Sean Goettsche Quits King of Diamonds!

I received news from an anonymous tipster that Sean Goettsche quit King of Diamonds after my letter was sent to Jason Scott. Most of the dancers at King of Diamonds are unaware of what was going on, and were told that Sean quit "because of something going on with the club that the girls don't know about."

Sean was one of the managers while I worked there. He testified against me in court. He was a beta male and very emotional. Sean, you just got mixed up with the wrong crowd! If you're reading-- you did the right thing by quitting! I wonder how much money King of Diamonds will spend to train a new manager.

Next I want Sean Goettsche to contact me so I can interview him. I also want Sean to provide statements for future lawsuits against King of Diamonds, to protect dancers far beyond the realm of being a bouncer/manager and to continue to work toward liberation. Sean also needs to stop referring to grown women as "girls." He did that in the workplace and in the court room. Sean Goettsche, I am a woman-- a woman who got all of her money back from King of Diamonds and then inspired you to quit your stable and comfortable job.

Losing in Small Claims, Appealing to District

In downtown Minneapolis's warehouse district there sits an alcohol-free strip club with a crowded fish tank in the lobby, where dancers watch the sad swimmers compete and eat one another all the live long shift. Rib cages of deceased fish decorate the bottom of the tank, while finned cannibals pucker at the flesh. Water leaks from the ceiling of the club when it rains, and drug deals are abound. A man was once stabbed outside of the club during one of my work shifts at Choice Gentlemen's Club, and we were locked inside while police processed the scene.

I worked at Choice Gentlemen's Club between the months of September 2015 to April 2016. In that time, the strip club cheated me out of a little bit over $13,000 in unpaid minimum wage, overtime compensation, cuts of my dance money and illegal house fees. I took Choice to small claims court on Tuesday, September 20th. The pendulum of justice sometimes swings in favor the oppressed, and sometimes in favor of the oppressor. This was the first suit that I have ever lost.

During the time before the judge enters the courtroom and the parties are to exchange documents or information about what they plan to present, the owner of Choice chose to berate me on my dress that he thought inappropriate for court, the way that I smelled and his delusions about whether or not I pay my taxes. He accused me of being a sex trafficking victim with a pimp behind all of my lawsuits, and then he attempted to touch my knee. This was particularly triggering, as he has touched my legs in the past and caused me to report him to the EEOC for sexual harassment. When he did this on our court date, I ran back into the court room to notify the clerk that he was not showing me any of the documents that he planned to present. She, an older woman, told me I needed to behave like an adult, go back out there and exchange the documents. She ignored what I described to her, so I just went back out there. Thomas Hoskamer, the proprietor of Choice, continued to berate me and show me a few of the documents. I returned to the court room to notify the clerk that he was not fully cooperating. She told me to behave like an adult and if I can't do that, then the referee will deal with it. I said, “Fine,” and sat on the benches. The clerk proceeded to stare me down for the overwhelming majority of time that I sat on the bench. She wrote something down on a piece of paper that she later showed to the referee before he called my name to be sworn in and testify.

When I announced what I do for a living, the referee began snickering at me. I heard gasps from the audience of other small claimants, and the clerk's glare burned through me. I cried during my testimony as I described my allegiance to past labor struggles. I was shaking in fear, because the referee, Perry Smith, spent most of my testimony smirking and chuckling at me. He rolled his eyes and flippantly said I could play “some” of my recordings when I told him that I recorded my managers breaking labor laws. He told me to stop talking and would not let me finish my testimony. He would not look at the examples of past strip club lawsuits, nor would he examine any of the many pieces of evidence that I brought in. When it was Tom Hoskamer's turn to testify, referee Perry Smith bro'ed it up with him, as well as manager Edward “Eddie” Lane. Tom's defense centered around his theory that I am a sex trafficking victim, that somebody put me up to these lawsuits, and that he was sued in the past for sexual harassment by two pregnant trafficking victims on drugs. He suggested that I was in a similar situation. He gave referee Perry Smith his Eagle Scout promise. Perry Smith gave me two minutes for a rebuttal, wherein I tried to explain what kind of a person I am.

I lost the case. I didn't lose because I didn't have enough evidence; misogynist bigot Perry Smith just didn't examine my evidence. I didn't lose because I didn't have audio recorded evidence; misogynist bigot Perry Smith didn't allow me enough time to set up my equipment. I didn't lose because I didn't testify truthfully; misogynist bigot Perry Smith mocked me so much that I began crying during my testimony. I reported misogynist bigot Perry Smith's conduct to the authorities, in hopes that he will no longer be allowed to referee small claims cases. I reported the misconduct of his clerk as well, because there is no reason why a bitter old woman should have spent that much time glaring at me.

It is my hope that the district court judge will examine my evidence, recordings and testimony through an unbiased lens. There is no logical reason why I could lose this case in district court.

An Open Letter to Jason Scott

I am mailing the following letter to my former manager tomorrow afternoon:

Jason Scott,

You were my manager at King of Diamonds Gentlemen's Club in Inver Grove Heights during the Summer of 2015, where you enforced rules upon me that legally classified me as an employee, although I was not receiving an hourly wage or notified of any of the benefits that employees legally enjoy. During the four week course of my employment, EMPLOYMENT, at King of Diamonds, you and your staff grew to become increasingly dissatisfied with my behavior and what you described as an “attitude.” While everyone knew that I was an excellent salesperson who typically made more money than all of the other dancers during my work shift, I frequently received negative feedback from customers for not giving them enough free attention. Many of your customers are misogynists who believe that women owe them free attention, without compensating them in the workplace environment. Instead of defending my right to keep to myself if I'm not getting paid, you made attempts to intimidate and bother me, by informing me that I was close to losing my job. When a customer made physical contact with my rear end during a VIP show and his gestures did not show up on your security video, you and Sean Goettsche decided to pal around with the guy and didn't make him pay the money that was rightly mine. That is because you and Sean Goettsche are both exploitative, misogynist assholes. I understand that King of Diamonds is currently owned by a woman who thinks she is a good person, but she is not a good person. Working for King of Diamonds helped me to intimately understand how female club owners are just as capable as men to exploit, use and deny rights to young women who deserve them. These rights were won by people who fought and died for them, and I do not take my rights lightly. I was so insulted when you and the rest of the King of Diamonds staff denied me my rights, but I would not let your verbal degradation and intimidation bring me down.

