Transy House was a collective for trans people in Brooklyn run by Chelsea Goodwin and Rusty Mae Moore. From 1995 to 2008, it served as a kind of family meeting place and residence for the transgender community. Today, it is a privately-owned home that blends in with the street. It stands as a silent reminder of the people it helped and the sense of community it created.The name, by the way, was bestowed upon the house and it just stuck. So how did this place come to be? How did they start to welcome trans people like them into their home?Rusty Mae and Chelsea were trans activists and met many people in the community through their protests and meetings. Rusty told 1010 WINS about how it all began: "People started to come over and asked, 'do you take in boarders?' Pretty soon we had some place between 10 and 15 people living there for several years. They would change over."Having a collective helped their activism tremendously. "We became fairly important in the politics of trans people because we had a lot of people on our side... they heard of us and came to meetings at our house."
Transy House LegacyThe House became well-known for its hospitality and love. It also helped that the two people who ran it were trans, as Rusty Mae explained: "People who are trans like to live with trans people... it was kind of unique to have a fairly large group of trans people where we could live together and communicate and do things together. I think people really enjoyed that... Instead of being worried about your place in society, you had a place to live and a place to have meetings and run events of various types. It was a good thing."How did the neighbors react? Rusty Mae explained that South Slope was a relatively accepting community and that people would come in and say hello. "I think that we were sort of in a way considered to be one of the interesting things in the neighborhood by the neighbors."Now Chelsea Goodwin and Rusty Mae Moore live in the Catskills where they host a radio show called "In Goth We Trust." They aren't very active in politics anymore, but there are still trans people living with them.The days of the collective in Brooklyn are over. As Transy House stands now, there is nothing to signify that this was once a beloved home for trans people and activists like Sylvia Rivera. There's no plaque or landmark notice on the building. Yet, for those who know about the people it helped, it will always be known simply, as a loving home.
-- Elizabeth Sherwood
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