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HIV Within the House Ball Community and the Promise of Community-Based Social Structures for Intervention and Support

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Understanding Prevention for HIV Positive Gay Men

Abstract

The House Ball Community, made up of houses and the elaborate balls that they organize and perform in, exists in a number of cities across the United States. These social activities and alliances represent safe spaces for young (gay, lesbian, bisexual, and transgender (GLBT) people) to give and receive affirmation for non-heteronormative gender and sexual identities. Recent funding for HIV prevention activities, in conjunction with a policy of test and treat, has led to departments of health and community-based organizations supporting balls as a way to capture young men who have sex with men of color and transgender women of color in particular for HIV testing and case detection. We discuss the importance of the social structures underpinning the elaborate cultural practices of the House Ball Community, their implications for providing support for HIV prevention and treatment for community members, and suggestions for future research with the House Ball Community.

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Notes

  1. 1.

    What we call the gender identity system is typically called the “gender system” within Ballroom culture. The outline of the six subjectivities within the system is based on ethnographic data including attendance/participation in balls, analysis of numerous ball flyers, and interviews with members from all over the country over a 9 year period. Despite a few discrepancies among different sectors of the community, the general components of the system are standard throughout the Ballroom scene. The gender system is separate but inextricably linked to the competitive categories that appear on ball flyers. At balls, competitive performance categories abound, but the gender system serves as the basis upon which the competitive categories are created.

  2. 2.

    In Paris is Burning and in the debates that the film generated, there is limited engagement with the gender system, even though the gender subjectivities existed.

  3. 3.

    For a video example of this category, please see: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Xws6bQTYFFo.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Center for AIDS Prevention Studies, Department of Medicine, University of California, San Francisco (UCSF), San Francisco, CA, 94143, USA

    Emily A. Arnold

  2. Women and Gender Studies Program, School of Social Transformation, Arizona State University, Tempe, AZ, USA

    Marlon M. Bailey

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  1. Emily A. Arnold
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  2. Marlon M. Bailey
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Correspondence to Emily A. Arnold .

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Editors and Affiliations

  1. Department of Human Development, College of Community and Public Affairs (CCPA), State University of New York at Binghamton, Binghamton, NY, USA

    Leo Wilton

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Arnold, E.A., Bailey, M.M. (2017). HIV Within the House Ball Community and the Promise of Community-Based Social Structures for Intervention and Support. In: Wilton, L. (eds) Understanding Prevention for HIV Positive Gay Men. Springer, New York, NY. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-1-4419-0203-0_12

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-1-4419-0203-0_12

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