{"id":31832,"date":"2025-04-19T02:53:18","date_gmt":"2025-04-19T02:53:18","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/31832\/"},"modified":"2025-04-19T02:53:18","modified_gmt":"2025-04-19T02:53:18","slug":"inside-the-club-night-changing-bristols-queer-scene","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/31832\/","title":{"rendered":"Inside the club night changing Bristol’s queer scene"},"content":{"rendered":"

I entered Strange Brew on a Wednesday evening in March ready to dance. I\u2019d come for Soft Butch<\/a>, a night celebrating butchness for women, non-binary and trans people. But to my surprise, I\u2019m met with a room full of people sitting on the floor, eyes closed, meditating.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Leading the meditation was Lexx, founder and host of Soft Butch. Masc-presenting, with cropped hair and a warm, open smile, they gently closed the practice and invited us to the dancefloor.<\/p>\n

I wasn\u2019t sure if the vibe shift would work \u2013 but soon enough, the room was packed and sweaty, everyone moving joyfully to reggaeton, Afrobeat, dancehall, and drum and bass. The night ended with a debut of Lexx\u2019s new track <\/a>\u2014 also called Soft Butch \u2014 which weaves voices telling stories of butchness into the music.<\/p>\n

As a queer Bristolian, I left feeling rejuvenated and proud of what my city has to offer.\u00a0<\/p>\n

A DJ and content creator in Bristol, Lexx started the now sell-out night in November 2022 to create the kind of queer event they couldn\u2019t find elsewhere in the city \u2014 a sober, safe, intentional alternative to the intoxicated, techno-heavy club scene.<\/p>\n

Soft Butch\u2019s success comes against a dark backdrop: hate crimes against trans people have surged <\/a>by 186% in the past five years. With 88% of incidents going unreported<\/a>, the true scale is likely far greater.<\/p>\n

Trans rights have become a political football in the so-called culture wars, with toxic, transphobic rhetoric espoused from the political and media class.\u00a0<\/p>\n

On 17 April, the UK\u2019s Supreme Court made a landmark ruling<\/a> that effectively means trans women are not legally recognised as women. The Equality Act, they ruled, refers only to biological sex. The social implications of this will be profound, a fresh blow to an already embattled community.<\/p>\n

In this context, nights like Soft Butch feel not only necessary, but urgent. I sit down with the founder Lexx and members of the community this night has built to reflect on what it means to them.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Centering butchness and trans inclusion<\/strong><\/p>\n

\u201cI wanted to create a space that centres butchness, gender non-conforming, and trans people,\u201d Lexx tells me. \u201cI\u2019m grateful for queer spaces that include cis men, but within the context of patriarchy, it\u2019s also important to have spaces where we can be just amongst ourselves.\u201d<\/p>\n

\"AClubbers at a Soft Butch night held at the Jam Jar. Credit: Alex Murphy<\/p>\n

Lexx has experienced physical violence due to their gender presentation. Alongside fear for their physical safety, they also speak about the persistent microaggressions that gender non-conforming and trans people navigate daily: \u201cIf the gender you were assigned at birth doesn\u2019t match your actual gender, anything ID-related can lead to invasive questioning \u2014 or worse,\u201d they explain.<\/p>\n

In this context, Soft Butch offers the chance to exhale. \u201cWhen I walk into a space filled with butch people, I feel my nervous system relax,\u201d Lexx says. \u201cLike I don\u2019t have to be on guard anymore.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n

Embodiment as resistance<\/strong><\/p>\n

That sense of safety allows for something deeper to unfold on the dancefloor: a return to the body. From the outset, Lexx has been deliberate about designing Soft Butch around embodied, intentional practices.\u00a0<\/p>\n

\u201cI wanted to shift the focus away from alcohol and invite us to be present with ourselves,\u201d Lexx explains. \u201cThere\u2019s so much pressure on how we express our bodies \u2014 alcohol can mask discomfort, but I want us to practise sitting with it, because I believe that\u2019s what will actually allow us to feel truly free.\u201d<\/p>\n

