Page 35 - Adelante Magazine February 2025

Entertainment
By: Laura Moreno

JOSEPH PLASTER’S “KIDS ON THE STREET:

Queer Kinship & Religion In San Francisco’s Tenderloin”
An important new scholarly book, "Kids On the
Street: Queer Kinship & Religion In San Fran-
cisco's Tenderloin" by Joseph Plaster, has un-
earthed queer history that has long remained
hidden. Tracing the history beginning in the late
1800s, the author researched the downtown
lodging house districts, temporarily home to nu-
merous outsider youths, to document their his-
tory from the 1950s to the present time.

The book is based on 70 oral histories con-
ducted from 2007 to 2011 in the Tenderloin Dis-
trict by the author in conjunction with the San
Francisco's GLBT Historical Society. In addition
to personal histories, the book utilizes an inter-
disciplinary approach that draws upon archival,
ethnographic, and humanities research to gain
an understanding of the elaborate queer kin-
ship networks and migratory patterns that en-
able this population to benefit from mutual aid.

The author's ethnographic research found that
many such red-light districts dot the landscape
in cities throughout the country. While recent
LGBTQ narratives have often centered around urban cowboy, and the body language of sex- Foundation, and fellowships from The New
marriage and gay family life, the actual lived ual availability. York Public Library and The Graduate Center
history historically has been very different. of CUNY.
But tried and true ways this population had de-
"I think I'm interested in Polk Street," author Jo- veloped for coping with their "performative An excerpt:
seph Plaster writes, "because it's a place economy" began to be seriously undermined "Kinship and religion — the very cardinal forms
where people who don't fit in in other parts of starting in the late 2000s with the seismic of sociality that are often placed in opposition
the country can find a home." changes wrought by the development of Silicon to queer world making — are common frames
Valley. through which street kids expressed mutual ob-
To quote from the book first chapter, "By the ligations and reciprocities. The social for-
late nineteenth century, cities constructed "Gentrification was erasing a history I had mations my informants call "street families"
these districts as zones of abandonment where come to San Francisco to claim and become a resemble the moral economies common
the degradation and immorality associated with part of. I became obsessed with 'saving' the among marginalized people with limited re-
the poor, sexual and gender deviants, and ra- street's history before it was swept away," sources.
cialized populations could be contained and Plaster writes.
cordoned off from respectable white families "People living at bare subsistence create pat-
and homes." One of the most interesting aspects of this terns of reciprocity, pool resources, and create
book is "the value of sociality and sexuality un- extensive networks of kin to ensure mutual sur-
To better understand this population, the book tethered from the nuclear family, reproduction, vival. Carol Stack showed how African Ameri-
delves into four main social phenomena: and the gender binary and dramatized their can families living at bare subsistence in
"street families," or queer kinship networks; moral vision on the streets and boulevards in central city districts establish 'socially recog-
"street churches"; performative storytelling to spectacular fashion." nized kin ties' with people not related by blood
help find work and deal with abuse; and mi- to 'maintain a stable number of people who
gratory circuits connecting various cities. These Joseph Plaster, PhD is Curator in Public Hu- share reciprocal obligations.'
loose structures enable this population to or- manities and Director of the Winston Tabb Spe-
ganize to collectively manage social trauma cial Collections Research Center for the "They are adaptive institutions developed for
and confront the poverty and stigma they face Sheridan Libraries & University Museums at coping with poverty. Street families served a
every day on the streets. JohnsHopkins University. His research has ap- similar function.”
peared in many journals, including The Public
Their migratory world, called the "scene," has Historian, Radical History Review, The Abus- 'Kids On the Street: Queer Kinship & Religion
an energy of its own many find hard to escape. able Past, and Kalfou: A Journal of Compara- In San Francisco's Tenderloin' by Joseph
It is described by insiders as a "magnet," "vor- tive and Relational Ethnic Studies, and has Plaster, Duke University Press, $28.95, Kindle
tex," or "whirlpool." It is filled with stock char- been supported by grants from the National $15.63 www.dukeupress.edu www.joseph-
acters such as the queen, the hustler, the Endowment for the Humanities, the Mellon plaster.com

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