Fortunately, I won the lawsuit that I brought forth to King of Diamonds-- the one where you, Sean Goettsche and the owner of King of Diamonds testified at against me. It is deeply satisfying and delicious to know that the courts were able to understand how exploitative, manipulative and cruel you and your employer are to young women, and I can only hope that every one of the strippers at King of Diamond follows suit.

After I won the lawsuit, King of Diamonds made no efforts to reply to my mail or requests for the money that was rightly mine. I had to do a till tap, as you know. It was also deeply satisfying to know that whoever was managing, probably you, went and got the full sum of my money out of the safe. It is deeply satisfying to imagine you or one of your equally exploitative coworkers having to do that on a busy night. I hope a lot of dancers saw it happen and that you and the King of Diamonds owners felt embarrassed that it happened. I hope that you had to awkwardly explain to them that you lost a law suit and your arguments got torn to shreds by a stripper who worked at the club for one month, even though you hired a big name attorney to come into small claims court on a cold January morning, where you sat and watched other trials. Do you remember when you told me that I won't see the money from the VIP customer who refused to pay? Isn't it funny that not only did I “see” that money, but I brought you to court to get much more than that VIP money, that I proved your employer is a criminal, and that I won? I think it's great.

I don't know how much feelings you have, Jason Scott, but I just wanted to write you this letter to let you know that you are a bad person who breaks many labor laws and that you exploit vulnerable young women every time you go to work. I hope more strippers sue the club and use my judgment as an example of past abuses within the club, so they have ease in asserting every right that you take from them.

You are garbage.

Sincerely,

Brandi Campbell

Media Experiences

There was never any breaking point in my decision to sue strip clubs and help with the union effort. From age nineteen, I knew it was a passion of mine and this has been a gradual pursuit. I have told this to every journalist I have ever talked to, but every journalist continues to ask me what point it was that made me "fed up." Bryce Covert lied in her poorly written article and said there was a certain point when I was "fed up." She used and exploited me just as any strip club, corporation or business does to their workers, for her own benefit.

After the NLRB helped me with Hustler, I made a few tweets about it that Bryce Covert of ThinkProgress.org read. She contacted me over twitter for an interview, which I agreed to. She conducted it over the phone. I found her to be rude, arrogant and a poor listener. I was appalled when the article came out, due to the poor spelling and the exploitative way in which she used the interview. The opening line describes me as being “groped” at every club I have worked for years. I wasn't assaulted at every club I've ever worked at and while sexual harassment is a huge problem at many clubs, the way she described me was very dehumanizing. When she contacted me for an interview, she expressed interested in my NLRB experience. That is what I thought the article was going to be about, but then she kept asking me more questions that had nothing to do with the NLRB.

The law is very clear that dancers are employees and not independent contractors, but in Bryce's article, she refers to my description of the law as “rattling off” reasons why I am an employee. There were points in the article that she glossed over reality and just embellished. In the end of the article, she says that Hustler is the biggest strip club in Las Vegas, but that is not true. Sapphire is the biggest strip club in Las Vegas. Her writing and account of facts is sloppy and I regret doing it.

At the same time that she interviewed me, I was working with Madison Mainwaring of Vice magazine to put out an article for the December issue. Matilda Bickers put Madison into contact with me. My experience with Madison was much better. She was respectful, empathetic and sincere with me every step of the way. Unfortunately, the ThinkProgress article came out before Vice and because Vice didn't want to do a repeat article, Madison's editor made her significantly trim the article. Major things were left out of it, like my NLRB experience, in favor of writing about the SB 224 bill and my sexual harassment claims.

After a few more unsatisfying media experiences that I didn't feel effectively told the whole story or that I felt sensationalized parts of the issues, I decided to write my own articles and submit them to websites I thought would be welcoming to the labor struggles of a stripper mislabeled as an independent contractor. What I found were editors insistent upon changing my words, sentence structures and attitudes, to fit their own narrative and vibe. It was all very insulting and patronizing, so I decided to make this website earlier this year, with no HTML experience.

My advice to activists is to be clear about what kind of person is interviewing you and why. Stick to sound bites and don't go off on tangents with interviewers that they could later use to embarrass you. Understand that people like Bryce Covert are more concerned with their own careers and sensational, incorrect articles than your message. Understand that websites, even ones claiming to represent sex workers, are ultimately more interested in their own message than who you are as an individual.

My self-education of HTML has been a uphill battle, but I am happy to have this website and hope it grows and expands in the future.

Till Tap

Recently I had to pay a sheriff over one-thousand dollars so that a team of Dakota county officers could go into King of Diamonds gentlemen's club and get the money they owed to me, in addition to all of the expenses I incurred in the pursuit of my money. I got that one-thousand back during the till tap.

After the judgement was made, I had to order King of Diamonds to tell me where they banked and give me the money they owed to me. They did not comply, or give me anything in the mail at all. I knew the only way to get my money was to do a till tap. To do this, an officer or team of officers goes into the business with the writ of execution. Sometimes they stand stationed at the register for several hours, collecting money from the customers, until the amount owed is met. In the case of King of Diamonds, the manager just got over $5,000 out of the safe and gave it to the officer, to get them out of there as quickly as possible. I was informed that it took less than fifteen minutes.

I was experiencing a moral conundrum about this whole thing, because I spent a lot of my young adult life around people who hate cops and giving them any power whatsoever. There are people in the radical community who would never do a till tap, on principal. But, I also know that the radical community has a voluminous amount of misogynists, hypocrites and exploitative assholes who would never help me or any oppressed stripper with anything in life, ever. I don't have a lot of loyalty to their principals these days, and I really wanted my money that King of Diamonds owed to me.

I advise all pro-union labor activists to be vigilant of all cop-like principals and dogma, and do a till tap when need be. I will be donating most of my judgement to the production of Hima B.'s License to Pimp, which is a film about stripper labor rights.

National Labor Relations Board and Hustler

Rather than wishing to shut down the strip club industry like many abolitionists, I wish to reform it in a way that will benefit me and my coworkers. In October of 2014, I started working at Larry Flynt's Hustler Club in Las Vegas, Nevada. I had already been dancing for almost a decade, but this was the first club I worked at that I seriously pursued suing and changing. I retained an attorney in early 2015 and decided to sue Hustler for my unpaid wages and sexual harassment. Because strippers are often mislabeled as independent contractors, we must take the club to court in order to get our employee status recognized, as well as all the benefits that come with being an employee. Only employees are allowed to unionize or be protected by the National Labor Relations Board.

