For all of us, really. 921 00:57:24,190 --> 00:57:27,861 And if it's the one thing we can tell our community right now is, 922 00:57:27,944 --> 00:57:29,028 "You deserve a home." 923 00:57:29,904 --> 00:57:33,533 All right. Thank you very much for the very passionate testimony. 924 00:57:33,616 --> 00:57:36,953 You've taken us through this. I think it meets all these criteria. 925 00:57:37,036 --> 00:57:41,749 So I'm prepared to make a motion to recommend this to the planning board. 926 00:57:44,711 --> 00:57:45,962 Congratulations. 927 00:57:58,516 --> 00:58:01,644 -How are you? -How are you? 928 00:58:01,728 --> 00:58:04,439 -Good. Lovely to see you too. -Good to see you. 929 00:58:04,939 --> 00:58:06,608 -Wanna see what it looks like? -Yeah. 930 00:58:06,691 --> 00:58:08,193 Yeah, check this out. All right. 931 00:58:08,276 --> 00:58:10,987 "Name is hereby corrected to Venus Pellagatti Xtravaganza, 932 00:58:11,070 --> 00:58:13,865 the name legally used by decedent during her lifetime, 933 00:58:13,948 --> 00:58:15,366 effective immediately." 934 00:58:15,450 --> 00:58:18,495 "Ordered on this 29th day of August 2023." 935 00:58:18,578 --> 00:58:19,787 My birthday! 936 00:58:19,871 --> 00:58:21,164 -Really? -Yes. 937 00:58:21,247 --> 00:58:22,832 -Awesome. Yes. -Isn't this awesome? 938 00:58:22,916 --> 00:58:24,042 This has never been done. 939 00:58:24,125 --> 00:58:26,503 As far as I know, this has never been done before. 940 00:58:26,586 --> 00:58:29,172 -So this is groundbreaking. -Little bit. 941 00:58:29,255 --> 00:58:31,508 -No, a lot of bit. -A lot of bit. 942 00:58:31,591 --> 00:58:34,469 So this court order, even though it was entered in Hudson County, 943 00:58:34,552 --> 00:58:37,472 is good anywhere in the United States. 944 00:58:37,555 --> 00:58:39,015 -Okay. -Anywhere in New Jersey. 945 00:58:39,098 --> 00:58:42,143 Any place that has to follow a court order, 946 00:58:42,227 --> 00:58:44,145 which is pretty much most places, 947 00:58:44,229 --> 00:58:46,397 pretty much everywhere, has to follow that. 948 00:58:47,232 --> 00:58:51,236 You know, let's, uh… let's get a new tombstone for her. 949 00:58:51,736 --> 00:58:56,449 And then the other thing I would do is just get her death certificate changed. 950 00:58:56,533 --> 00:58:58,076 We owe that to her. 951 00:58:58,159 --> 00:59:02,372 And I think she wants me to do that because this all happened on my birthday. 952 00:59:02,455 --> 00:59:03,748 On your birthday. 953 00:59:03,831 --> 00:59:06,125 So I think she's trying to tell me something. 954 00:59:06,209 --> 00:59:07,794 -That's incredible. -You know? 955 00:59:07,877 --> 00:59:10,171 The way that we can make it 956 00:59:10,255 --> 00:59:12,757 so that it's easier for other people to use 957 00:59:12,840 --> 00:59:15,343 or to do or to set a precedent, legally, 958 00:59:15,426 --> 00:59:18,346 is to ask the court to issue a written decision 959 00:59:18,429 --> 00:59:20,640 and then try to get that decision published. 960 00:59:20,723 --> 00:59:23,768 We're okay with that. I'm gonna frame it. 961 00:59:23,851 --> 00:59:27,939 It's gonna go downstairs right next to the Baltimore Oriole, 962 00:59:28,022 --> 00:59:31,192 New York Knicks, all that good stuff. 963 00:59:31,276 --> 00:59:34,571 Take the Knicks down. I don't know, but that's your house. You do what… 964 00:59:34,654 --> 00:59:38,157 -Indianapolis Colts. -A lot of colors down there. 965 00:59:38,241 --> 00:59:41,869 -It'll be very colorful. LGBT T-shirt. -There's your LGBT T-shirt. 