More accurate to say ‘at times sex workers are…’ Or even more accurate ‘at times I myself have felt I was expected to…’. Yes I think it matters.

We might want to work to include a variety of perspectives without alienating anyone.
Don’t want to perpetuate the wrong narratives which end up working against us.

Are all clients addicts? No. Are all sex workers addicts? No. Is it a good strategy to demonize clients (who have already been targeted by the antis) to counter the drug addicted sex worker stereotype? There must be a better way to battle the stigma without contributing to the stigma.

Promoting a more compassionate approach to addiction is important regardless of who we could be talking about.

I have been a sex worker in various capacity from homeless on the street, addicted, nearly died, to recovery and finally healthy platform- since recovery I have always refused clients who are high or drunk. I refuse to to be expected to babysit anyone. Doesn’t matter how much I may be hurting for money I will not compromise that boundary.

The way we operate and advertise can be effective in weeding out a lot of that crap in the first place.

But I sure don’t blame you for being angry about double standards where they arise. Double standards piss me off too.

This says it all. When I was working at a commercial dungeon in NYC, I spent many, MANY hours babysitting cokeheads, guys on alcoholic benders who had nowhere else to go when the bars closed & they didn’t want to go home, guys smoking crack, guys snorting pills. Not all of these clients were well-to-do, but a hell of a lot of them were exactly like Forrest Hayes: wealthy white men with “important” jobs and families, living double lives. I was constantly asked to procure drugs or liquor for them (they would be incredulous when I explained that I was a square and didn’t know where to get most drugs). Furthermore, a lot of them expected the domme to partake of the drugs with them. AAAANNND some of them even wanted me (or another domme) to administer their drugs to them, or mix & deliver more cocktails to them.

More than once, I wondered exactly what I & the dungeon (management) would do if someone ODed during a session. To be completely honest, I think that, depending on which manager was working that night, there’s a very good chance the ODed client would be dumped on the street a few blocks away, and someone would call an ambulance from a payphone.

I have sympathy for Hayes and it sucks that his children lost him, but it’s his own damn fault he died. Tichelman didn’t kill him.