“Once you find your venue, once you have your girls, then you have to do all the work of putting together the promo for it, creating some kind of media campaign for it,” says Zarsky. Between securing a cast, finding a venue that will support, creating a media campaign, paying out dancers, reuniting forgotten props with performers, and working the actual event — which is a blur of strippers, guests, DJs, venue staff —  organizers of these nights certainly have their work cut out for them.

“I don’t think I saw a single girl dance or do anything because I was so busy,” says Zarsky of the night-of work she was responsible for. She shared that one event she planned took about a month and a half to produce, while another took about three months.

As of right now, Hobrecker explained that THIRST organizers have a 1-to-2 hour meeting every week, plus homework to complete independently as well, which racks up to about 5 to 10 hours per week. This encompasses everything from casting, to venue negotiation, designing flyers, answering everyone’s questions, and general meetings about things like event flow. Then, on an actual show week, it becomes the producers’ full-time job.

The labor and effort this takes is worth highlighting, as it is, of course, the only reason these events can exist as revelatory experiences of queer desire. It’s also a responsibility, as handling sex work often yields intentional codes of conduct, house rules, photo constraints, and safety monitors to facilitate the evening. 

It’s a testament to queer people’s resourcefulness, and disenfranchisement, that producers must build these nights from scratch. The demand for these events is clear and the momentum is certainly continuing to build as trans people feel more and more galvanized to take up space and display their sexuality without judgment or fear.

“One time someone called me a hedonist,” said Stardust. “I said, ‘Thank you’ because to me that is a compliment.”