Amber could always get a job at Starbucks.

( • )( • )ԅ(‾⌣‾ԅ), ώ!

1 - She would still have to deal with pervy crusts like you who believe that 'Amber' wants to go to bed with you, an idiot ugly rando.

This sounds like classic rent-seeking, keeping out the competition with "licensing".

"The bill will establish an adult entertainer advisory committee with the Department of Labor and Standards"

Well that I can get behind: Stripper standards.

@3 I use the drive thru' at Starbucks, not the VIP room.

Hey! I’m one of the dancers who has been organizing with this. I’m so grateful for this coverage and I would also like to say, you can call us strippers/dancers/entertainers. However, the term exotic dancer has a highly racialized past. So we, especially white dancers try to refrain from using this term.
Thanks again, this has been a huge step for us and organizing has also helped us feel less isolated in an isolated industry.

Attn church ladies, a new thread in which to indulge your 'feminist' righteousness! It's been a bonanza lately!

I “Amber” pays all her local, state and federal taxes on all those bills slipped into her outfits.

Someone has to fund the bureaucrats at the ministry of stripper standards after all.

What Amber says is all true. The dancers pay $140 at minimum per night for the ‘privilege’ of working in an unsafe environment. Also, because of the puritanical laws here, the clubs are forbidden to serve alcohol (even beer) so many dancers leave work in debt (it’s called ‘bank rent’) and Deja Vu absolutely expects them to pay it off. How many industries would get away with something so blatantly exploitative? It’s past time for this city (and state) to grow up and protect these workers.

I'm another dancer who went to Olympia and has helped with the progress in this, and I'd like to say Deja Vu's monopoly is an UNDERSTATEMENT, this is one reason I refuse to work right now, the only locations I would work (Downtown for example), ALL the clubs are owned by deja vu, and I refuse to pay $200 a night for an open schedule regardless if that many customers come in or not. FYI rent is $120-$140 a night ONLY if you have a "schedule" which as independent contractors we're not even supposed to be subject to, its UNHEARD of in Las Vegas which has some of the best stripper laws. Seattle's zoning laws PROTECT this monopoly. This is an AWESOME BILL THAT NEEDS SUPPORT. The best part about this bill is the committee that will be made up of at least 50% dancers, so that all future legislation has our input, guidance and approval. Thank you so much Amber for helping with this article, Nathalie for creating this article, and the Stranger for your lovely support.

Seems to me that a few easy changes that could be made are:
* Let the clubs serve booze... that should be their main profit center.
* Let clubs let a performer perform or not... Requiring an entertainer to "Pay Rent" for the benefit of the club sounds obscene. Treat it like open mic at a comedy club.
* And for private VIP rooms, let the dancers make commissions on whatever booze or food they sell the clients.

Frankly, I can't believe these performers are not making at least minimum wage, plus keeping (or pooling) their tips. I am an engineer... I don't have to pay a "desk fee" at my office.

I'd also like to add that the monopoly Deja Vu, is very badly managed, they would probably be able to charge less rent if they had a better business plan, however I've made a business plan for a stripclub before and without serving alcohol it seems like the majority of the clubs revenue comes from dancers' rent, which is one reason why even out in the "boonies" clubs have to charge at least $60 a night. I think the solution in the future is for us to emulate policies that work well in other states like Oregon and Nevada which have the best stripper job opportunities. The best solution is for clubs to *not rely on dancers rent for their main source of revenue. The reason I've always felt unsafe in the VIP rooms is because in order to make money above the amount of rent I'm supposed to pay the club (for me $160+) I've had to oversell my dances to compete against other dancers, and the customer thinks he's getting more than a dance in the VIP. If I didn't have to give the club so much money, and the customer ratio wasn't so poor (also because lack of alcohol), I could give just dances in the VIP versus the kind of "dances" I had to give the last three months of my stripper career.
NOTHING ABOUT US WITHOUT US
STRIPPER RIGHTS ARE WOMEN'S RIGHTS

Some of us are single moms who wouldn't be able to hire child care at minimum wage. Second of all, STRIPPING is the most lucrative job available for unskilled women. The money from it is EMPOWERING and has given me INDEPENDENCE, and has enabled me to invest early in life. Why don't you make that same suggestion to all the professional athletes who complain about injuries to drop their million dollar contracts to go "get a job at starbucks," who mind you are probably not single dads, and those jobs are not a job at all available to unskilled men.

