Out of the closet and on to the dance floor
Perth's emerging queer nightlife scene
Past the budget chemist and the rundown kebab shop, through to the dingy alleyway.
Down the dimly lit stairs of a nondescript building, only neon signs lead the way.
The subtle murmur of rock music becomes ear-splitting bass, vibrating through the floors and walls.
The air hangs heavy with the smell of cigarettes and spilled beer.
Fingernails polished in black, eyeliner applied thick, piercings glinting in the low light.
It is here where sweaty bodies swing and sway.
It is here where these bodies are unapologetically themselves.
This is queer joy.
Perth is known for having only a few gay-friendly bars as a safe haven for queer people to have a fun night out, but Sapphic Disco founder Cleo Schurrer said nightclubbing as a queer person was not exactly what it was cracked up to be.
She said she found even the most welcoming nightclubs often attracted patrons who could make the atmosphere uncomfortable.
“I would go to a gay bar and it would still be teeming with straight men,” she said.
“As a feminine-presenting person, I would get harassed, bothered, and, more than once, assaulted.
“I’ve come here because I’m gay, I’ve come here because I want to be around gay people, and instead I am here getting harassed and assaulted by straight men.”
She knew something needed to change.
A desire for safe spaces where they can be their authentic selves is inspiring the LGBTQ+ community to create the next generation of queer nightclubs.
According to a 2022 public health study by Deakin University, 20 per cent of Australian women experience unwanted sexual attention on a night out.
Transfolk of WA chairperson Thomas Drake-Brockman said it was important for everyone to have a safe space to have fun and be themselves.
“All people need and deserve safe spaces, without them we cannot be ourselves, explore, grow, and be honest,” they said.
“Safe spaces for our community to be our authentic selves provides an equal footing, and provides the opportunity we deserve to put aside hate and discrimination and enjoy the same safety that we all need.”
This need for an authentic queer space inspired Miss Schurrer, an event producer and performance manager, to establish Sapphic Disco.
The queer femme-focussed disco runs once a month from the basement of the iconic Rechabite in Northbridge.
The purple-lit bunker is filled wall-to-wall with feminine energy.
Cleo Schurrer created Sapphic Disco to ensure a protected nightlife space for Perth lesbians.
“I felt like there was an absence of a space that explicitly stated that it was for sapphics, created by a sapphic human,” she said.
“It is just a really beautiful, free, fun, open, warm environment.”
Miss Schurrer was not the only Perth lesbian who sought to change queer nightlife for the better.
Events manager Georgia Sassenfeld was driven by the same old saccharine pop music on loop to shake up Perth's queer nightlife.
She single-handedly manufactured the type of event she wanted to attend, including the logo, branding, playlists and schedules.
The emo, pop punk paradise Cherry Bomb was born.
“There are gays who don’t listen to just pop,” she said.
“I’m really the person who can do this, so I may as well do it.”
Cherry Bomb is the alternative queer party that leans into emo beats over disco glam.
Patron Bianca described their first time stepping into the monthly event's accepting atmosphere as “surreal”.
“Having had the experience of being a deeply closeted kid and feeling so isolated and so alone, being in such a queer space for the first time was a euphoric experience,” they said.
“It’s like talking in your mother tongue after a lifetime of adapting to the popular language.”
Cherry Bomb caters to the queer alternative scene in Perth.
Cherry Bomb caters to the queer alternative scene in Perth.
Cherry Bomb caters to the queer alternative scene in Perth.
Cherry Bomb caters to the queer alternative scene in Perth.
Perth’s nightclubs hold several drag queen competitions, where entertainers dress up and perform for a cash prize.
With Cherry Bomb already providing a space for alternative patrons, Miss Sassenfeld also wanted to give alternative performers the “stage they deserved”.
“I didn’t want the same old drag queens,” she said.
“This is an alternative queer party, we’re going to have some weird and wacky shit.”
The flagship competition King of the Underground (KOTU) was created exclusively for drag kings, showcasing their existence and talents.
“When more people see that these things can happen, they’re more inclined to actually be a part of it,” Miss Sassenfeld said.
Promotional poster for KOTU designed by Georgia Sassenfeld
Promotional poster for KOTU designed by Georgia Sassenfeld
Perth drag king and 2023 KOTU winner Mr Meaty said drag king competitions encouraged booking and uplifting alternative drag artists.
“[KOTU] is so important for shaping us kings,” he said.
“We're a subculture within a subculture and we are traditionally [assigned female at birth] which puts us at a further disadvantage in a cis man's world designed by cis men for cis men to excel.”
After working in events with barely any queer folk, performance artist Miss Phoria said Perth's expanding queer nightlife scene made them finally feel represented.
“Even if you're just attending, you're accepted, but you're also celebrated for just being there and showing up and being yourself,” they said.
“It could never be understood by someone who isn't queer.”
Miss Phoria says they see Perth's queer scene as one big family.
Miss Phoria says they see Perth's queer scene as one big family.
After Cherry Bomb’s success, Miss Sassenfeld had another idea to check off her bucket list.
As she visited strip clubs in support of friends who worked in the industry, she was struck by the lacklustre response by men in the audience.
Their ambivalence inspired her again to turn Perth's queer nightlife scene on its head.
“Men were sitting down looking bored as, with all these dancers doing crazy tricks, it was insane to me, they were just giving nothing,” she said.
“What if there was a strip club with no men?”
Club Sapphos advertised itself as a “strip club for womxn” where men were not performing on-stage or welcome in the audience.
In its initial stages, Club Sapphos was an event for the queer community, and barred cis-straight men from entering.
Miss Sassenfeld said the queer community’s evolving fluidity of gender identity made it difficult to prohibit men, so the ban was upheld through an honour system.
“Queer men already have a lot of spaces, there were not [many] spaces just for lesbians,” she said
The club also had a zero tolerance policy for any misconduct, regardless of gender identity.
“For specifically trans men, we still let them in,” Miss Sassenfeld said.
“At the end of the day, they are absolutely men, but they also were most likely a lesbian and part of the community for a long time before transitioning, and to not allow them in that space means they can’t be around their friends and can’t be in that community again.
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