Houses function as alternative families, primarily consisting of Black and Latino LGBT individuals, and provide shelter for those who feel ostracized by conventional support systems. Many participants in ball culture also belong to groups known as 'houses,' where chosen families of friends live in households together, forming relationships and communities separate from their families of origin, from which they may be estranged. Īttendees dance, vogue, walk, pose, perform, lip-sync, and model in numerous drag and performance competition categories for trophies and prizes. Beginning in the late 19th century, members of the underground LGBTQ+ community in large cities began to organize their own cross-dressing masquerade balls, both in opposition to laws that banned individuals from wearing clothes associated with the opposite gender and earlier cross-dressing balls that, while racially integrated for the participants, were usually led and judged by white people. Ball culture (also known as drag ball culture, the house-ballroom community, the ballroom scene, ballroom culture, or similar terms) describe a young African-American and Latino underground LGBTQ+ subculture that originated in New York City.
