Through the Looking Glass

We walked through a translucent glass door with round, clear "eyes" and a "mouth." It was like parting a ski mask, going through this looking glass into the Happy Ending lounge. We were there to support my best friend Craig Seymour, who was taking part in the monthly Sex Worker Literati reading series sponsored by Hos, Hookers, Call Girls, and Rent Boys, an anthology and sex worker web site.

Craig read from his fantastical memoir All I Could Bare: My Life in the Strip Clubs of Gay Washington D.C.--and I'm not calling it fantastical just because I'm in it. As he read, he showed some of his photography from American Boys: a strip club diary, which you can preview and buy here. After a few rounds, Craig and I headed over to Campus Thursdays at Splash. It seemed appropriate to go watch underwear-clad boys dancing on bars. It was Campus Thursday's Britney birthday party, with $5 vodka drinks every time one of her songs came on. Craig and I soon grew restless, though, because there was no Brit to be had for quite a while.

So we headed over to Barracuda to watch the Star Search competition hosted by Peppermint (pictured above, with contestant Miss Kitten with a Whip to her left). The gang was all there: Kyle, Rudy, Jane Lane, and Cherry Jubilee were close to the stage. Yuhua and Demanda came after they were done with their show at Boots and Saddle. Miss Kitten served an impressive number with seven costume changes; but it was all about the showdown between Sheneeda Drink (pictured below) and Logan Hardcore. Week after week, the two tie and split the prize money.

Sheneeda did a timely number dressed as a more-than-pissed-off-by-marriage-inequality Lady Liberty. She set aflame a symbolic marriage license. Logan (pictured below) worked then doffed her leopard-print Snuggie and gave birth before doing her trademark acrobatics: handstands, flips, and splits in some fabulous new black stilettoes.

Peppermint closed out the contest performing "Whatta Man" by Salt-N-Pepa and En Vogue. Then, came the moment of truth. "One lucky queen," Peppermint explained, "is going to pay her phone bill." The crowd screamed, hollered, and cheered to vote for their favorite. Decibels ahead of the other contestants, Sheneeda and Logan waited patiently for Peppermint to announce Sheneeda the winner. Logan had her four Glammy Award nominations to keep her warm. I can't wait to see how many she wins tomorrow night.