Family

In Mama’s Boy, Dustin Lance Black characterizes family as an important part of one’s support system and community; Dustin is not only speaking about family in terms of one’s relatives but also in terms of the national family of the United States, and how one builds community as an adult, such as when Lance finds his LGBTQ+ family. Lance’s personal conception of traditional families is largely informed by his Southern upbringing and culture. Family is where one drives one’s biggest support system in the South, particularly if one comes from a poor community as Lance’s family did: “Because when you have little material wealth, and even less hope of ever finding any, family becomes absolutely primary. It’s partly what built the great Southern traditions that ‘family comes first’ and ‘blood is thicker than water’” (23). Launce then makes a connection between these...