Sunny Club Is Reimagining Community for Filipino Sapphics

'WE NEED TO BE ABLE TO FIND PEOPLE WHO SHARE THE SAME EXPERIENCES AND MIGHT HAVE THE SAME STRUGGLES. IT'S THE ONLY WAY WE CAN SURVIVE.'

- By MARGA ANCHETA

The journey of a queer individual is better experienced in community. However, with the lack of physical venues and groups that are openly queer, it may be harder for one to navigate and come into terms with one's sexuality and identity.

Sunny Club started as a small group of lesbians doing virtual watch parties on a Discord server. Now, after two years, they have become one of the biggest organizers for Filipino sapphic events, such as parties and community hangouts. The Philippine STAR interviewed founders Jewel Elizabeth Enrile and Carolina Angelica "Cal" Lim Tolentino about how their team reinvented the sapphic space, and how they're working towards creating more events for the sapphic community.

THE PHILIPPINE STAR: What started Sunny Club? Were there any specific instances or things lacking in queer spaces that caused you to create Sunny?

JEWEL ENRILE: It was actually a STAR article that started it all. It was the one by (Cristina) Chi and (Jan) Cuyco about the lack of lesbian spaces in the Philippines. It was glaring how there were lesbian spaces before, but (some of them) closed down due to lack of profit. If physical spaces were a problem for us, then what can we do to address that? Why isn't it as simple as gathering all sapphic people or all the lesbian people that we know in a room? I remember having a Tweet during that time that was like, "Why don't we just have a picnic? Why can't we just be in a theater? Why don't we just do something?" and I think it was that determination to make something happen (that) started it.

Why are sapphic spaces and events important?