EXCLUSIVE: How Three Gen Zs Built The Sunny Side Club For the Queer Community
Who said it had to be Lesbian Visibility Day to celebrate ourselves? The Sunny Side Club encourages the sapphic and queer community to celebrate whenever you want!
In response to the lack of lesbian spaces, young organizers Jewel, Yana, and Cal took it upon themselves to not only address this concern but they herded the sapphic and queer community, coming together to celebrate their identities and their shared experiences. From online Discord hangouts, The Sunny Side Club created events for all kinds of queers: from a day of arts and crafts, book clubs, and educational talks, to a night of themed parties.
MEGAStyle talked to Jewel, Yana, and Cal about how The Sunny Side Club was formed, the challenges of forming these events, and future plans for their passion project.
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The Rise of The Sunny Side Club
While there are some clubs dedicated to gays, it’s no secret that there are close to none for lesbians. In the late 2000s, many lesbian bars and NGOs (Non-governmental Organization) had died down. Young and hopeful classmates since college, Jewel (she/her) and Cal (any pronouns) came together and asked each other, “Why don’t we do it ourselves?” As the organization grew, Yana (she/they) came as an applicant and is now a passionate organizer of The Sunny Side Club.
“I’m not saying that there weren’t many lesbian initiatives before,” Jewel clarified. “There are, but I feel like when we started, we definitely started seeing them more. Our participation opened our eyes: there are still people who are trying to make it happen. That is why we started. It really did start in realizing that there was a lack that we could do something about.”
The organizers started building Sunny on September 2023. “But before that, we were talking about how we could get together in cafes, we could try to organize something, rent out a venue,” Jewel explained. “It only took a few months, and then we started doing online meetups like Discord, and all of that. We eventually went on-ground, and this is how we got here today.”
Building Trust
With building organizations from the ground up, many challenges will be at the forefront. For The Sunny Side Club, the lack of resources and venues was just the beginning. “This was very much a DIY thing,” Jewel joked. Starting online was easy as it didn’t need any capital. However, with the desire to bring things face to face, the organizers realized that some venues weren’t very open to an all-sapphic or all-queer event.
@artbuds.ph Last weekend at @sunny was so much fun! We made so many new Art Buds
Thank you for stopping by and painting with us
we loved seeing all your beautiful creations! Want to have fun painting activities at your next event? DM us @artbuds.ph for inquiries
Follow us on TikTok & Instagram (@artbuds.ph) to stay updated on our events, classes, and more
Comment down below what items you’d like to paint next! #ArtBuds #ArtBudsPH #MetroManila #Philippines #ArtsAndCrafts #DIY #Painting ♬ original sound – artbuds.ph
“Getting to the space was difficult enough because we were still online at first, and then getting to the physical thing, that was the one that involved money, negotiations, talking to a lot of people, connections, trying to see if there was anyone who could help us out,” Jewel said.
“It’s also a lot of trouble in getting them to trust that we can do this for you. Like what the other collectives or what other partnerships have done for you, we can do it too,” Yana added. “Just because we’re a lesbian community doesn’t mean we can’t do that.” Being a new organization that caters to the queer community, The Sunny Side Club organizers have to work extra hard to gain the trust of various venues. “And then when you do, you have to get the trust of the people coming in, that this is safe and this is where you can be.”
Creating the Safe Space
“Making it safe is a whole different conversation,” Jewel admitted. “Making it safe was a lot of work as well, which sometimes led to altercations with venues, with strangers, with men who would try to get in.”
Yana, the organizer often manning registration, shared her unfortunate experience of coming across straight men trying to get into their night events, even so far as harassing the organizers just so they could have access to the events.
“It is also within the community that we deal with so many challenges, and it’s really hard when you’re not really trained for that,” Jewel explained as the three organizers were simply students and fresh graduates when they built The Sunny Side. “So, that has been a challenge we feel like we’ve been trying so hard to educate ourselves on and establish communication and trust within all of these communities and sub-communities within the events.”
Maintaining Safety
MEGAStyle asked the organizers how they learned from the harassment and the protocols they had set in place to ensure the safety of both attendees and organizers.
