Beginning in the late 19th century, members of the underground LGBTQ+ community in large cities began to organize their own cross-dressing masquerade balls, both in opposition to laws that banned individuals from wearing clothes associated with the opposite gender and earlier cross-dressing balls that, while racially integrated for the participants, were usually led and judged by white people. Ball culture (also known as drag ball culture, the house-ballroom community, the ballroom scene, ballroom culture, or similar terms) describe a young African-American and Latino underground LGBTQ+ subculture that originated in New York City.