DJs in strip clubs almost always expect dancers to tip them. To them, certain portions of stripper money belongs to them, and they do not care about laws concerning tip pooling, employment or anything related. They will bully dancers relentlessly if they don't get tipped and instigate job loss. Because I don't believe I should have to share my money with my coworkers, I would often tell the DJs that they should form a labor union or ask their employer for a raise if they wanted more money. In return, the DJs at the Hustler club would do things like play me Nickelback songs that I hate, or try to get me fired. None of my efforts to encourage the strip club DJs to unionize worked, but they did start to tell management about me and my ideas.

In addition to telling the DJs to unionize, I told a few of my fellow strippers about my pending claims against the club. I knew that across the country, strip clubs are losing lawsuits when being sued for mislabeling their employees as independent contractors. I believe that one day, my fellow strippers will wake up and decide to organize a labor union, in order to leverage more power against their employers. I occasionally expressed these ideas to my coworkers, because I knew that I was an employee and that expressing such ideas in the workplace is protected speech.

Another person I talked about my litigation to was a male host at the club. I was trying to collect witnesses for my sexual harassment claim. He had repeatedly expressed disgust in his other male coworkers who were sexually harassing us dancers. When I first asked him to be a witness, he said he would only do it if I paid him. When I told him that was illegal, he said he would think about doing it for free. He told me to keep telling him about how my case was going, so that's what I did. At one point, I offered to give him my lawyer's business card to talk about being a witness some more. Everything that I did and talked about was protected speech as an employee. Unbeknownst to me at the time, he was feeding everything I was telling him to management.

One night, I sat next to a young man at the bar who told me he used to work at the club as a bouncer, but was fired when he took too many days off to care for his sick child. I explained to him that if he had a labor union, he wouldn't have gotten fired for that. I brought up how I had found a facebook page made by Hustler employees who are interested in a class action against the club, and I informed him that I had retained a lawyer for my own individual lawsuit against the club. After that, this young man informed me that he was actually a roommate of one of my managers and that he still made money at the club. When I pressed him to tell me how he still made money at the club if he was no longer employed there, all he would tell me was that he was in sales. He wouldn't tell me what he sold, but he told me that if I fucked with his money, he would murder me. He told me that people called him “the sand man” and that he puts people to sleep. I realized he had no interest in labor unions or my lawyer's business card.

Later that same evening, I was called into the manager's office, where I was fired. My employers didn't call it being “fired,” of course. They referred to it as “contract termination,” because they are heavily invested in maintaining the illusion that I am not an employee with rights, but an independent contractor. They explicitly stated that one of the reasons why I was being fired was because I had been talking about suing the club and offered my lawyer's business card to people. I left without conflict and reported the incident to the National Labor Relations Board within a few days.

The NLRB office in Las Vegas is downtown, not far from Fremont street. I explained to them that strip clubs mislabel their employees as independent contractors, because I wanted to make clear what kind of obstacle we were dealing with. They gladly took my complaint anyway, with the understanding that I am actually an employee and I was fired for protected speech. Filing a complaint with the NLRB is only the first step to their process. I still needed to give my affidavit. Since I was concerned about my safety and potential blacklisting, I moved to another state. Less than a month after settling into my new state, the NLRB office in my new city conducted a video affidavit with the Las Vegas office. It was an easy and enjoyable process, even as it was time consuming.

After my affidavit, the NLRB went to Hustler to investigate. It only took about a month. I was happy that they were so speedy in the process. After investigating Hustler, I received a call from the NLRB, informing me that my claims had merit and they would proceed to sue them. A trial date was set for October, while Hustler tried to extend the trial date so they could have more time to plan. I was happy to hear that their request to delay the trial was denied, and the October date remained. Hustler also tried to serve me a subpoena that would've required me to give them all of my private electronic communications and phone records, but I was never served.

The NLRB appointed a free lawyer to represent me. Someone I had never spoken to or made bodily contact with was going to testify against me during this hearing, and intended to say that I shoved her in the club when nobody else was around to see. Hustler intended to tell the courts that they fired me because of this fictitious assault. I don't know if this woman was a customer, staff or dancer. It was pretty mind-blowing to hear about, but I was not surprised that an enormous corporation like Hustler had managed to find a goon willing to lie for them and slander me. Another person who intended to testify was the man who was roommates with my manager and had threatened to kill me after I expressed my organized labor interests with him. I don't know what he was going to say.

Hustler would have had to reinstate my position if I went to trial and won, without causing harm to me after I got my job back. They would also have to put posters up in the workplace where all employees could see them. These posters talk about how I sued them and how they are compliant with NLRB rules, discussing the free speech rights that employees have.

Since I genuinely feared for my life and didn't want to go back there, I started to think about a settlement and what it would take me to do that instead of pursuing what I thought was right. I realized there would have to be a substantial incentive for me to settle, so I, along with my private hired attorney and the NLRB-appointed attorney, started having settlement talks with the Hustler attorneys. Along with the settlement, I wanted a picture of either Harry Mohney or Larry Flynt standing next to the mandatory NLRB poster. I offered to accept less money in exchange for a photo of this kind, but the Hustler people said that my request was a deal-breaker and that I would be allowed “no trophies” for this suit and settlement. I don't regret my decision, nor do I judge anyone in a position similar to me making a different decision. I settled for an undisclosed amount of money that made me so happy I cried.

Larry Flynt and Harry Mohney are two people who have fought for their first amendment rights, with history-making litigation and a popular Hollywood film about the first amendment. It makes me sad that in a place like Hustler where free speech is so honored, I was punished for exercising my rights. Nevada businessmen and lawmakers are making it increasingly difficult to classify employees correctly, by narrowing the definition of what an employee is. As they are doing this, employee rights to talk about the conditions of their employment and potential future labor unions are being taken away from them. Independent contractors don't have those rights. I'm so thankful for people like Larry Flynt, who have taken on obscenity laws in the valley of virtue, but it's so disappointing that his businesses only care about free speech when it benefits their profits and keeps their workers in line. Free speech is for everybody to utilize and leverage, particularly in the workplace where millionaires like Flynt and Mohney have so much power to wield over the working class. I'm so appreciative of the NLRB and their willingness to represent me. It will take continued vigilance on the part of working people to continue our ability to speak freely about working conditions in the workplace and not get punished for it.

