Scandal In The Show-Me (The Legally Permitted Amount) State

Here’s a little Midwestern scandal with a tough old-school lesbian stripper and Republican hypocrisy about sex and sex work. Missouri Lieutenant Governor Peter Kinder has been outed as a creepy PL (pathetic loser) who used to be a strip club regular. When he ran into his old ATF, Tammy Chapman, he asked her if she wanted to move into the condo his campaign fund pays for. Chapman was so disturbed (or something) she went public. From the Riverfront Times:

Chapman says she’s speaking out because she’s disgusted by Kinder’s behavior, both in the mid-’90s and today. “He uses his political business card to get women,” she says.

She adds, “He is not fit for public office.” 

Now he’s sneaking into events through the back door to avoid answering questions and facing early muckracking before a likely (?) gubernatorial campaign.

What makes this story interesting to sex workers at large? Last year the Missouri legislature passed some of the nation’s most restrictive anti-strip club legislation. It banned nudity, alcohol, and contact in adult businesses and required them to close by midnight, meaning that in a strip club in St. Louis, you could drink a soda and watch a semi-clothed dancer but only if you’re six feet or further away and it’s before 12 a.m.. It’s been devastating to the industry and resulted in job and tax losses for the state. Let’s not have any illusions that only Republicans get behind these laws—the governor who signed the bill, Jay Nixon, is a Democrat. But this case serves as a glaring reminder of  how elected officials are willing to ignore the harm done to sex workers by politically expedient actions even when they should know better. This is one instance in which I think a customer’s right to privacy is forfeited by his failure to not act like a dirtbag.