13 Just leave out the "single mom" part when you are stripping, please.

Dancers are workers. Sex work is work. “Get a better job” is what every asshole says about workers organizing for their rights, in any industry, ever. These dancers are doing one better than that - they’re MAKING their jobs better. Happy to support these powerful badass women in organizing to improve rights for dancers, sex workers, and women!

I’m soooo proud of amber & the person who did the interview for this article, they hit all the points that need to be made! I am too one of the dancers who has been organizing and going to Olympia in support of this bill! I have been pushed out of Deja Vu clubs due to “back rent” which is an excuse for clubs to get girls out who speak up about our rights! This bill is just the beginning of our voices being heard and changes that us dancers/independent contractors deserve. I also wanted to say the person who mentioned us feeling like we need to do more because if we don’t we can’t pay rent, and if we can’t pay rent we will get back rented, and if we get back rented that’s a high excuse for us to be fired, which than we can’t work at any other club due to the monopolization of Deja Vu!

@14 Reminds you too much of your mom?

I want to start off by thanking Amber for coming forward for all Seattle entertainers.
Everything Amber mentions in this interview is TRUE!!
Many girls are apart of this movement and with Deja Vu' monopolizing Seattle, they have been able to get away with treating entertainers as if they are less then human!
It definalty is a "take it or leave it" attiutude with Vu, leaving many women with no other option but to take it if they want to work in Seattle.
I know of a few girls that when they have complained to Deja Vu Corp. about what could be changed for the better and they end up being fired in the following weeks.
Thank you "the stranger" for covering this story.

Great organizing, good article, and thanks everybody who showed up in the comments with personal knowledge!

Emailed my reps.

Have to say though that if Deja Vu supports this bill it probably isn't enough. What zoning changes are needed to make viable competition? That's what's needed and what Deja Vu will scream against.

And maybe alcohol, I'll defer to others on that.

@20, thank you! Yes, zoning laws are part of the issue, but the lack of alcohol (even just beer and wine would be great) is at the crux of it. The clubs don’t want the oversight that the Liquor Control Board would enact, but they have to make a profit, so they exploit the dancers with exorbitant fees.

Other cities manage to have dancers and alcohol in the same ADULT establishments, and the world doesn’t end. Why not Seattle?

This is good. Work is work and workers have a right to be protected and feel safe at work, doesn't matter what the work is. It's good to get this out in the open so that something can be done.

@21 Well it wasn't more than a few years ago that Greg Numbnuts Nichols tried to ban strip clubs altogether, so I would not hold my breath expecting them to get their head out of their prohibition era ass anytime soon. Actually though, correct me if I'm wrong, the no liquor in strip clubs law is statewide, is it not?

@23 You’re correct, the alcohol ban is statewide. But most clubs are in the Seattle area, with the exception of the Spokane Deja Vu and I think there is one in Tacoma. The clubs in Everett closed after the crackdown a few years ago.

14 and 17 Zapotec, your ignorant comments make you look like a jackass. In response to your asinine comment: where else is an unskilled worker supposed to work in order to cover childcare? NOWHERE else. Unless you want taxes to go up for all the women who rely on this for income? We'll all just quit the only job an unskilled woman can get that pays enough to cover childcare, and get on section 8, food stamps and TANF, and you can support us instead? Not to mention all the other hidden low income programs we'd go on, where the cost gets passed onto taxpayers.

