LOS ANGELES — Alana Evans, president of the Adult Performers Actors Guild (APAG) penned an op-ed for mainstream news site The Daily Beast about “how discriminatory it is that the $2 trillion coronavirus stimulus excludes sex workers.”
The Daily Beast gave Evans’ op-ed — published earlier today — the title, “Porn Union Leader to Trump: Why Are You Screwing Us Out of Our Coronavirus Stimulus Check?”
"We live and work in a marginalized community," Evans told XBIZ. "While performers are aware of the problems we incur daily, the outside world is often unaware of the discrimination we face. At times, the mainstream media is pertinent to reaching a resolution to our conflicts, uniting the masses in support of our causes."
Evans began her op-ed by explaining to the Daily Beast’s readership that “the adult industry has long been considered one of the highest-grossing businesses, rumored to bring in billions in profits each year. As the novel coronavirus unleashes its deadly fury on the world economy, it should be no surprise that the adult world is taking a massive hit as well. Companies across the globe are closing their doors to customers due to shelter-in-place orders, and the porn industry has had to shut down filming for all, calling a moratorium on production until the crisis has subsided.”
Evans then went on to explain that the sex worker and sex business communities were looking forward to some federal relief in the form of Small Business Administration (SBA) loans.
“As the leaders of our country began to finalize details for aid to workers and small businesses,” Evans wrote, “the applications for relief were finally made available. As a sole proprietor, we would normally qualify for disaster relief from the SBA (Small Business Administration) in the form of a $10,000 loan advance. The COVID-19 Economic Injury Disaster Loan would provide economic relief to businesses/sole proprietors that are currently experiencing temporary loss of revenue within three days of approval, and the loan advance would not have to be repaid.”
But then, as XBIZ has been reporting this week (here and here), the adult community discovered that the language of the SBA application asks potential applicants for economic relief to first check if they do not belong to one of several disqualifying categories.
The longest exclusion — which appears to be deliberately worded to target the largest segment of sex workers and sex-related businesses possible — states that the applicant must declare that they do not “present live performances of a prurient sexual nature or derive directly or indirectly more than de minimis gross revenue through the sale of products or services, or the presentation of any depictions or displays, of a prurient sexual nature.”
#PrurientAndProud
“From my understanding,” Evans wrote in her Daily Beast op-ed, “COVID-19 isn’t choosing its victims based on their social or economic background, but our government has decided that millions of tax-paying citizens are unworthy of their federal aid because we have 'prurient' jobs. Even if you meet the entire list of requirements for the disaster relief loan, the fact that your income is derived from the adult industry makes you unworthy of their aid.”
“As this news makes its way through the industry,” Evans continued, “we are seeing many recognize the discrimination that is occurring. Taxation without representation has been a constant theme along with the hashtag #PrurientAndProud, as members of the community offer their support. As a marginalized workforce, we deal with discrimination on a daily basis. We are often told being an adult worker is not a protected class, as if it is acceptable to shun us over our legal tax-paying jobs.”
“When the U.S. government echoes the same sentiment with this type of blatant discrimination, it is time we push back and demand change. At this time, we are looking to our politicians, our union leaders, our labor supporters, and our workers to organize and fight back,” Evans concluded.
To read Alana Evans’ op-ed for the Daily Beast, click here.