966 00:59:42,870 --> 00:59:44,581 Oh my God. 967 00:59:44,664 --> 00:59:45,915 Come on, give me some. 968 00:59:45,999 --> 00:59:47,709 You have it all. You got it all. 969 00:59:47,792 --> 00:59:49,919 -This is good, man. This is good stuff. -Yeah. 970 00:59:57,302 --> 00:59:59,387 I've come from being a young, 971 01:00:00,680 --> 01:00:03,224 loud little flaming queen from the Village 972 01:00:03,891 --> 01:00:07,645 to a mature young lady, competing in balls. 973 01:00:10,398 --> 01:00:12,191 I want to start a career 974 01:00:12,275 --> 01:00:13,985 in professional modeling. 975 01:00:14,819 --> 01:00:16,696 I'm just hoping for the best. 976 01:00:16,779 --> 01:00:19,490 But if things don't ever work out, you never know… 977 01:00:21,200 --> 01:00:23,328 Maybe one day I'll meet a rich millionaire, 978 01:00:23,411 --> 01:00:25,788 and he'll take me all around the world. 979 01:00:33,546 --> 01:00:36,257 So would you prefer to debut in another country, 980 01:00:36,341 --> 01:00:38,259 or would you wanna debut in New York City? 981 01:00:38,343 --> 01:00:41,721 They really want me to save my high fashion virginity 982 01:00:41,804 --> 01:00:42,889 for Europe. 983 01:00:42,972 --> 01:00:44,932 -Okay. -For Paris, so… 984 01:00:45,016 --> 01:00:48,227 They're casting for Paris the end of this week, probably Thursday, 985 01:00:48,311 --> 01:00:52,065 so I really could get called any day now to just get on the flight. 986 01:00:53,274 --> 01:00:57,820 -Yeah. -Pack my bags and work internationally. 987 01:00:57,904 --> 01:00:59,864 That would be so beautiful. 988 01:01:00,448 --> 01:01:05,536 Part of getting ready for Europe was getting a new ID and… 989 01:01:06,204 --> 01:01:08,414 My ID still says my deadname and everything. 990 01:01:08,498 --> 01:01:12,502 So now I'm still walking the Earth, legally, as… 991 01:01:14,587 --> 01:01:16,589 You know? It's gonna be that. 992 01:01:16,673 --> 01:01:20,259 No! The name that shall not be mentioned. 993 01:01:20,343 --> 01:01:22,220 -Oh my God. -I pay it dust. 994 01:01:22,303 --> 01:01:26,641 To be honest, I feel like some of the girls get triggered by it. 995 01:01:26,724 --> 01:01:30,395 My parents still call me by my deadname, so it gets very like… 996 01:01:31,729 --> 01:01:33,564 Oh, how's that? 997 01:01:34,273 --> 01:01:36,442 It's really, really like… 998 01:01:37,694 --> 01:01:39,946 It's funny, to be honest, because I give woman 999 01:01:40,029 --> 01:01:42,490 when I come through the door, so it's almost like, 1000 01:01:42,573 --> 01:01:46,953 "Okay, when I get bags, are you still gonna be calling me…?" You know? 1001 01:01:47,036 --> 01:01:50,081 You know, I think I must have been pretty crazy, 1002 01:01:50,164 --> 01:01:54,210 because I don't understand what happened with me, but I was like, 1003 01:01:54,293 --> 01:01:56,879 "No one's gonna call me that!" 1004 01:01:56,963 --> 01:01:58,923 And, yeah, they never did. 1005 01:02:00,299 --> 01:02:04,804 So John called me and told me that Venus' name is officially 1006 01:02:04,887 --> 01:02:08,683 Venus Pellagatti Xtravaganza, so she's gonna have both her names. 1007 01:02:10,518 --> 01:02:13,730 -It's legal. -Wait, so they changed the tombstone too? 1008 01:02:13,813 --> 01:02:18,317 -They're gonna change it. -That's a major, major, major step. 1009 01:02:18,401 --> 01:02:19,277 Yeah. 1010 01:02:19,861 --> 01:02:25,742 I think it's beautiful that her family wants to give her that respect. 1011 01:02:25,825 --> 01:02:28,995 -Absolutely. -All together, as a family. 1012 01:02:36,252 --> 01:02:38,963 I did talk to Detective Decker with NYPD. 1013 01:02:39,046 --> 01:02:39,881 Really? 