Tits and Sass Censorship (reposted from TriggerWarning.us)

As a labor activist and stripper, I am involved in a few of the many lawsuits around the country that sue strip clubs to hold them responsible for the mislabeling of employees as independent contractors. Employee protections are important to me, because I want women to be protected from sexual harassment and discrimination. I want them to have an easy time getting overtime pay, workman’s compensation, and healthcare.

One of the strip clubs I recently sued was called King of Diamonds, based out of Minnesota. I secretly recorded them breaking the law, filed in small claims court, represented myself, and was awarded $3,700 after the judge ruled in my favor. What was most important to me about this lawsuit was the strike against King of Diamonds that will forever be on their record, and my ability to help future strippers who are mistreated by them.

I wrote an article about my experiences with this process and pitched it to Tits and Sass, which is a website for sex workers to write about their experiences in the industry. My pitch was accepted and my article went through two rounds of edits with Caty Simon and Josephine, the two women who run the website. Their email responses were enthusiastic about putting it up.

Yet shortly before they planned to post my article on their website, they began lurking on my Twitter page. On my Twitter, I regularly satirize religions with ridicule and jokes. Most of the time, my tweets ridicule Christianity and the Christians who I encounter in daily life. One night while I was watching the news, I saw something on CNN about a gunman killing people because of cartoon depictions of Mohammed. Any time people are getting murdered over cartoons, I think it’s important to take a stand against this sort of behavior.

As a joke, I posted a tweet that said:

“Contest: I am giving away $500 to whoever can draw me the funniest picture of Prophet Mohammed in a titty bar. DM me for submission info!”

Shortly after posting this tweet, I received a couple of emails from Caty and Josephine. They both wrote to me in the editing threads about my article, signaling to me that they had been lurking on my Twitter.

I responded with:

“I really enjoy offending off religious people with sexual things.”

Josephine replied:

“So, you’re shelling out $500 of your own money just offend “off religious” people? Just trying to follow.”

I responded:

“No, it’s a satirical free speech issue that will offend liberals who confuse satire with hate speech.”

Caty Simon replied:

“My way of pissing off religious people doesn’t involve doing something sacreligious to offend a bunch of marginalized people, possibly the most hated and stigmatized group of people in the United States right now. That’s really punching down-kinda like the ‘Jew in the oven’ jokes I get thrown at me sometimes. There are much more satisfying ways to annoy religious people. Westboro Baptist Church, anyone? Now there’s a target.”

I didn’t respond to Caty Simon’s email because it was so stupid that I didn’t know what to say. My cartoon contest was nothing like jokes about putting Jewish people in ovens. Drawings of Mohammed in a strip club insult religious fundamentalists who believe in made-up folk tales. Caty Simon’s email displayed that she had not read any of the numerous tweets that I had already made ridiculing Christianity. It was patronizing of her to tell me about the best way to tweet. When extremists are murdering people for cartoons, I think it’s important to use satire in order to neutralize those threats. No religion is sacred or exempt from sex cartoons. I didn’t write any of that to Caty, though, because I was so stupefied. Less than 24 hours later, I received this rejection email from Josephine:

“Hi Brandi,

We thought long and hard about this but, to be frank, we can’t conceivably support a contributor that’s running a campaign that ‘satirizes’ the Islamic faith and culture. Satire only works if it’s easily recognizable as such. I don’t think your contest feels like satire at all. It feels like bigotry. It feels like bullying. It feels hateful.

We continually strive to be a safe space for sex workers of all backgrounds. We absolutely can not work with or endorse someone that compromises that safety.

We’ve posted the picture of your rabbit. Going forth, however, we’ll be severing our relationship with you. Your strip club piece is polished and ready now so I encourage you to submit it elsewhere. I’d suggest starting with Harlot Magazine, an intersectional feminist site that recently debuted.

Kindly,

Josephine, T&S co-editor”

After I received this email, I started tweeting about it. I guess they thought I would quietly fade away. My cartoon contest was boldly satirical, and this was easily recognizable. Regressive leftists just have a difficult time dealing with it, because they are the real bigots. When religiously satirical sex cartoons are described as bigotry and hatred, it is only because regressive leftists want to generalize a culture.

The actual article that I wrote for Tits and Sass had nothing to do with Mohammed cartoon contests, but with suing strip clubs. Providing a “safe space” for activists on their website would not have been compromised by posting my article. The article would have provided other strippers and those mislabeled as independent contractors with an instructional narrative how-to guide for holding their workplaces accountable. Instead, there will be no posting of the article on their website, because they were offended by a silly tweet.

Regressive leftists ruin things for many workers, women, and free speech. Activists are regularly de-platformed because editors are offended by something they said or tweeted. Rather than providing audiences a chance to engage or absorb what is being offered, these regressive leftists choose to de-platform them instead.

Labeling satire as hate speech opens the door to labeling all kinds of things as “hate speech” that people disagree with. De-platforming labor activists prevents other potential labor activists from putting aside their differences and working together. Labor unions, reproductive rights, and activist voices are all suffering because of safe spaces policies. I understand the purpose of safe spaces in the context of violence and sexual assault, but my tweet was neither of those things. Rather than working through differences and finding common ground to fight an oppressor, many people choose to spend their time putting up trigger warnings and neutralizing progress.

Caty Simon and Josephine will rot in their incestuous micro-scene, while attacks on free speech, labor unions, and women’s rights continue into the future.

DJs, Tipping Out and Baby Strippers

At Hustler, I befriended a baby stripper and advised her not to let any of the staff coerce her into giving them her hard earned money in the form of a “tip out,” or whatever other lawsuit-avoiding term they might call it. I informed her that strippers have sued clubs for things like that in the past, and won. She expressed interest in wanting a “revolution!” for sex workers. I thought we were on the same page.

I didn’t go to work for a few days, and in that time period, she had some conversations with the DJ who hates me for telling him I would never tip him. After that, the baby stripper said to me,

“Guy strippers tip their DJ too, so what’s the problem? It’s not just us. It’s guy strippers too. I’m just doing what everybody else does. The DJ controls everything, and I want him to play my music.”