@12 'kind of "dances" I had to give'? I'm sorry, but since when did consensual exchange of goods and services between client and a stripper turn into forced labour? You don't want to give those kinds of "dances" then just don't fucking do it. No one is holding a fucking gun to your head. But don't whine about it later, when it is ENTIRELY your choice to give clients extra. Don't want to do those "dances" in the VIP? Don't. If you do then a ceot responsibility and quit whining about it. Or get a better job. There are other jobs out there that require no experience. And no job requires blowjobs or handjobs in the VIP unless you choose to do it. Jesus, girls like that should not even be in our profession. Grow the fuck up!

@26 The Second Wave Committee for the Promotion of Virtue and the Eradication of Vice prefers that fallen women be relocated to convents.

Strip clubs in Washington could be making so much more money. Here is a tip Deja vu GO TO ATLANTA and take notes. We need liquor in the strip clubs period! I promise the Seattle strip scene has a limit if they don't change the way they do business. Speaking from someone (a woman) who actually enjoys a strip club out of town I do not even set foot in Washington clubs. I do support this bill though everyone deserves to feel safe.

I find it interesting that since the stranger gets a ton of money from this gentleman in the form of advertising dollars. Stranger isn't trying to hard to report the facts and is always careful to stay ever so slightly on the side of the owners. This man has a fucken winery in France. Owns real estate in Hawaii and around the world. It's a fact that this guy had been greasing palms all over the city and state. You can look up the campaign donations. Do some real reporting. He's been greasing hands for decades to get various elected officials to look the other way so they can get away doing hand jods and private lap dance. Oh by the way they are definitely a front for prostitution most of those girls are active and groom clients who will meet outside of the job for a special price if you know what I mean. These girls need medical and a 401 K because they can't strip at 40.

I find the whole booze/no booze issue to be rather puzzling. Having spoken with women that have danced in both Seattle (dry) clubs and Portland (wet), quite a few of them prefer no booze. Where this isn't the case, it's usually in clubs that pay the dancers commissions for pushing drinks. Once alcohol is involved, the clubs usually devolve into something like topless cocktail lounges. Guys go there to get drunk and the women make their money pushing booze. That's OK if it's what you want. But it's legal today (topless at least) in Washington. So if that's what patrons and dancers wanted, we'd see more of them now.

Strippers are people and deserve a safe working environment just like anyone else. This legislation is a good thing and will help. Maybe it doesn’t go far enough but it’s a good start. If the dancers themselves are advocating for this legislation, then we should listen to them and support them. They probably know what their jobs are like better than the general public.

@31 Yeah, I’ve been around for awhile and you’re wrong, there hasn’t been a “choice” about alcohol in the clubs for a good thirty years, at least. It’s against state law, and we certainly didn’t vote on it. I have noticed, however, that Seattle clubs are emptier every year, so obviously customers and dancers ARE making the choice (like a few commenters here said already) to avoid Seattle’s boring, outdated clubs. But the clubs should still be safe for dancers to work in, period.

@27 “annoyed stripper” which you’re posing as and clearly from your comment you are NOT a stripper at all. I did not say that even the kinds of dances I wouldn’t give or the kinds I was pressured to in the end, were sexual acts. And if there were jobs that paid as much as I used to make as a dancer (mind you I look better now than I did when I was younger, so it has nothing to do with my looks), if they were available without experience, everyone would get them. A better job with no experience??? Change your name to “hater that knows nothing about dancing.” You missed the entire point of my comment.

@31 you’re wrong. Alcohol makes us pay way less rent, increases customer ratio so we’re not overcompeting for dances by having to be dirtier, and changes the environment from a purely sexual one to a fun playful environment. What you see as “lounges” is the main room, go in the back and women are giving legal lap dances for fair service prices, and everyone is getting a good deal. I’ve worked at 20+ clubs in 7 states. Cleanest clubs serve alcohol.

It occurs to me that if worker safety is a primary concern then the last thing you would want to do is introduce alcohol. I've patronized strip clubs and appreciated the fact they were booze-free.
The atmosphere in those clubs is designed to make you a little crazy and lose your inhibitions anyway. Add alcohol and you really have a volatile mix, guaranteed. Cops will be getting called out twice as often for incidents.

