Tea Room Gay Defn
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TEA ROOM GAY DEFN
Tea dance, often abreviated as jt "tea", is a term for "happy hour" ed among men and women the gay muny. Not necsarily jt one hour. The term n also be qualified by Kight" and "low" to qualify the time of day occurs. Low tea typilly tak place earlier the eveng. High tea is later. And some larger gay rorts, such as Fire Island, there is even mid-tea which tak place between the two." name="Dcriptn" property="og:scriptn * tea room gay meaning *
Much like people dancg to YMCA at a Republin heterosexual weddg, tea has bee divorced om s origal e by gay men. Ined, discsns of Man’s cup of tea referenced the Boston Tea Party and Kerm the Frog, but did not refer to gay culture at all—no mentn of anonymo sex public toilets, the place of gossip among gay men, or Black drag culture. Get your cup and scer, as I attempt to partially rectify this erasure by servg up the tea about the historil and cultural importance of tea unrstandg gossip gay male cultur.
In his ethnography of the 1970s gay “clone, ” Mart Leve proposed four central issu clone culture: dancg, dgs, dick, and dish (or gossip).
Leve saw gossip as equally important to sex as part of gay culture, but of urse the two are timately tertwed. The term “tea” probably evolved om a Brish gay slang term for ure, and, by extensn, rtrooms beme known as “tearooms. Tearooms were (are) equented by men who were openly gay as well as by men who intified as heterosexual and were married wh fai.
tearoom - Or: <a href="tea+room">tea room</a> / <a href="T-room">T-room</a> , <a href="gay">gay</a> termology, a men's rtroom ed for <a href="anonymo+sex">anonymo sex</a> and <a href="cisg">cisg</a>. <P> ETYMOLOGY: From the abbreviatn <a href="T-room">T-room</a> or om <a href="tea">tea</a> , a slang word for ure. </P> <P> SYNONYMS: <a href="clubhoe">clubhoe</a>; <a href="rnhole+palace">rnhole palace</a>; <a href="ttage">ttage</a>; <a href="greenhoe">greenhoe</a>; lonelyhearts' <a href="club">club</a>; <a href="luncheote">luncheote</a>; <a href="marble+palace">marble palace</a>; <a href="penile+lony">penile lony</a>; <a href="teahoe">teahoe</a> (of the Augt <a href="moon">moon</a>); <a href="throne+room">throne room</a>; <a href="tradg+post">tradg post</a>. </P> * tea room gay meaning *
Openly gay men me to refer to the straight men who equented the rtrooms as “tearoom tra” (”tra” is a slang term for men who intify as straight but have sex wh other men). The ncept of the tearoom has a long history gay culture. Aaron Rosanoff’s 1927 Manual of Psychiatry lists “Tea Hoe” as part of the “special slang” among homosexuals.
Gay slang om the early twentieth century had a variety of terms referrg to the clanste ways which gay men would fd one another.
Exampl om Gershon Legman’s (1941) glossary clu “playg checkers” (movg om seat to seat a movie theater search of other gay men) or “church moe” (a person who viss church orr to grope other men or cise for sexual partners). Of urse, gossip was ccial not only for knowg where to succsfully fd other gay men and how to protect one’s reputatn, but also as a way to spread awarens of “rough tra”—straight-intifyg men who have a history of assltg their male sexual partners.
T-room - Or: <a href="tea+room">tea room</a> / <a href="tearoom">tearoom</a> , <a href="gay">gay</a> termology, a men's rtroom ed for <a href="anonymo+sex">anonymo sex</a> and <a href="cisg">cisg</a>. <P> SYNONYMS: <a href="clubhoe">clubhoe</a>; <a href="rnhole+palace">rnhole palace</a>; <a href="ttage">ttage</a>; <a href="greenhoe">greenhoe</a>; lonelyhearts' <a href="club">club</a>; <a href="luncheote">luncheote</a>; <a href="marble+palace">marble palace</a>; <a href="penile+lony">penile lony</a>; <a href="teahoe">teahoe</a> (of the Augt <a href="moon">moon</a>); <a href="throne+room">throne room</a>; <a href="tradg+post">tradg post</a>. </P> * tea room gay meaning *
The fact that “servg up tea” origated the ntext of tearoom culture reflects the ways which gossip serv to regulate social practic and inti gay male culture; there is a peculiar etiquette to the servg of tea.
Posssg the tea n also ensure one’s safety by knowg which men might be “piranhas” (vlent gay-bashers). Although the Kerm meme is not “gay, ” do pture the sence of sippg tea.
In the se of closeted men who vised tearooms like those Humphreys studied, watchg a man stggle to prent a heterosexual ont public allowed openly gay men to feel morally superr to closeted men. Gossip was ccial not only for knowg where to succsfully fd other gay men and how to protect one’s reputatn, but also as a way to spread awarens of “rough tra”—straight-intifyg men who have a history of assltg their male sexual partners.