The Latex Ball® 2025

Saturday, June 21, 2025

Terminal 5
610 West 56 Street
New York, New York 10019

6pm Doors Open
8pm Show Begins

This event is free and open to all community members 18 years and older!

TICKETS AVAILABLE SOON!

Check out The Latex Ball Facebook page for latest updates! Please note that this is the OFFICIAL Latex Ball facebook page.

Revist 2024 highlights!

The Latex Ball® 2025: One Thousand Nights

Our most unique event of the year, The Latex Ball® is an essential part of GHMC’s programs, providing a sense of community for mostly Black and Latinx LGBTQ+ youth and adults in the House and Ball community.

Ballroom’s resilience, symbolized by “One Thousand Nights,” celebrates life and the creative expressions showcased at every ball.

When we come together for the annual Latex Ball, we share our imaginative talents, strength, love, support, unity, hope and inspiring stories through the categories and just being in community with friends and family members.

May the magic and power of a thousand nights continue through these tumultuous times!

The Latex Ball utilizes the Triple E—Education, Entertainment, and Empowerment—approach to HIV prevention, harm reduction, and positive sexual health messaging. The event features competitions in dance, voguing, and fashion, and incorporates messaging that links the community to resources that help prevent the spread of HIV.

The House & Ball community are the original influencers.

From the margins to the mainstream, from Madonna’s “Vogue” to Beyoncé’s Renaissance World Tour this community has inspired fashion, music, and culture for the past hundred years. The Latex Ball continues this tradition while raising awareness, fighting stigma, and providing vital resources.Our attendees include over 3,500 young, socially savvy tastemakers and our robust press and social amplification reaches tens of thousands more annually.

Today, House & Ball culture has risen to a new height of mass media appeal and this cultural phenomenon is celebrated on award-winning shows like “Pose,” HBO Max’s “Legendary” and “RuPaul’s Drag Race.”

The Latex Ball®: Heritage

House & Ball culture was born many decades ago ​in Harlem. Today, the community includes ​over 20,000 in New York City, with ​thousands more worldwide.

The House & Ball community is made up of houses which act as supportive social structures for LGBTQ+ folks. This structure provides a surrogate family for those whose sexual orientation often results in rejection and homelessness. As a surrogate family, a house has a house mother, house father, and children who take on the house name as their surname. Balls are events at which house members walk (or compete) for trophies, cash prizes, or respect. Participants often dance or vogue, while others compete across a variety of categories that celebrate fashion, culture, and art. Members of these houses, both young and old, regularly compete in balls and other related activities throughout the year.​

SPONSORS

We Won't Back Down!

Our promise to our clients and our community is to provide lifesaving work for people living with and affected by HIV. Will you help us keep up the fight?

2025 could bring major changes to GMHC, with uncertainties in government funding and an increase in those needing our services. To continue providing critical care and support, we set a goal of raising $90,000 for 2025 — and we’re already more than halfway there! Will you help us reach our 2025 goal today?