ABSTRACT
In Tulsa, Oklahoma, it would be possible—even likely—to mistake the local Queer paper at a newsstand for a Christian Right publication, because its masthead proclaims in capital letters the name of the paper: Tulsa Family News. The tyranny of family intrudes on conversations in the form of omissions, silences, and distortions of meaning. Conflicted feelings about popularized conceptions of relationships and family intrude on participation in informal, social conversation. We understand love as a wily social construct loaded with a range of questionable values, and romance as a social practice laden with obligations offered as love letters and power plays masquerading as roses. Like dancing bears at a circus, performing husbands are meticulously trained to play to a crowd and energetically respond to applause. Moments drawing music and bodies together in rhythmic movement and mass communal celebration are dubbed “dance parties.”.
