notes . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . introduction 1. The Lady Chablis, Hiding My Candy, 55. 2. Daniel, Standing at the Crossroads, 66. 3. This and the other names in the quotation are pseudonyms. 4. As John Howard argues in Carryin’ On in the Lesbian and Gay South, the phrase ‘‘carryin’ on’’ has multiple meanings in southern parlance, but often among gays and lesbians refers to ‘‘stepping over some perceived line of propriety’’ (Carryin’ On in the Lesbian and Gay South, 2). 5. Sears, Rebels, Rubyfruit, and Rhinestones, 4. 6. Beemyn, ‘‘Introduction,’’ 1. 7. McRuer, ‘‘A Visitation of Difference,’’ 222. 8. Smith, ‘‘Queering the South,’’ 381. 9. Ibid., 380. 10. Whittier, ‘‘Race and Gay Community in Southern Town,’’ 73. 11. Hurston, Mules and Men, 2. 12. Howard, ‘‘Place and Movement in Gay American History,’’ 213. 13. Painter, Creating Black Americans, iv (emphasis in original). 14. See Conquergood, ‘‘Performance Studies, 149.’’ 15. Madison, ‘‘The Dialogic Performative in Critical Ethnography,’’ 323. 16. Howard, Men Like That, 5. 17. For more on the ethics and responsibility of the ethnographer, see Madison, Critical Ethnography, 5–8. 18. See Geertz, ‘‘Thinking as a Moral Act.’’ 19. Benjamin, Illuminations, 87. 20. Langellier and Peterson, Storytelling in Daily Life, 4. 21. Certeau, The Practice of Everyday Life, 129. 22. I do not wish to imply here that there is ‘‘inherent’’ danger in meeting men on the Internet. Indeed, I met my current partner online. I also do not wish to appear prudish about sexual ‘‘hookups’’ or ‘‘tricks’’ garnered through chat rooms. For the purpose of researching this book, however, I believed that contacting subjects online would not have been the most productive way to obtain subjects. One downside to this, however, is that the sample of narrators is skewed toward those with a college education. 23. In his latest novel, E. Lynn Harris actually dramatizes what happens when all the gays of a church in Atlanta decide to walk out. See I Say A Little Prayer. 24. See Phillips and Lewis, ‘‘A Hunt for Middle Ground.’’ 25. Howard, Men Like That, 299. 26. Smith, ‘‘Queering the South,’’ 381. 27. Beam, ‘‘Brother to Brother,’’ 231 566 : notes to pages 16–71 28. This is a vernacular phrase among black gay men meaning that a person’s makeup is applied very well and very heavily. See Appendix 1. 29. See Hemphill, ‘‘Loyalty.’’ 30. Howard, Men Like That, 27. 31. The Lady Chablis, Hiding My Candy, 25. 32. For more on the history of tearooms, see Edelman, ‘‘Tearoom and Sympathies’’ and ‘‘Men’s Room’’; Humphreys, Tearoom Trade; and Chauncey, Gay New York, 195–201. 33. Mintz, Sweetness and Power, 139. 34. Quoted in ibid., 141. 35. Quoted in ibid., 142. 36. While there have been numerous theories of the origin of the term and what behavior constitutes ‘‘camp,’’ many white gay scholars have traced the aesthetic back to Oscar Wilde. 37. See [http://whatscookingamerica.net/History/IcedTeaHistory.htm], accessed on March 24, 2006. 38. See ibid. 39. Wat, The Making of a Gay Asian Community, 6. chapter 1 1. See Johnson, Appropriating Blackness, 249–52. 2. The Lady Chablis, Hiding My Candy, 52–53. 3. See, for examples, Nero, ‘‘Why Are Gay Ghettos White?’’ 4. I can’t help but make the association of this negative term for blighted black neighborhoods with the gay vernacular term ‘‘bottom,’’ which refers to one’s sexual position (i.e., on the bottom and therefore the one being penetrated), although in the case of the latter, it is definitely not considered an unpleasant or displeasing ‘‘destination.’’ 5. West, Race Matters, 11–20. 6. Du Bois quoted in Boyd, The Story of Durham, 277. 7. Auburn Avenue, also known as ‘‘Sweet Auburn,’’ was designated a national historic landmark in 1976. Like the Hayti community in Durham, Sweet Auburn was an economic center for African Americans during Jim Crow and was home to the Atlanta Life Insurance Company, the second-largest black insurance company in the United States. It was also Martin Luther King Jr.’s birth home, and it boasted both the Atlanta Daily World, the nation’s first blackowned daily newspaper, and the Rucker Building, Atlanta’s first black-owned office building. Like many inner-city neighborhoods, it fell into disrepair in the late twentieth century and became a haven for crime and poverty. Currently, it is being gentrified with encouragement from the city of Atlanta through the Historic District Development Corporation. 8. It’s interesting to note that the devastating effects of Hurricane Betsy were just...