Strippers to get safer workplaces under new bill

OLYMPIA – Strippers and other adult entertainment workers will get certain protections, including panic buttons in certain locations around their workplaces and a “black list” that bans dangerous customers under a new law.

“We want all workers in the state to be safe,” Gov. Jay Inslee said as he signed the bill Wednesday.

The new law requires adult entertainers to receive training on their rights, responsibilities and injury prevention by July 1, 2020, and for the places where they work to install panic buttons in certain locations. Customers can be banned for three years if a valid complaint about violence or harassment is filed against them, and the Department of Labor and Industries must set up an advisory committee to help implement the new requirements that will include current or former entertainers and business owners.

After the bill received a committee hearing in the House in February, a full vote seemed stalled until the bill received a boost from a special lobbyist, adult film actress and dancer Stormy Daniels, who’s probably best known for an alleged affair with Donald Trump before he became president.

Rep. Tina Orwall, the bill’s prime sponsor, said Daniels, who was recruited by a company that operates many of the adult entertainment businesses in the state, made a convincing case for the need for panic buttons required by the legislation.