To this, Cal answered, “Starting from protecting the team, I feel like it really became a decision to stick with venues that would at the very least publish that it is a queer or sapphic event because we realized that was kind of like a red flag with venues who would refuse to term it that way.” The organizers have had experiences booking venues that don’t provide bouncers for the security of the people, and venues accepting their regulars despite booking them for a queer event. With this, the organizers learned to be firm with venues and partnerships not only for the safety of the attendees but for the organizers as well.
As for the harassment that comes with the job, Cal mentioned how they have started to set up protocols, patterning what they learned from their schools. Still, as it is a DIY project, the organizers have accepted that it will take a while to learn the ropes, understanding that it has its learning curve while asking for assistance.
The Events In The Day and Night
The magic of The Sunny Side Club isn’t just from the euphoric parties at night, but also in the daytime. While the organization is known for its wild and adventurous events in the middle of the night, it also organizes some of the most wholesome and intimate events when the sun is still out, ranging from book clubs, ceramic painting, and sexual health talks.
@thesunnyclubph spoiler alert: the mystery was solved all thanks to everyone’s ~oscar-worthy~ roleplaying
more intimate events soon? stay tuned
“We also wanted to provide more avenues for advocacies for educational talks, because as much as we lack visibility in space, we also lack knowledge amongst ourselves,” Jewel realized. The organizer had gone from being straight, to bisexual, and then identifying as a lesbian, however, this journey of learning about her identity came with many relationships with men that put Jewel in multiple hurtful situations.
The Future of The Sunny Side Club
The organizers also talked to MEGAStyle about its plans for more events in the daytime. “I don’t participate in the nightlife, especially before sunny, so I feel like that was really a big thing because the events always feel different to me,” Cal shared honestly. As queer people, what was more important to them was meeting people with the same experience as them, a comfort that they also had gone through similar situations. Being a non-binary who has identified previously as a transman, Cal has personal struggles with finding more people like himself, who have gone through the same transman to non-binary pipeline. To the organizer, he is still trying to find the community for him.
@thesunnyclubph happened @Maiora in Katipunan, QC! come to the book club, read for an hour, then share what u read with an all-girl crowd. we’re working on more day events to give everyone a community, regardless of whether or not they attend the nightlife with us! we also had a jennifer’s body watch party! next, we’re doing a FREE cafe hangout at maiora this sunday, with tarot readings, coffee, zines, books and art it’s followed by a mystery dinner party with yummy meals from maiora & wine
check out our ig for more! @/thesunnyclubph you can register there as well
Aside from more intimate day events, Jewel shared an interest in partnering with more organizations, businesses, initiatives, and NGOs. “We want to partner with more people that could provide us with more information, resources, and learning more about queer culture,” Jewel provided. The three shared their intentions of wanting Sunny to have equal contributions to the nightlife and give back to the community.
As for Yana, she expressed wanting more collaborations, especially with independent artists. “Sunny is also founded on platforming queer artists and queer initiatives. So, to be able to do that more would be amazing,” the organizer shared.
When asked about the future of The Sunny Side Club, all the organizers would love for their passion project to be sustainable for both attendees and organizers. “I really want it to be long-term so that there’s a place for all the lesbians to go to or to look out for,” Jewel wished, also hoping to partner with more like-minded organizations.
“It’s the sustainability as well,” Cal agreed. In organizing these events, the three admitted that they hadn’t taken care of themselves, prioritizing their attendees more. “There’s not really any training, parang yung alam mo talaga yung gagawin mo. We’re trying to make it sustainable by doing what we can and learning along the way. But I feel like the only way to actually do that is for people with different professional backgrounds to be involved in it,” he admitted.
For Yana, she wished for Sunny to be what young lesbians look up to, not something entirely revolutionary, but enough to leave an imprint on the queer community. “It’s just something that leaves a print on people and encourages people to do more things like Sunny does—the events, the community, expanding the community, and being more accessible.” With her realizing that she was queer from a young age, Yana didn’t grow up surrounded by queer people. Finding The Sunny Side Club was refreshing for the organizer because not only was she able to find a community, but she was also able to find people like her, who had gone through the same experience as her.
Featured Image and Photos: SUNNY SIDE CLUB (via Instagram)
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