Since July, dozens of dancers have been organizing with Working WA around issues like workplace safety, financial security, and the stigma against sex work. They did an incredible job of building power and making noise. And they're getting stuff done. Dancing can be a path to economic mobility for workers in WA. Their options are limited because of a large corporate chain that controls the majority of clubs in WA.
Crime part of debate over strip-club rules | The Seattle Times
What drove me into the shadowy embrace of night and left me standing at the doors of Spike's Topless Danceria on Lake City Way? Maybe I was just bored and alone and had already done everything else there is to do in this starless city of madness and calamity. It definitely wasn't the boobs; I'm as queer as Ricky Martin. Or maybe it was because The Stranger handed me a fistful of petty cash for tips and cab fare, then ordered me to report firsthand on the terrible toll our city's wretched new strip-club regulations had taken upon the poor souls gyrating for dollar bills within. Thanks to the black-hearted Seattle City Council, strip clubs had recently been skinned of their indispensable filth and forced to adopt certain unnatural practices and strictures. Dancers were now required to remain at least four feet from patrons at all times, and every naughty nook and cranny of the club had to be filled with something called "parking-garage brightness.
A new motto for the city's tourism department: What happens in Vegas, stays in Vegas. The City Council today approved some of the strictest adult-entertainment regulations of any major city in the country, voting to require that dancers stay 4 feet from patrons. That means no lap dances and no folding dollar bills into G-strings. In addition, the clubs must maintain at least parking-garage brightness throughout the premises and can have no private rooms. Dancers will no longer be allowed to take money directly from customers; instead, customers will put the money in a tip jar.
O ccasionally—say, on summer nights when the rooftop bars and sidewalk patios are hot enough to cook on—all you want to do is sit in the air-conditioning, drink an icy cold vodka tonic, and look at some titties and ass. Well, if you live in Seattle, good luck with that, because you cannot legally purchase alcohol at strip clubs in Washington State. You can look, but you can't drink, and this law, according to a number of exotic dancers I spoke to, makes their jobs harder, less lucrative, and more dangerous. It doesn't protect us.