Reply #55: I'm not exactly sure this is the answer, but I seem to remember a [View All]

[jhrobbins]

A&E special about the gay 'ball' culture in NY and then consequently around a number of entrenched gay enclaves of Atlanta, Chicago, etc. I do know that a lot of trends in NY come from this culture first and then are adopted by the trendy of the city. The following is a snippet from the wikipedia def. of Ball Culture. It is quite an interesting phenomenon, though it is often played down by the mainstream gay culture as too radical and extreme. Anyway, the term 'snap' is one that many gay members here will recall for many years now coming from the more flambouyant members of our community.

"Houses", also called "drag houses" or "drag families", are groups composed primarily of gay males and transgendered people, the majority of which are African American or Latino, banded together under a respected "house mother" (usually a drag queen or a transgender person) or even a "house father".<1><4>

The best known houses are New York City groups, especially those such as the House of Corey, the House of LaBeija, the House of Ninja, the House of Pendavis, the House of Garavani and House of Xtravaganza that were shown in the 1990 documentary film Paris Is Burning. Other houses function similarly in many United States but mainly focused in major cities on the East Coast, in the Midwest and South (i.e. House Of Infiniti , House of Mizrahi, House of Aviance, etc.)<2><5><6><7>

According to the Village Voice:

...houses are loose-knit, typically same sex, confederacies of "children" who adopt a family name, usually swiped from a fashion designer, and adhere to rules set up by a presiding "mother" and "father."


The link to the whole piece - http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ball_culture