The Fonds Suzan Daniel is the Belgian LGBT archive and documentation centre. This not-for-profit organisation was founded in 1996 after months of intensive preparation. It was named after Suzan Daniel (1918-2007), pseudonym for Suzanne De Pues, who in 1953 courageously started the first Belgian gay and lesbian group.

The pluralistic Fonds Suzan Daniel collects, orders and makes available materials from the LGBT past. The protection of the private lives of people concerned is always an important matter. Another important aspect is the creation of an “archival consciousness” within our public: we try to raise awareness that traces from the gay and lesbian past are important and that these materials are stored with us. Gender parity is critical - women and men are equally represented on the Board of Directors. The organisation is also pluralist and independent: it has no ties with political groups or confessional organisations.

In order to preserve this gay and lesbian cultural heritage under optimal circumstances, the organisation has opted to collaborate with existing professionally run and recognized archives and documentation centres. To this effect a protocol of collaboration has been drafted that starts with the conviction that the history of the lesbian and gay movement is part and parcel of a broader social history of liberation movements.

The Fonds Suzan Daniel is run entirely by volunteers who manage a collection of about 400 linear meters of archival records, books, magazines, posters and other materials. We selected Suzan Daniel and Roger Vertongen for a number of reasons:

• They are both among the older archives of our collection (and therefore cause fewer problems regarding privacy protection).
• Both archives contain a lot of visually attractive documents as well as texts.
• They represent a bit of the diversity within our collection.

For more information visit: The Fonds Suzan Daniel

 

 

Suzanne De Pues was born in Brussels on March 31, 1918. Literature, including books on psychoanalysis, helped her understand her feelings for women. In the 1930’s she discovered the gay/lesbian nightlife in her hometown. During that period she started using her pseudonym Suzan Daniel, derived from the French actress Danielle Darieux. At the same time she frequented the circle of the nonconformist magazine ‘Le Rouge et le Noir’ and was active as Belgium’s youngest and first female film critic.Eventually she encountered the Dutch organisation C.O.C. (founded in 1946) and the International Committee for Sexual Equality (ICSE) that it supported. Impressed by an ICSE conference in Amsterdam in 1953, Suzanne decided to found the first gay and lesbian emancipatory group in Brussels named The Centre Culturel Belge (CCB).The CCB was short-lived. Suzanne was more or less expelled in 1954 by a group of gay men who preferred a private club and transformed the association to the Centre de Culture et de Loisirs (Culture and Leisure Centre). After this forced departure she broke all ties to LGBT organisation until the creation of the Fonds Suzan Daniel in 1996 when her work was finally recognized. Suzanne died on November 15, 2007.

Susan ICSE 1953	Zwaaliend Met Hoed	Op Strand	Stoken Vaders Pak

Coverfoto	Met Hoed en Sigaret	Met Hoed en Pak

Edouard Roger Vertongen was born on November 2, 1929 in Weerde near Mechelen, where he lived until his death. In his youth he lived for a year with a family in the capital during an exchange project with the aim of perfecting his French. Roger also learned to cook and took ballet classes. Dance remained a lifelong passion despite the fact that his sturdy physique prevented him from building a dance career.Roger ended up working in the reservations department of SABENA, the national airline company. As a polyglot, he was accorded the responsibility for providing training in the frequently changing reservation systems. This involved frequent travel to foreign offices in cities like New York, San Francisco, Johannesburg, Montreal and Tel Aviv where he was exposed to different gay worlds.As a young teenager Roger had already become aware of his sexuality in encounters first with German and later Canadian soldiers. He developed a hobby – even an obsession – of constantly answering all sorts of personal ads to expand his circle of acquaintances. (And of course also for sexual purposes.) He typically sent out four to five hundred New Year greetings cards.A coming out to his parents never took place. His brother knew, but the topic was never openly discussed, despite the fact that Roger lived with his partner Larry for over twenty years in a house next to the parental home that was full of gay erotic art.From an early age Roger was in bad health. He died on August 25, 1989 at the age of 60 due to a hepatitis B infection that was detected too late.

Poezie	Brief RCA F1	Brief RCA F2

Roger, Rene	Roger, Bernard, Strand	Ballet	Roger, Guitar