Subj. : Anthropology Paris is Burning.
             The video is the story of a society of poor marginalized Blacks and Hispanic gays, transvestites, transsexuals and trans-gendered people living in a New York City ghetto. They live in small apartments in very rundown dwellings in the ghetto and they spice them up with posters of their favourite celebrities. Those who 'feminine' decorate them in a feminie manner and to all outward looks, they are women.
             Most of them are low income employees like waiters, commercial sex workers, or are unemployed. Their habitual haunts are street corners or pavements or just trying to pick a date or make a 'quick buck' in any manner. Stealing for many of the younger ones is a way of life and it is referred to as mopping.
             The social structure is an interesting combination of intense competition and rivalry but also close knit enough to provide a unique kind of 'family'. The mostly Black and Hispanic young males identify themselves by the 'House' to which they are affiliated. The leader, who is referred to as the 'mother' gives some survival guidelines to the new members of the 'society'. The members in the house are each other's sisters and brothers and together they provide social support to one another. The mother is the counselor, advisor, helper to the younger ones, has the most power and respect and so is also the most challenged positions in the society.
             The youngest boys to join the society may be as young as thirteen years of age when they first land in the ghettos trying to find a place where their gender orientation or preferences are accepted. They explained that their sexual orientation was too discomforting to their parents and families and so they became so alienated that they eventually run away to seek acceptance elsewhere. They start at the bottom of the ladder
             ...