How many parents look at their beautiful newborn daughters and whisper in their ears,

"Some day, I hope you grow up to be a stripper"

So no, I don't want Seattle to be "more like Las Vegas", thank you.

@37 I sure hope you don't have a daughter as you sure sound like you would be a nightmarish puritanical twat of a parent.

@37 Privileged of you to assume that everyone grows up with parents. Or, if we did, they were the supportive kind who held any ambition for us whatsoever. Non-privileged people make the best choices they can, with whatever gifts they have to offer. Dancers, on the whole, are beautiful, athletic, talented, and survivors. People clearly value the entertainment we provide, because they spend large amounts of cash on us. More than we’d make doing nearly anything else, in fact. Some of us have parents that are proud that we aren’t actual prostitutes like say, a corporate lawyer or a lobbyist, for example.

@26 let me clarify that the dances I felt pressured to give my last three years that I did not want to give we’re straddling-grinding and topless while touching. In all the Oregon clubs I made excellent money without having to straddle customers, and they all kept their hands on the couch, they did not touch. I never did sexual acts, nor did I quit because I felt like I couldn’t make money without doing sexual acts; rather I quit because I made a good living before giving lap dances where customers could not touch me and I did not have to straddle grind, in and out of Seattle. The management clearly allows straddle grinding walks by it without ever saying a word, and they only slap your wrist for customers touching.
I’m not the one to draw the line, but I’d like to be able to sell dances that aren’t like that.

To person posting #36, first of all compared to alcohol clubs and bars, cops almost never get called to strip clubs. They probably get called to strip clubs at about the same rate they get called to places like Walmart for steeling. I believe the Seattle Times wrote an article with police data about that back in 2006 when they tried to pass the 4 foot law that confirms this. If stripclubs served alcohol, there would be no more police calls to alcohol strip clubs than there would be to regular bars. In fact there would be no more net police calls, because there would just be more poeple going to stripclub bars, and marginally less poeple going to regular bars. We're women, not minors, not babies, besides I think I can run faster from a drunk man than a sober one. There's no reason that existing bars and alcohol where women give free attention to men, should have more of a privilege to make revenue from alcohol than stripclubs where the attention is not free. Its actually a very sexist concept to think that the only industry where women are able to make a lucrative income off of charging men for enjoying us is so badly regulated and therefore reduced. Another way of thinking about alcohol is this: we want to work in a place that makes money off of something that is NOT US. If I could sell dances in a coffee house, I'd do that, as long as the coffee house makes its own money, not sucking every possible nickel and dime it can from me. Does starbucks charge business men for making business contracts? No it just charges them for coffee.

🙌🏽🙌🏽🙌🏽 #41

Gosh, if this law passes (and if clubs start earning money from liquor sales instead of skimming off the dancers) then the horror of all horrors might take place....

Dancers might actually be able to make money just dancing, without having to sell their morals to men & allow way more than just a dance to happen.

@27 aka Annoyed Stripper, "no one is holding a fucking gun to your head... grow the fuck up." Ummm, who have I heard saying these words before???? WINTER. This HAS to be Winter or someone who works with her enough to quote her. And I don't think "blow jobs and handjobs" was what she was referring to when she said "those kinds of dances." If this is Winter, it shows how great your club is if that's what you assume is going on in the VIP.

50% of committee is strippers? Before unpacking the false hope that brings to a system that clearly broken, I am just alarmed that policy makers and advocates aren’t talking about other successful markets as a model. Half this committee could find that as ‘a single mom’ or ‘student’ that they aren’t seeing the change they want. Consider that current environment is a complete crack down on sex workers in the course of fighting human trafficking. Even I find it hard to reconcile sex worker rights when I am told that human trafficking is the aim of new policies and enforcement. I try - by expressing my concern with my friends - which is worthless. Even The Stranger tried with a great article questioning recent enforcement crackdown on sec workers in massage parlors. The point is that I am concerned we aren’t seeing the actual change we want to see in strip cluvs. Instead, strippers will be given some token political handouts that will price to be a double edge sword in a new crackdown. Maybe we need to see some public / stripper respected strip club owners from Portland who would come into this market if the playing field was level. Maybe this is a start in the right direction. But, the article leaves me concerned because it seems to hung on very few advocates.

