The Very Gay and Interesting History of the Almost Lost Tradition of the Sunday Tea Dance

I guess somebody spilled the tea.

I would say more like gay men under 50. Most of my time on Halsted in my 20s was spent at Roscoe’s on Sunday afternoon.

[quote]The downtown gays rejected the term “tea dance” as being too effete and opted for the supposedly butcher “t-dance”

Guess we wouldn't be calling it that any longer.

Maybe gay men, of a certain age, would be interested. Doubt if the young gays would attend.

The glory holes were always full in those days.

Do younger people even know of cocktail hour?

[quote] Many gay men under the age of 30 today are totally clueless of the almost lost tradition of the Sunday Tea Dance. (A tradition that really must be brought back.)

Why?

Really--what do you think young gay men are lacking by not having this?

I thought "tea dance" meant having sex in a public restroom.

R8, a public restroom was known as a "tea room". One went there a few hours after a "tea dance" if one couldn't get any at the tea dance.

There's a tea every single day all summer long on Fire Island, attended by everyone, young and old!

The Tea Dances in Atlanta during the 80s and 90s were outstanding. Bars were packed at 4 in the afternoon. You could drink, get laid and be home by 9PM to get a good night's sleep to be to work by 8AM. A great way to end the weekend

Tea dances continue in gay resorts, but the gay bars in most major cities are closing, not for lack of interest but because the internet and phone apps have changed the appeal of the average gay person in getting laid. They don't need the bars to meet people.

^^ It was really a fun way to meet and hook-up with a bunch of different guys, plus it was a great way just to make friends. I kind of feel sorry for young guys today who miss out on that Gay sense of community

I thought a tea dance was just another term to mean getting fucked up and party on a Sunday afternoon. Otherwise known as Sunday Fun Day. Or at a circuit event where there is dancing, drinking, and drugs on a Sunday afternoon. I didn't know there was such a long and storied history of it. A lot of people live for Sundays. Being hung over and miserable on Monday mornings just isn't worth it.

"Being hung over and miserable on Monday mornings just isn't worth it. "

That's why Sunday afternoon was so perfect, party and be home at a reasonable hour to sleep it off by Monday AM. It beats sitting around on Sunday just having Monday anxiety

Body and Soul. That was a fine tea dance.

[quote]Really--what do you think young gay men are lacking by not having this?

Why, bless your heart.

People have other ways to connect to get laid or make friends.

You may have nostalgia for them, but if they were still needed, they'd still be around.

Another thread where old queens reminisce about the good old slut days, classic DL.

@r18, Ok, but it was just an easy fun way to spend a Sunday. I'm sure your dance card is always filled, but some people like the idea of just walking into a party without a lot of texting, scrolling, swiping, rejecting bullshit

Don't shit on their cum crusted memories R19 or the elders get pissy.

Well R21, would you rather be pissed off or pissed on?

I am more familiar with the Sunday afternoon beer bust. I had my first threesome when a friend and I went to a Sunday beer bust, and met a guy who took us to his loft nearby.

Sunday beer bust was the thing when I was a gayling.

[quote] Prelapsarian gay

You misspelled "Prolapsarian".

They're probably into both R22.

The last tea dance I attended.

T dance.

@r27... and they think us eldergays didn't know how to party. Ha!

I remember some good Tea Dances as well

They still have them on FI, don't they? They started at 4 pm IIRC. You'd run into absolutely everyone in the Pines (which meant most of the people you knew in NYC). If you got there early you'd get a great seat on the window ledge overlooking the harbor. Back in the early 90s if you didn't see someone for a few weeks you started to get a little worried, but were afraid to ask...

I never understood what it meant, I also thought it had something to do with restrooms.

Warning: one needs to be on PrEP to safely read through this thread.

Sorry, but this article comes across like an Ivy League professor who took a weekend to lecture some less fortunates in the inner-city. "Thank you wise man for enlightening the plebes!"

And the author calls himself "an accredited journalist". WTF does that mean? Who is it that accredits journalists? Is this China? Do you need a license to practice journalism?

I lived in the Bay Area in the 1980’s and it was the thing to go to a gay dance club on Sunday afternoons. I was single and Sunday’s were dull. I don’t remember getting any action, it was social.

How I'd like to imagine a 1980s tea dance being.

^^ The clothes are right

I actually love this as a concept and it's been a long time since I saw it. I only ever went to one event in London, many years ago, that I thought was pretty awesome as by the time I left it was still light out and easy to get home (I didn't live centrally so was at the mercy of the train timetable - with 'traditional' nightclubs I either had to pull a guy and go back to his place or stay out all night and get the first train home at about 6am).

The only downside was it was a bit weird to emerge from a club half drunk and in daylight.

Had many, many fun Sunday Tea Dance afternoons at The Lost & Found in Washington DC, and on vacation at The Boatslip in Provincetown. The L&F is gone, but The Boatslip - pre-pandemic - could still be a fun Sunday afternoon. Not quite as great as years ago, but what is?

Yes, I'm old.

It's a horny time of the week for many guys. The Zone in LA (while busiest on weekend nights and not technically a Tea Dance) always had a busy Sunday afternoon session where some of the hottest dudes went to release their sperm. God, I miss that place.

Rich’s in Houston always had a White Party on Sundays in the late Eighties.

I never knew what it meant, so I was afraid to go.

Lost & Found, The Zone? LOL

Do they still not allow fats, fems, or blacks?

The clubs and "collared shirt" bars had tea dances on Sunday afternoons; the leather and Western bars had beer busts.

Champs in NYC used to have a good one. And Splash.

Of course Body & Soul was the ideal, never to be recreated, once in a lifetime Sunday dance party - everything else will always pale in comparison at least for dancers. Could never exist in 2020s. A different place and time. But will always be the highlight of NYC for me.

[quote]High Tea eventually moved earlier in the day, sometimes replacing the midday “luncheon” and settled around 11 o’clock, becoming the forerunner of what we know as “brunch”.

Sounds like elevenses, OP.

[quote] Don't shit on their cum crusted memories [R19] or the elders get pissy.

Don't shit on people who have memories instead TikTok twerking posts, rapidly aging twonk.

I'm not sure about what will happen in the future with COVID restrictions, social distancing and whether it will eventually reopen, but Oscars in Palm Springs has had a Sunday Tea Dance for decades, and seems always to be crowded when I have passed it on vacations. I have only attended a few times, since it's very packed and loud and it takes a very long time to get to a bartender to order a drink.

We used to have a Sunday Tea Dance in Brighton, England in the 00s.

It was called Sundae Sundae. Had a nice outdoor seating area overlooking the pier and sea.

It was a strange mix of people that were still partying from the Saturday night. Those that were doing the drag queen Caberet circuit that ran on Sundays. Those that were going clubbing Sunday night. Was fun.

Those were the days.

Hunters in Wilton Manors has/had a good one. Beer blast and disco- and you don’t feel too old to dance even at 60

R27: Orgies are so distracting though

R46 Case in point.