Kids on the Street: Queer Kinship and Religion in San Francisco's Tenderloin

Kids on the Street by Joseph Plaster explores how queer youth survived in Tenderloin districts across the US by building informal support networks, fostering social support, and managing social trauma. He highlights a politics of reciprocity based on the marginal position of street kids, challenging mainstream narratives of gay progress and pride.

Format: Paperback / softback
Length: 368 pages
Publication date: 24 February 2023
Publisher: Duke University Press

In his captivating book, Kids on the Street, Joseph Plaster delves into the intricate web of informal support networks that helped abandoned and runaway queer youth survive in the heart of tenderloin districts across the United States. Tracing the history of the downtown lodging house districts where marginalized youth often found shelter, beginning in the late 1800s, Plaster centers his attention on San Francisco's Tenderloin from the 1950s to the present. Drawing upon a wealth of archival, ethnographic, oral history, and public humanities research, Plaster paints a vivid picture of the queer kinship networks, religious practices, performative storytelling, and migratory patterns that enabled these children to foster social support and mutual aid. He reveals how they collectively and creatively managed the social trauma they endured, in part, by building relationships with johns, bartenders, hotel managers, bouncers, and other vice district denizens. By highlighting a politics that recognizes the marginalized position of street kids as the foundation for a moral economy of reciprocity, Plaster uncovers a history of queer life that has often been overshadowed by mainstream narratives of gay progress and pride. This thought-provoking book offers a fresh perspective on the complexities of childhood and adolescence, shedding light on the resilience and ingenuity of those who faced adversity.

Weight: 530g
Dimension: 151 x 229 x 28 (mm)
ISBN-13: 9781478018957