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Recently, the ballroom scene has been everywhere, from pop stars\u2019 tours to TV shows to Google Arts & Culture, which worked with the Ballroom community to digitize photography collections and launch the community\u2019s Ballroom in Focus archive this year. But Ballroom has been around for decades, giving power and community, while also honoring the Black and Brown LGBTQ+ communities. It was a community I found by accident in 1987, at a time when I was searching for family, and a sense of who I was as a Black trans man.<\/p>\n
One day, while sitting in my room talking to my friend, we decided we were going to find people that were like us: LGBTQ+ people who were living their lives according to their terms. We found our way to Washington Square Park in New York City, and accidentally walked down a \u201crunway\u201d between some benches \u2014 only to get roasted for our runway walks.<\/p>\n
The people we were talking to quickly became our friends \u2014 and eventually, they asked us if we wanted to be part of their \u201chouse.\u201d I responded, \u201cI live with my grandmother, but I\u2019d love to hang out with y\u2019all!\u201d They laughed and explained the Ballroom community to me. \u201cHouses\u201d were groups of competitors in balls, and members of each group adopted the house\u2019s last name \u2014 and even had a house mother and father.<\/p>\n
During my first competition, I was excited and nervous. It was decided that I would walk in the \u201cMale Illusionist” category, because of how I appeared male. Whoa: Finally, others saw me as I saw myself and didn\u2019t shun me for it. Actually, they did just the opposite \u2014 they celebrated me.<\/p>\n
During my time in Ballroom, I\u2019ve walked and won multiple times under a few categories. But perhaps the most consequential thing that happened is I was given the space and autonomy to define my maleness. While the world kept telling me I was not who I said I was, Ballroom celebrated me, and was part of my transition into being a proud Black Trans man.<\/p>\n
This Transgender Awareness Week, Google partnered with Texas Isaiah to capture the themes that honor Trans youth and their joy \u2014 and especially their joy of being part of Ballroom. In beautiful portraits and images shot on Pixel, they\u2019re centering the power of joy at a time when too much joy is being taken away from trans youth. While the world tells trans youth that they are unworthy and even criminal, Ballroom tells them \u2014 tells us \u2014 that we are beautiful and powerful, and we belong.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n