The UK’s first LGBT+ strip club is coming to London next month
Harpies, billed as Britain’s only LGBT+ strip night. (harpiesstripclub/ Instagram)
A new kind of strip club, one that centres on trans and queer bodies and celebrates everything LGBT+, is coming to London next month.
Harpies will throw its launch party in East London on July 20 at Metropolis, which was until now a heterosexual strip club that also ran queer club nights.
The club will offer live shows, private dances and party floors, all set to music by queer DJs.
Harpies will allow everyone to attend, LGBT+ or otherwise, and wrote in an Instagram post: “We believe in reclaiming power over the industry of exotic dancing.
“This night will be run by and for trans/queer people, we will welcome cis het men, but only to take their money.”
The club is a collaboration between Transmissions, founder of London Trans+ Intersex Pride, and art collective BiRDS.
Announcing the launch party, Transmissions said, “Harpies will centre bodies of all genders and sexualities, but especially trans+ strippers as we aim to celebrate trans+ bodies loud and proud, to kill the shame thrust upon us by cis society!
“You will be able to come watch live exotic shows, go to one of our party floors featuring London’s best queer DJ’s, tip your favourite dancers or go downstairs for a private dance…”
Lucia Blake is head of Transmissions, which also founded London Trans+ Intersex Pride.(harpiesstripclub/ Instagram)
The strip club is named after a harpy: “an empowered, badass bitch who devours men”
Head of Transmissions Lucia Blake said on Instagram: “Harpies will be a beacon of light for all trans people, all LGBTQI+, all women and all sex workers!
“It’s about time we take control over our fetishisation, over our sexual exploitation. NO MORE! This is about COMMUNITY and EMPOWERMENT! Are you all with us?”
The club night is named after the mythical Harpy, a creature with a woman’s face and body and a bird’s wings and claws, or as the club describes it, “an empowered, badass bitch who devours men.”