She was correct; guy strippers usually feel pressure to tip their DJ too. Guy strippers are also exploited employees who are misclassified as independent contractors. They too can sue their clubs and win. This baby stripper misunderstood my argument against tipping. She was only able to see our exploitation as being something about gender. She felt less exploited after she was told that “guy” strippers are also pressured to give their money away. Tip out, stage fees and unpaid wages is a labor issue. It transcends boundaries of sex and/or gender, because “guy” strippers feel the pressure too. While guy strippers should also sue their clubs that exploit them, the stripping industry is overwhelmingly staffed by women entertainers at the mercy of an overwhelming amount of male managers and owners. The industry is gendered, and it is misogynist. There is no denying the misogyny, even as there is a minority of male reviews in the industry. 

The baby stripper didn't converse much with me after that. She paled around with the DJ who I told to unionize with his employee status. She tipped him all the time and he played her all of the songs that she requested. For me, he played Nickelback, techno and 80′s hair metal, because he knew those are three types of music that I hate listening to. Playing me Nickelback probably won’t hold up in court as a form of retaliation, and the DJ knows that.

One benefit of having an overseeing body to protect the rights of strippers might be that we would be able to select what kind of music to dance to. As it stands now, DJs can play whatever they want while the stripper is on stage.

When I was a baby stripper, I knew it was wrong of the DJ to expect my money, and I did not give it to him. Back at Cabaret on Burnside, I had to sit in the DJ booth when I wasn’t on stage, because I was too young to walk the floor. Even though I told him I would never tip him, he still always played that song “Crazy” by Gnarls Barkley for me when it first came out, because we both liked it so much. Whenever I hear “Crazy,” I still think of him. I talked to the DJ for most of the night, and sometimes I wonder if my rambling helped drive him to madness. My first DJ ever, Larry Bell, eventually shot himself in the head during a murder-suicide, leaving his girlfriend’s child motherless. It is a tragedy that he shot his girlfriend, but the world is better off without Larry Bell around, pestering strippers for their lunch money. 

Overseeing Agency

With a nationwide flood of lawsuits, most strip clubs still choose to misclassify their dancer employees as independent contractors. They would rather risk getting sued than comply with the law all of the time. Misclassifying dancer employees as independent contractors is cheaper for them to do. There is no overseeing government agency that makes correct classification compulsory. There is no state intervention, so the only way for strippers to attain employee status is through lawsuits. Most strip clubs that have been sued still choose to continue with the misclassifation.

Vehicle manufacturers will only recall defects if the amount of death and injury-related lawsuit costs surpass the costs to fix the defect. The cost-benefit of risking a lawsuit is applied in a similar way with strip clubs. An overseeing government agency could fix these problems, but many people mistrust the state and prefer to experience the exploitation of private companies over giving the state more power in any aspect of life.

Strip Club Contracts: Crushing Paper Tigers

After I left Portland, I worked at a couple of Deja Vu and VCG clubs. The strip club world outside of Oregon can seem daunting and fancy to an Oregon stripper, but don’t be intimidated by the contracts.

Because Deja Vu and VCG are both wicked corporations that have already been sued for employee status, one part of their contract is a three-page document titled “Business Status Selection By Entertainer.” It gives the option of employee status or independent contractor. When the hiring manager has a dancer sign the contract, he will tell the dancer she has the option to pick employee status if she wants, but he will tell her how if she does pick that one, she will not be able to pick her own shifts. The difference is explained on the contract in a way that makes “independent contractor” the only desirable selection, because that is the one that will make money and have night shifts. I don’t actually want to be an independent contractor, but these corporate contracts make it so undesirable to be an employee that I have no option if I want to make any money.

I showed this portion of the contract to a lawyer and asked him if I was still able to sue for employee status, even though I signed this document stating that I wanted to be an independent contractor. I was relieved and happy to hear him non-nonchalantly and confidently explain to me that this contract doesn’t mean much, and that I can’t just be coerced into signing away my employee rights in such a way. I asked him why they even have this portion of the contract, if it doesn’t carry much weight in court. He said,

“They think they’re being cute by appearing to comply with the law.”

If you have ever worked at at Deja Vu or VCG club over the past few years, you have signed this contract and probably been coerced into selecting the “independent contractor” status. Don’t be intimidated by it or think that it will prevent you from getting your back wages or any other title VII protections. It is such a relief to know that this portion of the contract isn’t as important as I thought it was.

Deja Vu and VCG, shame on you for making this stupid part of the contract that doesn’t carry weight in court, but appears to comply with the law. You want to make dancers lose their confidence and not want to talk to the labor commission or a lawyer, don’t you? You want to be able to say in the court room, 

“See, she signed a contract saying she wanted to be an independent contractor, her signature is right there.”

You won’t win though. 

When getting a job at a chain club, the managers don’t readily hand these contracts out to the dancers. I have to get pushy after signing the contract, and sometimes I have to ask repeatedly for a copy of them. These clubs know that strippers are talking to lawyers, and they don’t want strippers to even look at what they are signing.

It is okay and normal to be afraid of management, of losing your shifts or job if you ask for copies of what you are signing. I am afraid of them too, but together we can get through this, fellow strippers. We have to do it, because we have to beat them. We have to get our rights and protect ourselves, for the next generation and for all women who are exploited by these evil entities.

Stripped of Rights: Nevada SB 224

Last Autumn, while suing Larry Flynt's Hustler Club for sexual harassment, my lawyer and I learned what Nevada SB 224 was, during a settlement conference with our opponent's attorney and the Nevada Equal Rights Commission. We had never heard of this bill before or knew how it could destroy my case. It was like a bomb had dropped during the telephone conference. On a state level, this bill redefines what an independent contractor is. It throws out the traditional and federal definition of what an employee is according to the Fair Labor Standards act, narrowing requirements in just a way that would exclude strippers. The Nevada Equal Rights Commission decided not to investigate my case, because they were unable to establish an employee-employer relationship. Only employees are able to sue for sexual harassment, while independent contractors are not. My lawyer and I have obtained a right-to-sue letter anyway, so we are still suing Hustler for my unpaid wages and sexual harassment. We think we can beat this poorly drafted, state-level bill that was put into law less than a year after the Sapphire strippers won their class action suit. It was very disappointing to learn that not only the NERC, but also the labor commission will not help us, but we continue to press forward.