Thank you Wallingforddad for your comment. We have been working on this for over two years (us the dancers), and with the help of Working in Washington, for about a year and a half. Your comment had good intentions, however First of all we, as workers and as women, know best about what policies make our environment safer. We don’t need to import club owners from other states. I’ve known of managers, even owners, even myself after waitressing for 6 months in a club (back in 2005, before dancing for 10 years), still completely clueless about the effect of policies on the safety and economics of our environment. One reason clubs have dumb policies all over the country isn’t just because only politicians make the laws, but they usually only communicate with the managers and owners, NOT the dancers. So we need DANCERS to be the majority of the committee, trust me with Déjà vu’s greedy hand in the pockets of a lot of politicians already, they will get their say in, but at least with 50% of the committee being dancers any policy will be approved by DANCERS before it goes into law. Second of all, most of us working on producing this bill have worked all over the country, myself over 20 clubs in 7 states, and several of the other girls involved in this have worked in more states and clubs. Third of all, most of us dancers, especially the ones involved in this, are skilled and educated in other industries (we choose to do this, and its our right to choose this type of work if we want to, but that’s a point for another day), so don’t think it’s a bunch of angry uneducated 25 year old girls pushing for this. We’re fully qualified to improve this industry in Washington to the best of its potential without including out of state stripclub owners in our committee.

You are also absolutely right about emulating other successful clubs and states policies, and that’s one thing we plan on doing while coming up with future legislation in the committee.

Also I’m GLAD you brought up human-trafficking. We want it to be clear to everyone that this bill has NOTHING to do with human-trafficking, nor does it in any way promote human-trafficking, if anything with the training it could potentially curb it. However in my opinion and after talking to several other dancers, it’s practically non-existent in stripclubs, the closest you’ll find is a lazy leaching boyfriend who cheats on his stripper girlfriend and spends her money. Dancing creates female relationships, and if a trafficker did decide to send his trafficked victim to a stripclub, then trust me that could only help her get out. But to clarify some confusion, the bill was initially written by Senator Orwell (Thank you so much Orwell and Saldana!!), after listening to our concerns, was revised so that there was a “consensus” among all of us dancers involved in this. Its final version is PERFECT, as it does not add any cost to dancers or the public, it does not add additional police surveillance, and it opens the possibility to formulate great laws in the future with the committee.

@33: "there hasn’t been a “choice” about alcohol in the clubs for a good thirty years"
Papagayo's. Good Time Charlies. Just two clubs I'm familiar with that did sell booze. All legal within Washington State. And still legal, as long as you adhere to the no lap dances and no nudity regulations. And guess what? They didn't make it. Closed. As in not viable business plans. And too many fights and police calls.

Meanwhile, a few dancers 'escaped' to places like Ricks. Lap and VIP dances. Nude on stage. But no booze. And, had Frank not got caught with his hand in the till, dancers would still be making good money there. And not have to put up with a bunch of violent drunks. I've also met a number of refugees from Portland clubs (booze) and heard the same stories. And when I visited a few in Portland, the 'dancers' were taken aback that I was there for a dance. "But ..... booze?"
"No thanks. I don't drink. How about a dance?"
"Are you sure you don't want a drink first?" (Probably thinking that a shitty dance will suffice once I'm drunk).
"No thanks. Just the dance."

If what you want to be is a cocktail waitress, you can do that today. But if you are looking to make money off a bunch of drunks well into a case of whiskey dick, I'm guessing that your heart really isn't into the dance.

http://www.workingwa.org/strippersareworkers/hb1756