Venus Xtravaganza

Who was Venus Xtravaganza?

Venus Xtravaganza was an American performer, escort, and aspiring model. She came to national attention after being featured in Jennie Livingston's 1990 documentary film Paris Is Burning, about New York City ball culture including vogue dancing. The story of her life as a trans woman living and then murdered form a story arc within the film. Xtravaganza was featured on the original 1990 theatrical release poster for the film.

Born to an Italian American family, she took the name Venus in her early teens. As is the tradition of the gay ball culture, she adopted the name Xtravaganza upon becoming a member of the House of Xtravaganza in 1983. The house, like similar houses, is named in the style of European fashion houses and is an affiliation of young drag queens, transgender and gay youth who have come together around the underground Harlem drag ball scene.

In Paris Is Burning, she notes the racial and socioeconomic barriers faced by many in the ball scene, saying she dreamed of being "a spoiled, rich, white girl living in the suburbs" in order to gain access to the lifestyle she envisioned for herself. In one of her interviews, she describes the transphobia she experienced during her time as a sex worker, one time having to flee for her life by escaping through a window, after a client had become enraged upon discovering she was not a cisgender woman. On sex work, she observed: "If you're a married woman living in the suburbs, a regular woman, married to her husband... and she wants him to buy her a washer and dryer set, in order for him to buy that I'm sure she'd have to go to bed with him anyway – for him to get what he wants, for her to get what she wants. So in the long run, it all ends up the same way." At the time the documentary was filmed, she was an aspiring model.