Just thought you should know: June 2 is International Whore's Day. Seriously.
http://www.vox.com/first-person/2018/6/1/17416750/international-whores-day-nyc-stripper-strikeForty-three years ago, 100 prostitutes occupied a church in Lyon, France, for an eight-day strike. With the help of the Catholic Church, they, along with women in five other French cities, took refuge in protected sacred spaces and spoke out against police abuses of sex workers. Decades later, June 2 is still recognized as International Whores’ Day by sex workers’ rights groups.
It's not just prostitutes and escorts; it's dancers as well. Society assumes that any exotic dancer is little better than a cheap whore, and treats them accordingly. They are harassed and abused; their complaints are often ignored by authorities. And they tend to be subject to the same laws and lobbying groups that target **31**.
Recently, dancers in New Orleans successfully marched against police raids on their clubs (which often led to degrading treatment from the police), and stopped a law that would limit the number of clubs on Bourbon Street. In New York City, dancers called for a "stripper strike" to protest racial discrimination and unfair labor practices.
In addition to those pressures, dancers were fighting the kinds of problems faced by independent contractors long before “gig economy” became a common phrase. If a dancer brings a sexual harassment or workers comp suit against a club, she has to first prove that she is an employee in court or through a state labor board to even have the standing to make the complaint. Independent contractors don’t have legal protections from discrimination or harassment, nor do they have access to workers comp. And because they are rarely paid a wage by the club, after paying the house fees, a dancer can actually LOSE money on a slow night.
Here's an organization that's helping out:
http://www.new.swopusa.org/