After I learned about the tragedy of Nevada SB 224, I did some investigating to find out how the greedy, amoral republicans and libertarians managed to pass this bill in Nevada so quickly after the Sapphire victory. I found a non-profit organization called the Coalition to Promote Independent Entrepreneurs, headed by an attorney named Russell Hollrah. Through reading Hollrah's non-profit blog, I have learned of three other states besides Nevada that have passed bills similar to SB 224. Those states are Arkansas, North Dakota and Indiana. In various respective ways, these bills in each state are redefining what it means to be an employee. By narrowing the definition, these bills strip employees of the right to organize a labor union, sue for sexual harassment, discrimination, workman's compensation, overtime pay and more. All of the things that labor activists in generations past have fought and died for are being taken away from employees, by neglecting to define them as employees at all.

I contacted Russell Hollrah for an interview. He initially accepted an interview, but later declined by writing me an email that said,

“I apologize for the delay in responding. The past couple weeks have been very busy. I am leaving town today. I do not believe it will be possible to work an interview into my schedule within the next couple weeks. Sorry about that.”

I responded by asking if I could talk to someone else from the non-profit, or talk to him after he was done traveling. He neglected to respond. I believe Russell Hollrah was lying to me in his email, and that he actually just googled my name and decided not to let me interview him after he learned about my litigation.

In Nevada, SB 224 was drafted without a lot of fanfare. None of the strippers from Sapphire were invited to the Spring hearings. Republicans voted it into law. It was all very discreet. On Russel Hollrah's blog, there is a post about it that is only accessible to paying members of the non-profit. Libertarians and republicans are organized in their agenda to strip employees of their rights, and they are doing it as quietly as possible, because they know that fanfare would only bring negative attention.

Russell Hollrah's website states that workers prefer to be called independent contractors. As an employee who is often misclassified as an independent contractor, I don't like it that Hollrah is speaking for me. I know I am an employee who is misclassified, and the Nevada's SB 224 undermines federal laws meant to protect me. With Arkansas, South Dakota and Indiana all having similar state level bills, the need for vigilance and active opposition will become evermore vital in the coming years.

Selling Crap for The Club: Illegal

Most of the clubs that I worked at in Chicagoland required dancers to sell advertising merchandise with the club’s info printed on whatever item we were forced to peddle throughout the night. These items included frisbees, t-shirts, hats and foam breasts. This part of the night was called a “feature.” Some clubs did only one feature per night, while other clubs made us do several features during a shift. Each club had it’s own special song, as a signal to the dancers to stop what we were doing, line up at the stage and walk across the stage in a conga line, holding the piece of crap we were forced to sell to the customers. For example, one club plays the song “Girls, Girls Girls” by Motley Crue. I still feel sick to my stomach at the opening of this song’s motorcycle roaring, because it makes me think of breaking my hustle, to line up at the stage and prance across it with everyone, to try to sell a t-shirt and a 2-for-1 lap dance. If we didn’t participate in the feature, we would lose our jobs. Usually there was an evil “house mom” or bouncer lurking around these clubs during the feature, keeping track of the bathrooms to make sure nobody hid in the stalls, nooks and crannies.

Sometimes I did manage to find a good hiding spot and avoid walking across the stage with the item, but I only hid to avoid the humiliation. It didn’t matter if I hid or not; at the end of the night I would still have to pay the club for the t-shirt whether I sold one or not. I usually had a locker full of XL t-shirts with the stupid club logo on them, because I didn’t feel like dealing with the stress of selling a t-shirt. Usually, clubs force dancers to sell a 2-for-1, $20 lap dance along with the t-shirt. That money goes to the club.

Dancers are doing the advertising for the club through the distribution of merchandise, then paying the club money for that merchandise they distributed. In that sense, clubs are getting paid by their unpaid employees to advertise the club. Most other kinds of businesses pay for all of their advertising, rather than being paid to force their employees advertise. Isn’t that fucked up? It is illegal and the only reason it goes on is because strippers have been too uninformed or too afraid to do anything about it, and nobody else cares enough to stop it.

Feature items in the strip club work kind of like a pyramid scheme. Whether we sell the thing or not, it is ours to keep. The clubs don’t take them back, but we always pay. On top of the house fee and tip out, dancers are also forced to pay for the items that they may or may not have sold.

It can be very upsetting to be sitting with a potential client, sweet talking him into buying a vip room, hear the roar of a motorcycle, followed by “girls, girls, girls,” and have to excuse oneself in order to get up and sell a stupid fucking t-shirt. Sometimes, the client isn’t there after the feature is over.

I’ve never met a dancer who likes features. Most of us hate them. I remember one misogynistic bouncer. It was his job to hold our hands to help us up on stage during feature. To each girl who wasn’t smiling (most of us), he would say to us, “SMILE, they’re FREE.” Features weren’t free to us though. They cost time, energy, money and customer attention.

Many customers dislike features as well. They don’t like having a grumpy, stressed out stripper approaching them, trying to hawk a frisbee or whatever. Many men don’t want to bring home something with a strip club logo on it, because they want to keep their visit to the strip club a secret.

At a club I worked at called VIP’s, there were usually a lot more girls than customers. This meant that unless several guys were willing to buy a whole bunch of the same t-shirt, most of us wouldn’t sell one.

All of these features imply that the dancers are employees who deserve back pay, house fees returned and money from those t-shirts. All it takes is a trip down to the labor commissioner to get the ball rolling. Don’t you want to stick it to those foul men who forced you to interrupt your hustle and sell a beanie with your club’s logo embroidered on it?

Strippers of The World, Unite: What Tits&Sass Didn't Want You to See

“Suing a Strip Club in Small Claims Court”

It was the Spring of 2006 when my coworker Berlin and I were baby strippers at Cabaret on Burnside. She cut her hand open on broken glass one night at work. “You should sue them!” I said to her while she was tending to her bloody wound in the basement. “I know they have the best lawyers in town, I'll never win,” Berlin said. She ended up paying for her own medical care. For the next several years I tried to ignore the atrocities of strip clubs while I completed my college education and Berlin became a local celebrity. In 2012, I was fired from Union Jack's for not shaving, and the lawyers I called told me they couldn't help me. It wasn't until 2013 that Serpent Libertine from Chicago's Sex Worker Outreach Project got me my first consultation with a labor lawyer after I went to a SWOP-Chicago meeting and said I wanted a strippers’ union. In 2014, I learned about Matilda Bickers suing Portland’s Casa Diablo for sexual harassment.

