‘Ballroom itself can either make you or break you’ – Black GBT Youths’ psychosocial development in the House Ball Community

ABSTRACT

Social context plays a significant role in adolescent identity development, particularly for youth lacking traditional systems of support. Using ecological and symbolic interactionism perspectives, this study qualitatively explored the psychosocial identity development of Black gay, bisexual, or transgendered youth participating in the House Ball Community (HBC). The HBC is a diverse network of family-like structures called ‘houses’, as well as a glamorous social outlet via pageant-like ‘balls’ in which participants compete. A series of focus groups were conducted with youth and leaders from the HBC (n = 37; age range = 17–24). Via cross-case and comparative analyses, specific motivating factors related to entry into and continued involvement in the community were identified. Factors related to entry into the community included lack of safe spaces, opportunities for acceptance, means of subsistence, and allure of the scene. Factors related to continued involvement included resilience and coping skills development, sexual identity acceptance and pride, prevalence of risky behaviour, and risk of exploitation. Discussion of these factors provides insight on how self-constructed, supplementary social contexts may provide both unique supports and risks to members, allowing for more focused and well-informed interventions and policies to enhance healthy development in such communities while mitigating risk.

KEYWORDS:

• Youth
• gay identity
• House Ball Community
• LGBTQ
• BYMSM

Acknowledgements

We would like to thank our Community Advisory Board for their input on this study and all of the young people who were willing to share their stories with us.

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the authors.

Additional information

Funding

This study was funded through a grant from the United States National Institute of Mental Health [R34 MH092197].