Tea Dance, a monthly event that brings hundreds of queer people together from all over the Tri-State for cocktails and community, will soon celebrate a major milestone.
This Sunday, the Tea Dance taking place at Rosedale OTR will be the 50th that local activist Jacob Logeman has presided over.
“The whole concept is that yes, we can be extra gay and extra proud during June, but Tea Dance creates queer spaces year-round. It reminds that we’re here and we’re queer and that we have a lot of life to bring to the city,” Logeman said. “And each and every event is a beautiful bridge between generations of queer people, young and old.”
Tea Dance began in Cincinnati in 2017 thanks to Richard Cooke, who saw a lack of queer spaces in the city and wished to pay tribute to the LGBTQ+ community of old. In the 1950s, “tea dances” began as a secret way for gay men and lesbians to get together under the facade of afternoon tea. Cooke asked Logeman to take over organizing the event in 2022.
“Back in the 50s, it was really frowned upon to be gay, especially if you were out in public. When gay nightclubs started getting raided, that’s when tea dances started to pop up,” Logeman said. “It was a less law-defying way for our community to gather, simply because it was a Sunday afternoon in broad daylight in, like, a public park.”
Today, Logeman’s tea dances still take place on Sunday afternoons in public establishments. But now, the attendees openly celebrate their queerness instead of hiding it.
Each month, a different bar around the Cincinnati area hosts Tea Dance in tandem with Logeman. He often doesn’t repeat venues—although Rosedale in the spring and Igby’s in the winter are Tea Dance mainstays—out of a desire to expand the queer community as much as possible. Recently, the event has even expanded outside of bars to all sorts of different places—like a downtown event center where Logeman and crew put on a fashion show.
“I keep joking that I’m trying to collect different venues like Infinity Stones. I go back to certain bars because they’re Tea Dance classics, but I challenge myself to go to as many new venues as possible. ” Logeman said. “The great thing about Tea Dance is that it takes over primarily straight spaces where you maybe might not see a lot of queer people and presents it in an entirely different light. It’s not just one venue, it’s a movement that literally moves throughout the city and takes over a space for an afternoon.”
Logeman joked that he liked planning the events because “it gets me out of the house.”
“I’ve always loved bringing people together. When I was growing up, I always loved hosting parties at my house,” he said. “With this, I love the creative elements that go into planning. You know, I get to work with all these bars and make my silly little graphics. Doing it all makes me feel like I have a purpose in our local queer community, and gives me a sense that I’m doing something more and giving back.”
As part of Tea Dance number 50, Logeman collaborated with local queer-owned fashion brand Awarewolf Apparel to celebrate the major milestone. Graphic tees brandishing a design focusing on the queer history of Cincinnati and the U.S. at large will be for sale at the event, and Logeman will be hosting several raffles and giveaways throughout the day.
Over the course of the last few years, Tea Dance has grown into one of Cincinnati’s biggest queer-focused events. According to Logeman, no other Midwestern city has an event like this. His love for the event corresponds with his love for Cincinnati, his hometown.
“I’m proud of how much Tea Dance has grown. And I’m happy it gets to be here in Cincinnati,” Logeman said. “Something I think about a lot is if a young gay person is looking for a new city to move to and is looking for a place where they can truly be themselves, I hope they can find that here in Cincinnati with Tea Dance.”