1014 01:02:40,631 --> 01:02:46,012 So he says, "A bit of bad news." I said, "Okay, what's going on?" 1015 01:02:46,095 --> 01:02:51,601 He said the first DNA they sent out came back 1016 01:02:52,685 --> 01:02:56,939 and ruled out that this kid, Robinson… 1017 01:02:57,023 --> 01:03:02,653 It just don't match up with what they had under her fingernails. 1018 01:03:02,737 --> 01:03:06,115 -So it remains an open case. -That's fucked up. 1019 01:03:06,199 --> 01:03:08,659 He's not gonna close the case. It's reopened. 1020 01:03:10,745 --> 01:03:14,165 -But I never, never… -That's… 1021 01:03:14,248 --> 01:03:18,294 When we left Jim's office, you know, I wanna put this to bed too. 1022 01:03:18,377 --> 01:03:21,339 -I made a point. -You did. I'm glad you did. 1023 01:03:21,422 --> 01:03:23,674 "Fuck this," I said, "I don't care." 1024 01:03:23,758 --> 01:03:28,471 I was 98% sure that this was the guy who did it. 1025 01:03:28,554 --> 01:03:32,600 -Of course. Yeah. -I can't believe this. This is like… 1026 01:03:32,683 --> 01:03:34,644 Yeah. I believe it. 1027 01:03:34,727 --> 01:03:38,064 -They have DNA, right? -They have some DNA, yeah. 1028 01:03:38,147 --> 01:03:40,107 So isn't there a database? 1029 01:03:40,191 --> 01:03:41,567 That's what I asked. 1030 01:03:41,651 --> 01:03:44,529 "Is there something you can run through a computer?" 1031 01:03:44,612 --> 01:03:45,446 Exactly. 1032 01:03:45,530 --> 01:03:48,783 But then again, that's a shot too, 'cause… 1033 01:03:48,866 --> 01:03:52,245 -Are we allowed to do that? -I don't know. I gotta ask. 1034 01:03:52,328 --> 01:03:54,121 -This is fucked up. -It's bad. 1035 01:03:54,205 --> 01:03:56,249 -It's bad. -There's a killer still out there. 1036 01:03:56,332 --> 01:03:59,168 We gotta hope that whoever's in that computer 1037 01:03:59,252 --> 01:04:01,629 has a criminal offense or did something. 1038 01:04:01,712 --> 01:04:05,466 No, not necessarily. The people, they do their family history. 1039 01:04:05,550 --> 01:04:07,885 -Yeah. Ancestry… -Ancestry.com. 1040 01:04:07,969 --> 01:04:10,179 -They put their DNA in there. -Yeah. 1041 01:04:10,263 --> 01:04:12,890 -You might find somebody like that. -You never know. 1042 01:04:12,974 --> 01:04:16,477 -Let them do their job. -Yeah. Yeah. 1043 01:04:16,978 --> 01:04:20,606 We need to talk to Jim again and see what our next moves are. 1044 01:04:20,690 --> 01:04:23,526 That's it. But this is like a never-ending… 1045 01:04:24,986 --> 01:04:25,862 Never-ending. 1046 01:04:25,945 --> 01:04:28,948 It's like years and years and years, same shit. 1047 01:04:38,666 --> 01:04:43,212 It's gotta be really hard for you, thinking that you knew what happened, 1048 01:04:43,296 --> 01:04:46,257 and now it's possible that it happened a different way. 1049 01:04:46,883 --> 01:04:49,343 But for today's purposes, I want you to understand 1050 01:04:49,427 --> 01:04:53,556 that although the tests excluded the suspect, 1051 01:04:54,515 --> 01:04:57,435 as a contributor to the DNA samples that were tested, 1052 01:04:58,144 --> 01:05:02,940 it didn't do anything more than that. It's not definitive either way. 1053 01:05:03,024 --> 01:05:04,817 So no one can tell you, 1054 01:05:04,901 --> 01:05:08,946 based on the DNA that was taken, 1055 01:05:09,030 --> 01:05:13,159 how it was stored, whether it was degraded. 1056 01:05:13,242 --> 01:05:15,620 There are a lot of questions that we have. 1057 01:05:15,703 --> 01:05:21,834 Uh, for example, there's certainly mixtures of DNA on some of the samples. 1058 01:05:21,918 --> 01:05:26,213 I think you guys understand that they took some samples from Venus' fingernails. 1059 01:05:26,297 --> 01:05:28,215 There were some from the scarf 1060 01:05:28,299 --> 01:05:30,968 that they believe may have been used to strangle her, 1061 01:05:31,052 --> 01:05:32,803 but they don't know that for sure. 1062 01:05:32,887 --> 01:05:38,851 So that doesn't mean that the person that you know as the suspect is innocent. 