sodomite townhouse

in 1.03 louis says (paraphrasing) "you took my life and now i'm about to lose the last thing i care about (the azalea)." yeah so lestat's turning of louis, despite louis being willing, is on some level a coercive act (be my victim...) lestat has violently butchered two priests in front of him and killed miss lily so like can he even meaningfully say no to him in that moment and all that (if i had to guess lestat probably saw them as louis's tools for repressing his true self. not wrong. also louis bringing up the question of whether or not he killed paul too in 1.06 means he's stayed with lestat for decades with that suspicion, something that must've played on his mind that night. so like lestat is exploiting him in a moment of great distress) and then obviously becoming a vampire isolates him from his own community in a literal sense and he has nowhere else to go to, no other vampires to corroborate or contradict the little knowledge lestat offers him as he secludes him his domain. classic gothic horror stuff. but it's interesting that louis's deteriorating relationship with his own family and the shutdown of his business has more to do with his identity as a gay, black man in jim crow south. even before lestat turns him, louis is evidently being replaced as the figurehead of the pointe du lac household by levi, grace's new husband. the first slight is during paul's funeral when florence pointedly ignores louis's offer to walk her back home and instead turns to levi. the second time he sees his mother, her displeasure is clearly about louis's homosexuality, "he's done his nails" / "those glasses are preferred by men like him", this is the first time we'll see his vampirism being positioned as a metaphor for his queer identity/sense of self (be all the beautiful things you are and be them without apology) then again in 1.03 he's forbidden from entering the house and to louis's outrage florence calls levi 'son', "son? i'm your son" so levi has in effect replaced louis as the patriarch of the family, despite louis "[controlling] the money" as paul puts it in 1.01 because unlike louis he's entered a hetreosexual marriage, he's the right kind of son living the right life, as florence sees it. louis's desire to have children is also first brought up when he meets his nephew, levi has done his part in continuing his family name but the pointe du lac name will die with louis. he is being ousted from the family and his role as family patriarch because of his homosexuality.