So Soft Butch begins not with pre-drinks, but a floor meditation. Lexx explains the purpose of this: \u201cSo we can remember we have a beautiful body, and connect with the sensations within it,\u201d Lexx says. \u201cThat\u2019s what aliveness is.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cDancing is an incredible tool to access stress and pain relief,\u201d Lexx adds. \u201cThere\u2019s Harvard research on this!\u201d \u2013 referring to a study<\/a> where dance can reduce stress, improve cognitive function, elevate serotonin levels, and even lower the risk of dementia.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt is so powerful to dance in a room full of queers\u201d<\/strong><\/p>\n

Habibi, an art therapy student and queer Muslim trans performer, is a regular at Soft Butch. \u201cI get so much from Soft Butch, I don\u2019t know what I would do without it,\u201d he tells me. \u201cIt is so powerful to dance in a room full of queers. To know that we are all there for each other. It fuels me, and gives me space to feel loved, valued, real, and free to move how I want to move.\u201d<\/p>\n

\"ASoft Butch has created a strong sense of community. Credit: Sophia Stefelle\u0301.<\/p>\n

Having been in Bristol for four years, he credits the city\u2019s queer scene with helping him grow into himself. \u201cI don\u2019t think I would have found myself in this way or so quickly without it.\u201d<\/p>\n

\n

When I walk into a space filled with butch people, I feel my nervous system relax<\/p>\n

Lexx<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

But for some, that journey has been more complicated. Mads, who is Black, butch, and a mother, has struggled to find spaces where she can fully show up. \u201cIn most normative spaces, the way I look visibly agitates people,\u201d she says. \u201cFor me to be butch means unequivocally showing up as myself and not apologising for that.\u201d<\/p>\n

Even in spaces that celebrate queerness, Mads often feels she must soften parts of her identity. \u201cIt\u2019s not that anyone does anything explicit to make me feel unwelcome on account of my Blackness,\u201d she says, \u201cbut when I look around a room, if the space is predominantly white, then even if my butchness is embraced, I still have to hold my guard up around my Blackness.\u201d<\/p>\n

In predominantly Black spaces, her queerness and butchness aren\u2019t always welcomed either. \u201cI have each foot in two different worlds.\u201d For Mads, true safety means being in spaces that can hold all of her \u2014 her queerness, her butchness, her Blackness. Despite the growing visibility of queer events, her experience is a reminder that true inclusivity is still a work in progress.<\/p>\n

Creating community<\/strong><\/p>\n

From club nights like PLU, Queerky, and Crotch, to Bristol Butch Bar socials, QPOC community events, House of Bouss\u00e9\u2019s drag open mic, and activities like queer hiking, swimming, and cycling, Bristol\u2019s queer scene has flourished in both scale and scope. It\u2019s no longer just about a night out \u2014 it\u2019s about finding home.<\/p>\n

By 2011, nights like Fag Club began to shift things. \u201cThese events felt more trans-inclusive and counter-cultural in general,\u201d recalls Liv, who\u2019s lived in Bristol for two decades. \u201cThey gave a platform to queer artists and brought people together.\u201d<\/p>\n

\"AFinding joy on the dancefloor: a Soft Butch night at the Jam Jar. Credit: Henri T<\/p>\n

Alice (also known as Pan), a gender-fluid contributor to the Soft Butch track, sees nights like Lexx\u2019s as part of a wider evolution. \u201cI\u2019ve been in Bristol for 15 years and I feel like the scene used to be very gay and lesbian-centred. Soft Butch has opened a can of worms of delicious AFAB [assigned female at birth], non-binary, women and trans folk. I feel that the queer scene has grown massively since I first came to Bristol.\u201d<\/p>\n

Lexx reflects on the role Soft Butch has played in this transformation. \u201cI\u2019m humbled by what Soft Butch has grown into as an event and a community. I\u2019m so grateful for those who came before us who paved the way for liberation. As oppressive systems work to divide and conquer, my hope is that we keep on learning, fighting, and sharing joy as resistance \u2014 together across queer, global majority, and disabled communities.\u201d<\/p>\n

They pause, before offering a final reflection: \u201cMaybe soft butch, a term coined by our butch and femme ancestors, can become a concept that guides us through these times \u2014 by reminding us to always embrace both our fierceness and our softness.\u201d<\/p>\n

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