1063 01:05:38,935 --> 01:05:41,687 Certainly doesn't mean that he's guilty. 1064 01:05:41,771 --> 01:05:47,151 It means that there is a healthy degree of skepticism from the new team 1065 01:05:47,652 --> 01:05:50,279 to make sure they look back at the old team's work. 1066 01:05:51,906 --> 01:05:52,949 You know, I just… 1067 01:05:53,032 --> 01:05:56,702 Again, I believe we've made so many big strides here, 1068 01:05:56,786 --> 01:05:59,163 and I'm so grateful for everybody. 1069 01:05:59,246 --> 01:06:01,624 It's just… I'm already feeling 1070 01:06:01,707 --> 01:06:07,088 like I may never know the… you know, the truth of who did this. 1071 01:06:08,130 --> 01:06:10,132 I don't think that's gonna happen. 1072 01:06:11,384 --> 01:06:14,470 It hurts, but this is very important, 1073 01:06:14,553 --> 01:06:18,599 that we're raising our voices for someone like Venus, 1074 01:06:19,308 --> 01:06:23,270 and that alone fulfills me 1075 01:06:23,354 --> 01:06:25,898 and makes me feel much better about… 1076 01:06:28,275 --> 01:06:29,568 life itself, 1077 01:06:29,652 --> 01:06:33,781 because there are people that love us and support us, 1078 01:06:33,864 --> 01:06:35,992 brothers that love their sisters. 1079 01:06:36,075 --> 01:06:39,996 To see them come together like this is really inspiring for me. 1080 01:06:40,079 --> 01:06:45,167 What you all have done to bring light to this issue 1081 01:06:45,918 --> 01:06:48,587 and to help the entire community 1082 01:06:48,671 --> 01:06:51,298 is so much more 1083 01:06:51,382 --> 01:06:56,387 of a meaningful advancement of her legacy than finding out 1084 01:06:56,470 --> 01:07:00,766 with a significant degree of certainty who was responsible for this. 1085 01:07:00,850 --> 01:07:04,478 And I just hope that the pain of not knowing who did this to her 1086 01:07:04,562 --> 01:07:09,525 to a mathematical certainty is over… overshadowed 1087 01:07:09,608 --> 01:07:13,738 by all the good that has come from bringing people together 1088 01:07:13,821 --> 01:07:17,324 to remember her and how important she was. 1089 01:07:18,868 --> 01:07:20,119 Thank you, Jim. 1090 01:07:29,128 --> 01:07:33,382 It doesn't mean that it's hopeless, but it's very difficult. 1091 01:07:39,597 --> 01:07:45,561 "City Ordinance 23-070, Historic Preservation Review Procedures, 1092 01:07:45,644 --> 01:07:50,900 Venus Pellagatti Xtravaganza House, 343.5 8th Street." 1093 01:07:50,983 --> 01:07:53,027 This is a public hearing on this ordinance. 1094 01:07:53,110 --> 01:07:55,780 Any member of the public wishing to be heard, 1095 01:07:56,363 --> 01:07:59,200 please come up to the podium and state your name for the record. 1096 01:08:00,659 --> 01:08:03,496 Hello. My name is Amara Velasquez Xtravaganza. 1097 01:08:03,579 --> 01:08:05,164 How are you doing, council members? 1098 01:08:06,582 --> 01:08:09,668 "I am here today to pay homage to my sister, 1099 01:08:09,752 --> 01:08:12,588 Venus Pellagatti Xtravaganza." 1100 01:08:12,671 --> 01:08:15,591 "Venus and I are both Latina trans women, 1101 01:08:15,674 --> 01:08:17,676 both Puerto Rican and Italian, 1102 01:08:17,760 --> 01:08:20,346 both authentic in our self-expression, 1103 01:08:20,429 --> 01:08:22,473 both a part of the House of Xtravaganza." 1104 01:08:22,973 --> 01:08:26,852 "Venus's house being preserved as a state and national landmark 1105 01:08:26,936 --> 01:08:30,064 would truly show the rest of America how to celebrate queer people." 