The Attack on Texas Sex Workers
Every city in Texas has their own codes, for example San Antonio shows nipples and have to cover their butt 75% and your cheeks can’t touch the seat. Did you know that fingerprints and background checks are mandatory when stripping in Dallas? How did we get here you ask? In 2008, a 12 year old (who shall not be named), was forced to work at Diamonds Cabaret by Demonica Abron Bell and David Bell. Fun fact: Diamonds Cabaret is currently Dallas Cabaret South and it ain’t going nowhere. Representative Bill Zedler wrote HB 337, a licensing process. He tried putting mandatory STD testing & human trafficking courses in the licensing process but Foot Soldiers weren’t having it. At this time many teenagers were getting fake IDs and working at the strip club which made many runaways vulnerable to trafficking. That’s when the government started charging all 43 sexually owned businesses a $5 mandatory fee. This bill is now SB766. This fee was meant to help rape victims and aid those without health insurance. The clubs don’t really pay the fee, they make each stripper pay that fee and it has gone up to $13 since 2008. Recently I’ve been charged $23 for mandatory fees.
“Erasing a job does not erase the people and their situations.”
I honestly have no issue with this fee if my dollars are actually going towards aiding rape victims and uninsured persons. It’s the SB315 bill that passed secretly under our noses without a stripper’s input. This is that law that got passed and executed summer of 2021 stating that anyone who is 18-21 is considered a child and will be punished if caught working in a sexually owned business. I know you’re probably thinking, “They’re 18 years old, they don’t need to be stripping at a young age”. Okay but what about those who just lost their jobs without warning? No heads up and during pandemic where people were already losing their jobs and spent half a year quarantining. It’s as if they are setting people up for failure all under the disguise of stopping human trafficking. What about the ones who are in toxic relationships and need fast money to better their life? What about those who work more than one W2 job and need extra money to stay afloat. Let’s face it, these recent wage increases aren’t helping people live prosperous lives when the cost of living is also increasing with it. Erasing a job does not erase the people and their situations.
Before I decided to stick with stripping, I was job hopping and inconsistent in my resume. It had a lot to do with depression. As a single mother, I was working 3 jobs at once and it still wasn’t paying the bills and it took so much time away from my son. Stripping allows me to spend more time raising my son and financial freedom to take off when I need it.
Meanwhile these representatives get to go on with their lives un-phased by the damage they caused. Representative Senfronia Thompson, Joan Huffman, and Todd Hunter wrote and sponsored SB315 along with the most current bill SB1802 which makes prostitution a felony in the state of Texas. This bill does not protect those 18-21 who are considered children in one bill but not this one. Only those below 18 are considered child trafficking. I find that troubling, and like my son would say “SUS”. As about as suspect as their financial backers. CEASE and TRAFFICK 911 are abolitionist groups under the disguise of sex trafficking. You must understand why I say sex whether than human. These abolitionist groups are more concerned about the sex part. They’re constantly adding prostitution as a focus to trafficking when trafficking isn’t a sex issue, it’s a human issue. You don’t have to have sex to be trafficked. It’s giving me Puritan vibes. They claim to help victims of trafficking, but if sex is involved the victims become criminals themselves. Now these victims will be faced with felonies making it even harder for them to survive. Right now we’re at stage 7 of Senfronias Thompson’s Stop Trafficking plan, where they plan on reducing demand by possibly using the Nordic Model. The Nordic Model targets buyers instead of trafficking pimps. With that be said, reducing demand means prohibiting sexual acts online and I wouldn’t be surprised if they banned sexual websites including camming sites like they are doing in Austria as we speak. This is our future Texas. They truly believe reducing demand will stop prostitution and when prostitution stops so will trafficking. There’s an agenda here and it has nothing to do with trafficking and more to do with religion and projection. Sex workers have nothing to do with trafficking.
The are just my findings. To all the Foot Soldiers out there, tell me your findings in the comments. We’d love to hear it.
Do you feel like these bills are an attack on Texas sex workers? Have any of you been affected by these bills? Tell your story in the comments.
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