Gary Saperstein, the founder of Out in the Vineyard tour and events company, has dedicated three decades to creating a welcoming and inclusive environment for the LGBTQ community in Wine Country.<\/p>\n

The Sonoma resident launched his company in 2008 to help make Wine Country a destination for the gay traveler. At the time, he had been noticing a steady increase of LGBTQ people visiting and moving to the area, yet there was a lack of marketing directed toward the LGBTQ community.<\/p>\n

\u201cHere we are 45 minutes north of the Castro in San Francisco, and yet nobody is marketing to the gay community,\u201d he recalled thinking. \u201cI wanted to open up the wine community to ours.\u201d<\/p>\n

Out in the Vineyard\u2019s first event, Twilight T-Dance, was hosted by Beringer Winery in St. Helena. T-dances, or tea dances, date back to 1950s New York, when it was illegal to dance with someone of the same sex and bar owners risked losing liquor licenses if caught selling alcohol to LGBTQ clientele. Alluding to the traditional tea dances in the English countryside, the tea dance was reconfigured in New York\u2019s gay community as a format where gay people could dance together under the guise of enjoying afternoon tea. Later, tea dances turned into nightclub events and, thanks to Out in the Vineyard, Sonoma County eventually got its own t-dance, complete with disco music and local wine.<\/p>\n

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