1106 01:08:30,147 --> 01:08:32,983 "It is so important for trans people 1107 01:08:33,067 --> 01:08:35,361 to see themselves reflected in society, 1108 01:08:36,070 --> 01:08:40,199 to be included and to receive support from the systems that govern us." 1109 01:08:41,117 --> 01:08:43,285 "We need queer historical spaces 1110 01:08:43,369 --> 01:08:46,163 so we can reflect on all that we have fought for 1111 01:08:46,247 --> 01:08:48,290 and all that we are still fighting for." 1112 01:08:50,793 --> 01:08:54,296 You know, what happened to my sister, it's tragic. 1113 01:08:55,214 --> 01:08:58,259 What you guys are doing, if you vote yes, 1114 01:08:58,342 --> 01:09:01,470 is, um… is a step in the right direction. 1115 01:09:02,471 --> 01:09:05,432 This is history in the making. 1116 01:09:05,516 --> 01:09:08,477 It is something to be a beacon of light 1117 01:09:08,561 --> 01:09:13,816 to those who need us, collectively, to lift up their voices. 1118 01:09:15,276 --> 01:09:18,320 This initiative is absolutely important. 1119 01:09:18,404 --> 01:09:20,990 This is not just about Latinx trans women, 1120 01:09:21,073 --> 01:09:22,825 as Venus was, or Black trans women. 1121 01:09:22,908 --> 01:09:25,035 It's not just about LGBTQ people. 1122 01:09:25,119 --> 01:09:26,787 It's also about you. 1123 01:09:26,871 --> 01:09:28,956 Because none of us can be free, 1124 01:09:29,039 --> 01:09:32,126 none of us, unless we all are free. Thank you. 1125 01:09:36,589 --> 01:09:39,884 I just want to say, I didn't know about this story 1126 01:09:39,967 --> 01:09:42,595 until the legislation was put forth. 1127 01:09:42,678 --> 01:09:46,640 But I just want to commend all of the speakers that come up 1128 01:09:46,724 --> 01:09:48,642 because this… I mean, this stuff looks easy. 1129 01:09:48,726 --> 01:09:50,186 It's not easy. 1130 01:09:53,522 --> 01:09:56,901 It's not easy. You open yourself up to all types of attacks, 1131 01:09:56,984 --> 01:09:58,569 verbally, physically. 1132 01:09:58,652 --> 01:10:01,197 You know, this stuff is not easy, um… 1133 01:10:04,742 --> 01:10:06,911 I just wanna commend you and just… 1134 01:10:06,994 --> 01:10:10,623 If we're going to embrace diversity, let's embrace diversity. 1135 01:10:10,706 --> 01:10:15,044 Let's not be selective in what we want to embrace. 1136 01:10:18,422 --> 01:10:20,007 Motion to close the public hearing 1137 01:10:20,090 --> 01:10:24,553 on City Ordinance 23-070, Councilperson Prinz-Arey. 1138 01:10:24,637 --> 01:10:25,679 Aye. 1139 01:10:25,763 --> 01:10:27,890 -Councilperson Boggiano. -Aye. 1140 01:10:27,973 --> 01:10:30,100 -Councilperson Saleh. -Aye. 1141 01:10:30,184 --> 01:10:32,228 -Councilperson Solomon. -Aye. 1142 01:10:32,311 --> 01:10:34,438 -Councilperson Gilmore. -Aye. 1143 01:10:34,521 --> 01:10:36,982 -Council President DeGise. -Aye. 1144 01:10:39,276 --> 01:10:41,987 Motion carries, six-zero. 1145 01:10:42,071 --> 01:10:45,282 The council members Ridley, Rivera, and Watterman… 1146 01:10:46,242 --> 01:10:47,660 Congratulations. 1147 01:11:10,766 --> 01:11:12,268 Let's go party. 1148 01:11:12,351 --> 01:11:17,231 Party. I wanna see what's happening, man. I'm looking forward to this. 1149 01:11:17,815 --> 01:11:20,734 If Venus was here, she'd run away with the biggest trophy. 1150 01:11:21,277 --> 01:11:24,530 We're off to the ball. Maybe I'll meet Cinderella tonight. 1151 01:11:25,239 --> 01:11:28,033 Yeah? What are you gonna do with glass slippers? 1152 01:11:28,117 --> 01:11:29,618 Let's see which one fits. 1153 01:11:34,373 --> 01:11:36,667 Which way are you going now? I think we gotta go this way. 1154 01:11:36,750 --> 01:11:38,377 Yeah, let's go with the lights. 