From the Denver Post:
Editor’s note: It is The Denver Post’s policy to quote sources by their real names. The Post made an exception for this story so that sex workers could candidly speak without fear of facing criminal, professional or social consequences. The Colorado sex workers quoted in this story asked to be identified by aliases they either currently use or previously used in both legal and illegal lines of sex work. The Post verified their identities through extensive conversations and multiple in-person meetings.
Mia, a sex worker, had been violated on the job more ways than she could count when, around Christmas 2018, she decided for the first time to report someone.
She was performing a lap dance at a Boulder strip club when a customer aggressively grabbed a part of her body she had clearly stated he was not to touch, she said. Mia told management what happened and asked them to remove the man from the club, and when they did not she went to the police.
The only person punished in the case was Mia. The club fired her, she said, and prosecutors told her “the odds were very slim that I’d win over the jury because they believed my status as a stripper would be enough bias to not have this person convicted.”
The experience confirmed for her a common fear among sex workers: that people who commit crimes against them, including assault, theft, harassment or stalking, won’t face consequences. Continue reading >>>
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