A STRIPPER is urging people to support sex workers and stop officials from closing the Highland’s only lap-dancing club.
On Monday (April 25) the licensing committee at Highland Council – the UK’s largest authority by square miles – will consider public responses on sexual entertainment venues (SEVs).
The future of Private Eyes Gentleman’s Club – the only strip club in the Highlands – is at stake, and with it the jobs of 30 women who work at the venue.
Local authorities were granted discretionary power to license sex entertainment venues (SEVs) in the Air Weapons and Licensing (Scotland) Act 2015.
We told how in Edinburgh, Councillors voted to set the licenses to ‘zero’ instead of four, which is the number of strip clubs which are currently open in the capital, BANNING venues for the first time in Scotland
But Kelsey Johnson, a dancer at the Inverness-based club and goes by Kelseyxo online, insists this move could be ‘extremely detrimental’ for women’s safety as workers would be forced to work for underground agencies instead of the safety of a venue.
Politics
The 24-year-old, from Thurso, told the Scottish Sun ahead of Monday’s vote: “This is 2022, I find the whole idea of shutting down the only venue in the Highlands down, absolutely appalling and extremely detrimental to women’s safety at best.
“All that will happen is underground agencies will prey on the girls and send them to events at hotels and houses for stags. It will not force them into regular jobs. THATS unsafe!
“Me and the girls would be absolutely heart broken to see such an amazing safe environment taken from us so unnecessarily.
“I urge the people who are trying to close it down, to reflect on their true motives because the safety and happiness of women can’t possibly be it.
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“It will only push women into dangerous situations or having to travel far away to be able to do their job.”
The club currently employs 25 dancers and six female bar staff, as well as security and other administrative support.
Kelsey always hears from female visitors about how safe they feel drinking in the club, especially with the current issue with drink spiking in regular clubs.
She continued: “I had a female customer come to me yesterday saying it is the only bar in town she feels safe to have a drink in, her exact words were ‘there isn’t a safer bar for women or men to drink in than here'”
“We have many female customers and hen parties for this reason. This would be such a huge step back for the safety of women in the highlands who chose to be dancers.”
As officials get ready to make a decision on the future of the venue this week, the successful OnlyFans model believes sex workers are being left out of the political conversations in favour of scare tactics.
Contributions from NHS Highland and groups such as Highland Violence Against Women Partnership, among others, call for the number of SEVs to be set at zero, and claim strip clubs are a ‘public health’ issue.
Hitting out, Kelsey added: “I don’t know who these groups think they are to persistently take it upon themselves to speak on behalf of us.
“All they try to achieve is to remove our safe workplace from beneath our feet and in turn strip us of the freedom of choice.
“I think they should be beyond ashamed of themselves.”
Kelsey, who we told previously how she paid off her £400k mortgage from the income from her sex work, blames ‘stigma’ around clubs which relate to claims about rape, human trafficking, assault and prostitution.
Such claims came from a public submission from the Highland’s Violence Against Women Partnership written by chairman DCI Donald MacDonald, which said: “Sexual entertainment venues are places where the abuse of young girls and women is rife and where the degradation of those trapped in poverty is normalised.
“Routes into ‘performing’ range from abusive childhoods, human trafficking and lack of perceived alternatives.
“Verbal, physical and sexual harassment and assault of lap dancers is standard and constant.
“This is carried out by punters and staff alike. Assault includes GBH, stalking, rape and gang rape.”
But Kelsey responded furiously: “It is the stigma surrounding strip clubs because of one’s in England and the USA it is so different up here and people don’t realise this.
“The rumours of assault, sex trafficking and forced work are so beyond deluded I honestly would find it laughable if it wasn’t such a serious situation.
“They can’t point to real examples of it happening in the club so it is blatant lies.”
Both NHS Highland and the HVAWP complained that the draft policy did not seek to establish the number of SEVs at zero but in a response from council officers it is clear this has been left to elected members to decide rather than officials.
A council officer said: “It remains open to the committee in light of the consultation responses received to determine whether further consideration is required in respect of setting a maximum number of SEVs that can operate within the Highlands.
“Members will note that it remains within the authority of the committee to set the maximum number at zero (zero being that no SEVs are entitled to operate within the Highlands).”
A spokesman for Private Eyes said: “We have been operating Private Eyes throughout Scotland now for 24 years trouble-free and there have been no instances of any of the outrageous allegations made specifically by NHS Highland.
“We have full club rules for both how dancers should behave and we have a duty of care to both staff and another for customers.
“We take pride in having dancers working with us for, in some cases, 20 years because of the safe and friendly environment.
“In the whole of Scotland in all the various clubs there has never been a case of either human trafficking or prostitution or under age dancers in over 25 years.”