1155 01:11:38,877 --> 01:11:42,798 Touch this skin, honey Touch all of this skin, okay? 1156 01:11:49,805 --> 01:11:50,764 Okay? 1157 01:11:57,271 --> 01:11:58,188 Okay? 1158 01:11:58,856 --> 01:12:00,441 You just can't take it 1159 01:12:06,905 --> 01:12:08,032 Okay? 1160 01:12:10,534 --> 01:12:12,036 You look so beautiful. 1161 01:12:13,662 --> 01:12:16,582 That's really impressive. That's pretty… 1162 01:12:16,665 --> 01:12:18,500 That's… Wow. 1163 01:12:19,168 --> 01:12:20,586 Okay? 1164 01:12:22,880 --> 01:12:23,964 Okay? 1165 01:12:26,842 --> 01:12:27,676 Okay? 1166 01:12:29,511 --> 01:12:31,680 Overgrown orangutan 1167 01:12:40,189 --> 01:12:41,023 Okay? 1168 01:12:53,577 --> 01:12:56,538 Touch this skin, honey Touch all of this skin 1169 01:13:09,051 --> 01:13:10,886 You just can't take it 1170 01:13:21,105 --> 01:13:22,606 I still grieve. 1171 01:13:24,400 --> 01:13:26,068 That's never gonna change. 1172 01:13:27,194 --> 01:13:28,445 But I, uh… 1173 01:13:29,571 --> 01:13:32,199 I'm understanding a lot more now 1174 01:13:32,282 --> 01:13:35,244 than I was when all this process started 1175 01:13:35,327 --> 01:13:38,539 because I did get to meet really a lot of good people. 1176 01:13:39,498 --> 01:13:40,749 Good, good people. 1177 01:13:41,959 --> 01:13:44,711 And they made me understand a lot better. 1178 01:13:49,299 --> 01:13:51,718 Venus was somebody special. 1179 01:13:52,928 --> 01:13:56,473 Very proud of her and what she did, her accomplishments. 1180 01:13:59,476 --> 01:14:01,770 I wish we could have done more for her. 1181 01:14:04,523 --> 01:14:05,774 You always feel like, 1182 01:14:05,858 --> 01:14:09,695 "Tomorrow we'll catch up. Tomorrow we'll do this." 1183 01:14:10,404 --> 01:14:13,323 But when tomorrow never comes for a person, 1184 01:14:13,407 --> 01:14:16,618 that's the most difficult thing to deal with. 1185 01:14:20,080 --> 01:14:21,582 I wish she was here. 1186 01:14:27,921 --> 01:14:30,257 The first thing I would say is, "I'm sorry." 1187 01:14:39,475 --> 01:14:42,436 -Hey. So happy to see you. -Long time no see. 1188 01:14:42,519 --> 01:14:44,396 -How are you doing? -I'm good. 1189 01:14:44,480 --> 01:14:46,690 -Sit down. -All right. You got it. 1190 01:14:46,773 --> 01:14:47,816 Go for it. 1191 01:14:48,317 --> 01:14:49,151 Am I good here? 1192 01:14:49,735 --> 01:14:53,280 You are. Let me turn you a little. Move up some so that you're not… 1193 01:14:53,363 --> 01:14:54,907 Up? Okay. 1194 01:14:54,990 --> 01:14:56,742 -So you're comfortable. -Yeah. 1195 01:14:58,035 --> 01:14:59,703 Here we go, Venus. 1196 01:15:23,644 --> 01:15:25,229 I was telling somebody, 1197 01:15:25,312 --> 01:15:28,899 22 years this November, I'll be clean and sober. 1198 01:15:30,150 --> 01:15:34,112 I was in San Francisco, and I just did not wanna exist, man. 1199 01:15:34,196 --> 01:15:36,448 And I didn't know what I was gonna do. 1200 01:15:36,532 --> 01:15:39,952 I just closed my eyes, and I just seen Venus talking to me. 1201 01:15:40,035 --> 01:15:41,078 I really felt it. 1202 01:15:43,330 --> 01:15:45,290 You know, I felt her saying to me, 1203 01:15:45,374 --> 01:15:48,794 "You cannot give up. You have to get help." 1204 01:15:48,877 --> 01:15:50,796 You know, "You're needed here." 1205 01:15:50,879 --> 01:15:52,548 And I was. 1206 01:15:54,174 --> 01:15:55,342 You know? 1207 01:16:23,287 --> 01:16:24,997 Wow, it looks beautiful, Jas. 1208 01:16:43,640 --> 01:16:46,226 Everything is just all falling into place. 1209 01:16:46,310 --> 01:16:48,854 Like I told them, she's finally getting her roses. 1210 01:16:48,937 --> 01:16:51,815 -Yes. I love it. -Her flowers, you know? 1211 01:16:51,898 --> 01:16:53,525 The house is landmarked. 