Most strip clubs across the United States mislabel their workers as independent contractors, but actually treat them as employees. They do this by coercing dancers to follow a schedule, making them participate in a stage rotation, telling them what to wear, telling them how much they are allowed to charge for services, telling them what services they are permitted to offer, and taking gratuity money away from them. Federal law states that if a worker's performance is central to a business functioning, those workers are employees. Despite all of this, strip clubs almost never acknowledge the rights or status of their employees. That is the easiest way for them to avoid lawsuits related to Title VII discrimination, union organizing, workman's compensation, minimum wage and overtime pay. Title VII protects women and minorities from being discriminated against or harassed in the workplace. Strip clubs get away with it because few people care to change things or enforce employee protections for strippers. But, over the past couple of decades, a few litigious strippers have achieved small victories. They've made headline news articles, and the illegal practices they've exposed now threaten the way strip clubs do business.

In response to the litigation, some strip clubs have changed their exploitative practices, but they have not always done so correctly. Rather than properly classifying strippers as employees and allowing them to unionize, some strip clubs have hired attorneys to think of ways to maneuver around the law, through deceitful language and contracts. These kinds of strip clubs will often enforce the same kinds of illegal rules that strip clubs have always enforced, but will neglect to write any of these restrictions down or post them on the wall. A stage fee will become a lease fee. Managers talk in doublespeak about tipping out and stage shows. They know that written words and blatantly illegal practices are more likely to cause them to lose a case when a stripper sues them.

Last June, I moved to the state of Minnesota, after being fired from a Las Vegas club for my labor organizing activities. I ordered a discreet audio recorder from the internet. Nevada isn't a one-party consent state, so it was difficult to collect evidence there about how my strip club was operating illegally and exploiting its dancers. In Minnesota, I knew it would not be so difficult; Minnesota is a one-party consent state. One-party consent means I was allowed to audio record conversations I had with my manager without telling him.

I auditioned at a strip club in a sleepy St. Paul suburb on the Mississippi River called King of Diamonds. This strip club had already been sued a few years ago and had changed management following the case. I worked there for about four weeks, and found it unsurprising to learn that their club protocol treated strippers as employees rather than independent contractors. Here are some of those practices:

• Controlling shift hours

• Enforcing full nudity on stage

• Collecting VIP money from us

• Setting the prices of our services

• Bullying dancers for minimum tips to staff

• Collecting late fees

• Charging dancers to leave early

• Picking the staff and DJ with no input from the strippers

• Pretending dancers aren't necessary for the business to operate

• Telling dancers to be nice to customers

Since King of Diamonds had been sued in the past, this club was unusually savvy about dodging my collection of evidence. When I was hired, they had me sign a paper tiger independent contractor agreement, then took the document away from me, refusing to give me a copy. When I asked for a copy of their rules, they wouldn't give me one. Many of their rules were communicated by word-of-mouth and not posted anywhere in the club.

On my last day of work at the club, I switched on the audio recorder that I'd sewn into the side panel of my brassiere. I managed to record my manager, threatening me with poor treatment if I didn't tip the staff. He refused to give me a copy of my contract and told me I needed to lose my attitude and that I was very close to losing my job. I needed to leave town in July anyway, so I never went back there.

Later on in 2015, I visited the labor commission in the Twin Cities, to talk to them about what happened when I worked at King of Diamonds. At the labor commission, I was able to have a meeting with a lawyer, free of charge. The lawyer told me that since I was no longer working there, they were unable to investigate the club. He explained to me that in the state of Minnesota, the labor commission doesn't investigate places where people no longer work, because disgruntled ex-employees might instigate an audit out of spite. This policy varies by state, with some states more willing to do an investigation even if the employee no longer works for the exploitative company. A simple Google search or phone call to your local labor commissioner can inform you about your state's policy.

Since I was unable to have the labor commission investigate King of Diamonds, the lawyer told me I could file a suit against them in a county small claims court, so long as the suit was for under the maximum amount of small claims. King of Diamonds owes me $4,200 in the form of back wages, house fees, tips and VIP fees, so I was well under the Minnesota designated maximum amount of small claims.

It seemed like a daunting set of tasks at first, but I was able to get King of Diamonds into small claims court. The following steps are Minnesota-specific and can be altered by your state or jurisdiction:

• Printing out a summons to small claims court, available on the county court website

• Getting free legal aid in downtown Minneapolis, to instruct me on how to fill the form out   

• Bringing my summons to the Dakota county courthouse, along with a $75 

• Sending two certified copies of the summons to King of Diamonds, to serve them 

• Getting my certified mail receipts in my mailbox, telling me that King of Diamonds was served 

• Preparing all of the evidence against King of Diamonds, and organizing all violations of the employee test

Although I have no problem getting naked in public, I have an irrational fear of public speaking. Sitting in small claims court and waiting for my name to be called was the most difficult part of this process. On the morning that I was to appear in court, my pores were leaking sweat. I was already sitting in the waiting area when I saw the King of Diamonds people walk in through the metal detector. The owner glared at me when we made eye contact. She’d brought along her lawyer and two jackass manager/bouncers who didn't like me. In small claims court, plaintiffs and defendants are given time to exchange documents and try to reach a settlement. Neither party in my case was interested in reaching a settlement. While I was handing over the documents to the King of Diamonds lawyer, I took out my flash drive and informed him that I had secretly audio recorded management. His eyes bugged out and surprised panic temporarily swept over his otherwise stoic face. I went back into the courtroom by myself, while the King of Diamonds people stayed in the lobby for a few more minutes. We were the last case to be called.

Since I was the plaintiff, I spoke first. My voice shook and my heart pounded, but I got out everything that I needed to. I wasn't sure if electronics were allowed in the courtroom, so I didn't end up using my recording, but I told the judge exactly what it said, while offering the court flash drives of the recorded conversation. He said since the defendants couldn't hear the recordings in order to argue against them, he couldn't use them. If I could change anything about that day, I would have brought in a device to play my flash drives.

