“Strippers and sex workers of color” in Oregon can now apply for federal coronavirus relief, reports the Oregonian.
The Oregon Health Authority is distributing $45 million in federal funds “to mitigate the spread of COVID-19 in tribal communities and communities of color, which have been disproportionally affected by the virus,” noted the paper.
Of those funds, $600,000 will be disbursed by the Haymarket Pole Collective, a strippers’ rights organization formed just months ago. The group succeeded in getting government money on its very first attempt.
According to the Oregonian:
The grants will allow Haymarket Pole Collective to provide financial assistance to 75 people, who can receive up to $1,600 in rent assistance, $500 in utility assistance and $150 toward internet services.
Another 200 applicants will receive a wellness tote, which will include a mail-in COVID test and sexually-transmitted infection test, reusable masks, personal hygiene supplies, sanitizer products, gas and grocery gift cards, thermometers and blood oximeters.
Anyone “who has made income from using their or other people’s sexuality to financially assist themselves” can apply for the grants, Cat Hollis, founder of PDX Stripper Strike and Haymarket Pole Collective, told the Oregonian. However, added the paper, “priority will be given to Black, Indigenous and transgender applicants, those with minor dependents living in the household and those experiencing homelessness.”
White ecdysiasts, apparently, are too privileged to deserve a helping hand.
In fact, Hollis’ organizations seem to be solely aimed at making stripping more attractive to black women (or men who claim they’re women), a rather dubious raison d’être. In June, PDX Stripper Strike demanded that all Portland strip clubs “provide cultural sensitivity training for employees and offer more equitable scheduling for dancers of color,” the Oregonian reported at the time. The group then evolved into the Haymarket Pole Collective.
“PDX Stripper Strike is the verb,” Hollis explained. “Haymarket Pole Collective formed out of PDX Stripper Strike realizing that we needed something that would be more long-term. Our strategy is to empower workers in our industry to have advocacy and agency and safety in their workspaces.”
“Hollis said the collective’s goals include providing educational services, support groups and childcare for those in the adult entertainment industry,” wrote the Oregonian.
Government-mandated lockdowns closed strip clubs for a time. The unemployment resulting from the lockdowns has also eroded the clubs’ customer base.
Since most strippers aren’t employees but independent contractors, they aren’t eligible for unemployment compensation. Moreover, when one’s only marketable skill is disrobing, finding other work isn’t easy. And since practically any woman can shed her clothes on the Internet with relative anonymity, unemployed strippers haven’t been able to earn much plying their trade online.
“Not only has the industry been flooded with people looking for easy income, it had already shrunk in the number of spaces people can safely practice their work in,” Hollis said. “I think (sex workers) are in a hard spot, not for lack of trying.”
The Haymarket Pole Collective is being abetted in funneling taxpayer dollars to strippers of color by the YWCA of Greater Portland, which “is serving as the fiscal agent for the grant’s distribution,” said the Oregonian.
The deadline to apply for grants is December 1. Thus far, 93 people have applied.
Certainly, strippers are human beings who didn’t deserve the fate the powers that be dealt them — or the rest of us — this year. But it is also true that many, if not most, taxpayers do not wish to subsidize them.
Unfortunately, as usual, taxpayers have little to no say in how government largess is distributed. While thousands of small businesses across the country have folded this year because of unconstitutional lockdowns, COVID-19 aid — also unconstitutional — has gone to political parties as well as politically connected big businesses. Now it is also going to strippers, but only the politically correct kind.
Congress and both presidential contenders want to spend even more money that they don’t have in the hopes of undoing the damage caused by government overreach. Now that the naked truth about the first round of coronavirus “stimulus” is known, however, no one should believe that a second round will accomplish anything except plunging the United States ever more deeply into debt.