1212 01:16:53,609 --> 01:16:55,611 -It's a beautiful thing. -Yeah. 1213 01:16:56,361 --> 01:16:59,281 We tried to keep everything as original as possible as we worked. 1214 01:16:59,364 --> 01:17:00,824 Some stuff wasn't possible. 1215 01:17:00,907 --> 01:17:02,868 Holy shit, man. 1216 01:17:02,951 --> 01:17:04,911 I found something while I was fixing up. 1217 01:17:05,912 --> 01:17:06,747 Really? 1218 01:17:06,830 --> 01:17:08,749 -Sure. -That's a brooch. 1219 01:17:08,832 --> 01:17:11,251 -That belonged to Venus. -Can I see? 1220 01:17:11,335 --> 01:17:13,712 Do you remember that? Venus used to wear that. 1221 01:17:13,795 --> 01:17:16,173 -Wait a minute. -We found it inside a wall. 1222 01:17:16,256 --> 01:17:18,342 -It was your grandmother's. -Never heard of it. 1223 01:17:18,425 --> 01:17:20,427 Venus broke it and put it on something, 1224 01:17:20,510 --> 01:17:22,554 and your mother had a fit, your grandmother had a fit. 1225 01:17:22,638 --> 01:17:24,848 -I remember this. -Let me see it. 1226 01:17:24,931 --> 01:17:27,017 -Yeah. Wow. -Crazy. 1227 01:17:27,100 --> 01:17:31,104 -I wanna look at it. -Wow. That's forever ago. 1228 01:17:31,188 --> 01:17:32,689 -Beautiful. -Let me get a picture. 1229 01:17:32,773 --> 01:17:34,983 -Take it with you. Absolutely. -Thank you. 1230 01:17:35,067 --> 01:17:36,860 Really, thank you so much. 1231 01:17:36,943 --> 01:17:38,028 It does. 1232 01:17:39,529 --> 01:17:42,574 You're an Xtravaganza, and you're the mother of the House, 1233 01:17:42,658 --> 01:17:45,911 and I want you to have that. 1234 01:17:47,287 --> 01:17:48,705 Well, thank you. 1235 01:17:51,708 --> 01:17:53,210 I'll hold it very dear. 1236 01:17:54,670 --> 01:17:55,504 We're family, 1237 01:17:55,587 --> 01:17:58,757 and, uh, we'll always be here for you guys. 1238 01:17:58,840 --> 01:18:01,134 Just hit us up, you know. 1239 01:18:09,393 --> 01:18:12,562 These two families can exist together 1240 01:18:12,646 --> 01:18:16,149 to create an even greater human being. 1241 01:18:16,733 --> 01:18:19,945 Venus Pellagatti Xtravaganza's home 1242 01:18:20,445 --> 01:18:23,782 is now our home. 1243 01:18:24,866 --> 01:18:26,660 Gisele, come on, baby. Get in here. 1244 01:18:32,165 --> 01:18:34,459 Thank you so much. Appreciate it. 1245 01:18:35,627 --> 01:18:38,547 Yes. We all get in there. 1246 01:18:38,630 --> 01:18:41,717 -Come on. -Jillian, come on. Helen, get in here. 1247 01:18:41,800 --> 01:18:43,677 -Come one. -Come on, Jill. 1248 01:18:43,760 --> 01:18:44,720 Venus. 1249 01:18:45,595 --> 01:18:49,599 -Yeah, X! -Okay, listen. I guess I'm a member now. 1250 01:18:51,101 --> 01:18:53,270 -Venus. -Venus. 1251 01:18:55,564 --> 01:18:58,483 -Awesome. Yes. Yeah! -She's got it 1252 01:18:58,567 --> 01:18:59,651 She's got it 1253 01:18:59,735 --> 01:19:00,944 Baby, she's got it 1254 01:19:01,027 --> 01:19:02,279 Baby, she's got it 1255 01:19:02,362 --> 01:19:03,739 I'm your Venus 1256 01:19:03,822 --> 01:19:07,033 I'm your fire, your desire 1257 01:19:07,117 --> 01:19:08,702 Yeah! 1258 01:19:09,661 --> 01:19:11,246 I'm your Venus 1259 01:19:11,329 --> 01:19:14,750 I'm your fire, your desire… 1260 01:19:41,985 --> 01:19:46,239 Jersey, let me hear you in the name of Venus Xtravaganza. 