I picked my packet up the following week to see that I’d won $3,700. The judge thought I’d miscalculated the money the club owed me and took $500 off my original request. Aside from that, his judgment was very supportive of my claim. He called their contract “a fiction” and gave me my unpaid wages and gratuities back.

There are a few days left for King of Diamonds to appeal. If they decide to appeal, there will be a whole new trial. I intend to argue in the potential new trial just as I did in the first one, and bring a device with me to play my recording. I am willing to go through this process, not just for the sake of the money, but because I want to set a precedent. These kinds of sneaky strip club practices will not be tolerated. I want to create more cracks in the gig economy.

There's still a long way to go, but I feel privileged to be able to improve the lives of strippers by challenging our exploitative employers. Many dancers make the argument that enforcing their employee status would only cause their employers to take more of their money and cause some clubs to close down. They believe this because companies are really good at using scare tactics to divide workers, preventing them from uniting and leveraging their power against a common oppressor-- the boss. Strip clubs can survive off of entrance fees and liquor sales. They just cry poverty to their dancers about loss of profit, scheduling freedom and gratuities, because they don’t want to pay taxes or be held accountable for all of the fucked up things that they do. Don’t believe them. They are liars. Strippers of the world, unite.

Christian Invasions

Several years ago while I was working at a strip club on Chicago's North side, I saw three women come into the club and sit in the back, facing the wall. They all had buns in their hair and wouldn't look at the stage. I thought maybe they were shy lesbians and attempted to get money from them. One sneered at me. I quickly learned they were a trio of born-again Christians who used to be strippers and sex workers. It was a Tuesday night; ladies got in free, so they came to bring Jesus into my life and encourage me to stop dancing:

“We know it's not really glamorous behind the scenes here, is it?”

She was correct—behind the scenes of strip clubs aren't glamorous, but I love making lots of money. I got up to tell the bouncer. He told me that management advised us to “turn the other cheek” whenever they came in. After that, I worked at another club in Chicago where “Eve’s Angels,” as they were called,  were allowed to go into the dressing room. Once there, they would pass out scripture and swag, such as lip gloss and earrings. The manager of that club was a Christian himself and a former Chicago cop. He welcomed them in and was pals with Anny, the founder of Eve's Angels.

Anny Donewald's insulting website stereotypes all consensual sex workers as helpless trafficking victims wrapped up in a world of drugs and exploitation. In lieu of mentioning employee status or labor unions or anything that could actually “save” sex workers in any actionable sense, Donewald desires to get all sex workers out of the industry and into the hands of her Christian god. Her website states:

“...the fantasy of fistfuls of hundred dollar bills quickly turned to the reality of bloodstains on bathroom floors and nights with customers in presidential suites at luxurious hotels. At an emotional breaking point and pondering the termination of her unborn son, Anny reached the gates of her personal hell. There, she found God. Then, this long-legged, fiery blonde fought to free herself from the sex trade, and, by the healing grace of God, launched her non-profit, Eve’s Angels...”

I've met Anny preaching in the club—she once yelled at me when my manager wasn’t around and she wasn’t allowed in the dressing room.  She strikes me as a narcissist, hell bent on destroying my income and shaming strippers with patronizing god talk. If Anny really wanted to improve the life of strippers like me, she would advocate for recognition of employee status and the formation of labor unions. Her bible thumping and intrusion into people’s personal spaces wouldn’t be accepted in any other workplace.

I hate her. Oddly, I’m the minority. Most of the strippers I worked with in Chicago were nice to the Angels, primarily because of the lip glosses and crappy jewelry they brought with them. Many strippers are from Christian backgrounds and still somewhat believe there is shame to feel about how they make money. That shame is exploited by strip club staff who don’t care about dancers, and bosses who welcome in whorephobic preachers.

When I pressed one non-religious dancer in Chicago, she said to me,

“I don't agree with them, but I believe in tolerance.”

I thought this group was just a Chicago phenomenon, but last year at Larry Flynt's Hustler Club in Las Vegas, there were evangelicals allowed in the dressing room too—in a club owned by Jerry Falwell's nemesis Larry Flynt. When one tried to give me some swag, I told her to get the hell away from me, that I am an atheist and I love being a stripper. Despite the often unpleasant environment, the freedom to express myself and the large amounts of money I earn make me happy to have chosen this line of work. I have other options; I don’t want them.

She told me that she'll pray for me, and that god loves me. I felt violated and angry. It is patronizing to have those words said to me in my workplace, not uplifting.

Even in Las Vegas, I was a minority in my desire to be outspokenly mean to them and push them away. When I brought it up to my coworkers, they would say things like,

“They're really nice! Why don't you like them?”

Christians who barge into strip club dressing rooms aren't “really nice” though. Their agenda includes an end goal that would make it illegal for women to take their clothes off or sell sexual services. Preventing women from autonomous control over their own bodies is misogynist and creepy. These are the same Christians who protest abortion clinics and gay marriages. They have a peculiar interest in what happens in people's bedrooms, with a fascistic, shaming approach to salvation.

They go into our private changing spaces, assuming we have no boundaries, and put scripture in our faces. That's not nice at all.

I have found groups like this in Minnesota and Indiana. These groups hand out baked goods, similar to the allegedly secular but equally insulting Cupcake Girls. While each group is different, they all have the same general template: to gain entry into strip club dressing rooms, pass out treats or swag, and lure strippers out of the industry. As SWOP Bloomington said recently on Twitter:

“Most people in the sex industry aren't going to listen to Christians who want to rescue them. Why? Because they infantilize sex workers and have a repulsive savior complex that usually ignores the needs that sex workers have-- especially the financial needs.”

I am a labor activist; I genuinely care about making changes in strip clubs (such as enforcing employee status and organizing nationwide labor unions in clubs) to prevent abuse from happening. There is no room for evangelicals in that equation. The only way to stop them would be for a critical mass of strippers and sex workers to say enough, and get them out by force. I don't know if that will ever happen. Fear of public humiliation prevents many sex workers from outing themselves and becoming activists, and the competition among workers is such that it prevents a critical mass of solidarity to overthrow oppressive bosses.

I am happy with the amount of leisure time and freedom that stripping provides me with—I don’t want another job. I continue my labor activism by suing strip clubs and trying to educate people about the sham of independent contractor delusions. I hope to convince strippers to acknowledge their employee status and sue for all of the labor violations and harassment they experience. Eve’s Angels and Christian groups will never do anything like that.