For queer womxn, non-binary and trans people of colour, this monthly event loves its themed nights – from the tastefully named ‘Game of Hoes’ to the Wild West-inspired ‘Yeehaw’. It’s a welcoming, no-pressure environment, including a free taxi service for trans people of colour. LeJeune says the company accepts “the high majority” of applicants, while remaining “focused on building a femme membership of career driven women.” But she wouldn’t give more details about why some women weren’t allowed in.

So at 7:30 on a Thursday night, Courtney and I arrive for the party at a club in the South of Market neighborhood. It’s cold and drizzling, the kind of weather that’s more encouraging of Netflix and chill than sexual adventures. A male bouncer lets us past the door into a bar area warmed by tungsten glow and furnished with afghan rugs, ample seating on red velvet-covered chairs and inexplicable, charming typewriters. Women mill about the room. I don’t even know what is happening. But I like it,” she says. Later though, Breanna says that she couldn’t quite wrap her head around the event. The burlesque dancer takes labored breaths between stanzas, eyes going big from the sweeping movements. Nervous giggles and claps emerge at intervals from the crowd. It’s unclear whether this show is for the women, or for the stories they will tell their boyfriends after. The invitation to Skirt Club, a women-only, bisexual and bi-curious sex party, tells you one thing, loud and clear: This may be a girls-only orgy, but it’s not lesbianism as you know it. This is Katy Perry singing “I kissed a girl and I liked it.” This is an Agent Provocateur window display. This is the kind of awkward, lighthearted, lesbianism many women either had – or wished they’d had – in college. It’s “lesbianism” that lesbians will recognize, but have a hard time endorsing without some irony. It’s lesbianism as a side piece. It’s lesbianism: our little secret, for women whose bi-curiosity has become too overwhelming to ignore.Mentioned in this episode: Piano player https://ambercolesings.com ; Burlesque https://thelalas.com; Sex toys https://www.casualtoys.com - use coupon code FSU for 15% off! LeJeune says that when she was looking to experiment with her sexuality, she couldn’t find a space where she felt comfortable. She didn’t want to go to lesbian parties because she worried women there might be looking for a relationship, while she was not. She concedes that she may have been wrong, but she felt too intimidated to find out. So, she started her own event. I keep forgetting that my name tonight is Layla,” she says. “We all choose our names. I got mine from that Eric Clapton song.” By 10:30, the party is winding down.Before I leave, a woman named Sonja tells me the story of her first same-sex experience with a female friend. They both identified as straight at the time, so the first time they made out with each each other, they figured, “This isn’t gay.” Then they had sex. “But we said, ‘We’re not gay!’ And we kept doing it and saying, ‘We’re still not gay!’ Then one day we realized – we were totally gay,” she says.

I asked my girlfriend Courtney, whose shaved head makes her much more obviously queer than me, if she’d be interested in going. According to fairy tales, unicorns are mythical creatures that everybody has heard of, but nobody has seen. Indeed, along with the women who identify as bisexual, there seemed to be a fair number of women who say they hadn’t had any girl-and-girl experiences and identified as straight, but were nonetheless game – not surprising, really, given how likely women are to be attracted to both sexes. No one says the word “lesbian” all night, with the exception of one girl who asks me, “Are we not supposed to say the ‘L-word’ here?”I ask Moon what she thinks of the party. The Skirt Club events, she says, are providing femme, bi curious women their own space to experiment. “It’s a safe place to explore without it having to ‘mean’ anything about their identity,” she says. “I don’t think the parties are gay, per se. Just as I don’t think fooling around with someone of the same sex is necessarily gay. The words we have to describe sexuality are too frail to contain the dynamism of the human experience.”

It’s not just guys that Louise is attracted to when she goes out alone “I am polysexual, so I am attracted to people rather than a specific sex. If I am playing with a couple, it doesn’t matter how nice he is, I have to connect with her as well. If I’m playing with a single guy, then he can’t take himself too seriously, make me laugh and make me feel like I’m the only woman in the room, and you’re halfway there. Sometimes for fun, I will see a couple playing together and if I catch her eye and I can see she is interested, I will just walk up and start kissing her. His reaction is usually jaw-dropping, especially if they are new to the scene.” Louise Fischer, 26, can be heard moaning during the on-the-record intercourse, part of a two-minute segment that aired on Radio 4 in Denmark. In some cases, Quinn says, women saw Skirt Club events more like a networking opportunity than a sex party. At the last London party she attended, a number of women wanted to network. Skirt Club is open to all women, but “very few” Skirt Club members are lesbians according to founder Genevieve LeJeune, who identifies as predominantly heterosexual, though definitely interested in sleeping with women – a two on the Kinsey Scale, if you will. LeJeune says that based on information that women give Skirt Club when they sign up, most partygoers have the same sexual inclinations as her, or are more heterosexual. But LeJeune says that not everyone is there to indulge the occasional fantasy – some women have experienced trajectory changes in their lovelife after attending Skirt Club parties.

A lesbian staple at lovely Dalston Superstore. For trash-pop and guilty pleasures stay upstairs.Or if you want to get sweaty, descend into the basement for house, techno and acid. It attracts big-name DJs too. The likes of Honey Dijon, Joyce Muniz and DJ Heather have played there. The ultimate club night for every queer woman, trans or non-binary babe in the capital is absolutely buzzing – this Ancient Greek-themed party even made a cheeky appearance in Desiree Akhavan’s TV show ‘The Bisexual’. It’s a Sapphic sanctuary crammed into a step-free basement bar where female and non-binary DJs smash out the best of R&B and pop goddesses – think Rihanna, Robyn and Madonna. Shun Hades for this queer underworld – you’ll have him shitting rainbows.