1261 01:19:47,574 --> 01:19:51,369 Happy Trans Day of Visibility, today and every day. 1262 01:19:51,453 --> 01:19:54,372 Trans lives matter, baby. 1263 01:19:58,126 --> 01:19:59,711 Clap for me like that 1264 01:19:59,795 --> 01:20:03,465 Just clap for me, just clap Just clap for me like that 1265 01:20:03,548 --> 01:20:05,967 I wanna see 1266 01:20:06,051 --> 01:20:06,927 Just for me 1267 01:20:07,010 --> 01:20:10,889 My brother, Syd Xtravaganza 1268 01:20:10,972 --> 01:20:12,766 The trans man 1269 01:20:12,849 --> 01:20:14,643 The OTA 1270 01:20:14,726 --> 01:20:16,394 The bold, bold 1271 01:20:16,478 --> 01:20:18,146 That old way bold 1272 01:20:18,230 --> 01:20:20,440 I say show us the old way, Syd 1273 01:20:20,524 --> 01:20:22,150 Show us the old way, Syd 1274 01:20:22,234 --> 01:20:23,527 Show us the old way 1275 01:20:24,110 --> 01:20:25,987 The one and only 1276 01:20:26,071 --> 01:20:27,906 That's Syd Xtravaganza 1277 01:20:30,075 --> 01:20:31,952 When you talk about vogue 1278 01:20:32,035 --> 01:20:35,914 You have my father José Xtravaganza 1279 01:20:35,997 --> 01:20:37,833 Show us how you do it, pa 1280 01:20:37,916 --> 01:20:40,293 Give it up for José Xtravaganza 1281 01:20:41,419 --> 01:20:42,754 All right, all right 1282 01:20:42,838 --> 01:20:46,550 Amara, here to give you that pump 1283 01:20:46,633 --> 01:20:48,593 That international pump 1284 01:20:49,678 --> 01:20:51,930 I said touch this skin 1285 01:20:52,013 --> 01:20:54,224 Touch all of this skin, honey 1286 01:20:54,307 --> 01:20:55,267 Touch this skin 1287 01:20:55,350 --> 01:20:58,937 Give it up for Gisele Xtravaganza 1288 01:20:59,020 --> 01:21:02,858 I said Gisele Xtravaganza 1289 01:21:02,941 --> 01:21:04,025 I said that… 1290 01:21:06,361 --> 01:21:07,237 Gisele 1291 01:21:07,320 --> 01:21:10,198 Gisele Xtravaganza 1292 01:21:12,367 --> 01:21:15,620 I said Joe Pellagatti 1293 01:21:16,121 --> 01:21:18,665 I said Joe Pellagatti… 1294 01:21:19,499 --> 01:21:20,500 Here I am. 1295 01:21:21,209 --> 01:21:22,294 Good, Joe 1296 01:21:22,377 --> 01:21:24,880 Come give us a walk, Joe 1297 01:21:24,963 --> 01:21:29,092 In the name of Venus In the name of Venus, Joe Pellagatti… 1298 01:21:29,175 --> 01:21:30,010 That's right! 1299 01:21:30,093 --> 01:21:31,720 Give him a round of applause 1300 01:21:31,803 --> 01:21:33,138 Louie, where you at? 1301 01:21:33,221 --> 01:21:35,432 I said Louie, Louie, Louie 1302 01:21:35,515 --> 01:21:36,766 Louie, where you at? 1303 01:21:36,850 --> 01:21:39,060 I said Louie, Louie, Louie 1304 01:21:39,644 --> 01:21:44,399 Let me hear some noise For John Pellagatti Xtravaganza 1305 01:21:45,734 --> 01:21:48,320 DJ, pump the beat, X, X, X 1306 01:21:48,403 --> 01:21:50,447 Xtravaganza! 1307 01:21:50,530 --> 01:21:52,449 X, X, X 1308 01:22:22,812 --> 01:22:24,439 All of this skin, honey 1309 01:22:24,522 --> 01:22:25,815 All of this skin 1310 01:22:26,399 --> 01:22:29,402 All of this skin, all of this skin 1311 01:22:30,070 --> 01:22:31,780 All of this skin, honey 1312 01:22:31,863 --> 01:22:33,156 All of this skin 1313 01:22:33,740 --> 01:22:36,701 All of this skin, all of this skin 1314 01:22:37,410 --> 01:22:39,162 All of this skin, honey 1315 01:22:39,245 --> 01:22:40,497 All of this skin 1316 01:22:41,081 --> 01:22:44,084 All of this skin, all of this skin 1317 01:23:55,613 --> 01:23:56,990 All of this skin 1318 01:23:57,490 --> 01:24:00,660 All of this skin, all of this skin 1319 01:24:01,161 --> 01:24:02,912 All of this skin, honey 1320 01:24:02,996 --> 01:24:04,247 All of this skin 1321 01:24:04,831 --> 01:24:07,792 All of this skin, all of this skin 1322 01:24:07,876 --> 01:24:10,295 All of this skin, honey 1323 01:24:12,172 --> 01:24:13,548 All of this skin 1324 01:24:15,800 --> 01:24:17,135 All of this skin 1325 01:24:19,429 --> 01:24:21,014 All of this skin 1326 01:24:22,098 --> 01:24:25,018 All of this skin, honey 1327 01:24:45,663 --> 01:24:48,208 Oh wow. Okay. Oh wow. 1328 01:24:48,291 --> 01:24:50,585 Everybody, go home. Everybody, go home. 1329 01:24:51,086 --> 01:24:53,088 Everybody, go home. It's over. 1330 01:24:54,506 --> 01:24:56,299 Go home!