Entering the adult industry often entails a variety of advantages and pitfalls. This year, because of COVID-19, we saw a massive influx in our community of workers. People who normally work regular 9-to-5 jobs saw their employment come to an end due to workplace closures. In order to care for their families, many turned to various forms of sex work.
From camming to OnlyFans, people have been finding financial freedom through the adult industry. As businesses began reopening, many returned back to work. Unfortunately, some of these workers were met with firings when others found out what they were doing during their off time. Even as the popularity of sex work platforms grew, the magnification of the stigma against sex workers also became multiplied.
Workers with pristine track records at their vanilla jobs are now being fired for their involvement in the adult community. We have seen recent stories of this type of discrimination such as a medic fired from her job as an EMT with a New York-based company due to her OnlyFans page, and also performer Lonna Wells who was recently fired from Taco Bell over her adult work.
Lonna, who worked the drive-thru at an Arkansas-based Taco Bell, was fired due to a complaint lodged by a female customer. According to Lonna, she was told management received a complaint from a customer stating they were angry that an adult performer was working there, and as a God-fearing woman, she wanted her removed. Lonna’s story subsequently went viral, leading to an outcry of support for her and anger towards Taco Bell, with many calling for a boycott of the fast food chain.
All too often, workers have faced occupational discrimination due to their careers in the adult industry. Take the case of Britney Diamond as another example. Working as an executive assistant for the corporate offices of Hard Rock International in southern Florida, Diamond found herself being escorted to the human resources office a week before Christmas in 2019. Feeling as if she was in trouble and unsure what was happening, Britney knew being called into human resources meant there was a problem. As she sat in front of two female employees, she was questioned about her involvement in the adult industry.
According to Britney she was told, “We heard you have a side business,” by one of the women, who proceeded to tell Miss Diamond that a complaint was made regarding her Instagram page, which in her profile, included a link to her Linktree. The Linktree listed her OnlyFans page and her personal website.
During her year-and-a-half employed with Hard Rock International, Britney says she had an exemplary record and never any issues or complaints. She was told her side job “doesn’t keep in line with the image of their company.” Britney was informed she was being suspended pending the investigation and was forced to hand over her work cellphone and laptop. She was then escorted out of the building without being able to retrieve her personal items.
“They treated me as if I had stolen from them,” she shared with me. “I was embarrassed and humiliated in front of other workers as they walked me out. It took months for me to even get my photos and other personal items from my desk.
As a mother of an eight-year-old child with autism, Britney was facing a company investigation into her adult work. Having numerous friends at the company who were coworkers, Britney was concerned they too might face consequences, because they knew about her secondary job. To protect those friends and to prevent further humiliation, she made the decision to resign from her position.
“Honestly, it’s been a blessing in disguise,” she said. “I have turned to sex work full-time and I make so much more money.”
Meanwhile, as a community coordinator for H-E-B, Phoenix Stacy found herself in a similar plight. Described as an upscale and organic chain of supermarkets with 340 locations in Texas and New Mexico, Stacy’s job with H-E-B was to coordinate events, acquire talent and artists for their café and an array of other tasks. After nearly two years of employment, in September 2020 a complaint was made claiming Stacy was taking photographs from work and posting them to adult platforms. Upon being questioned, Stacy says she offered access to her fan pages in an effort to prove the claims were false.
“I told them they could take my phone and look at my pages to prove I had never done anything like that, but they refused,” Stacy explained. “I had an outstanding record, I was never in trouble or had any write-ups. I received ‘meets and exceeds expectations’ on my reviews and was I amazing at my job.”
Stacy shared that supervisors knew she was involved in the foot fetish community, as many other workers were in the lifestyle. A coworker had found her Instagram page, which sparked a conversation about her involvement in the fetish community. When confronted with the concerns about her work in adult, she was told another manager reported her via a company hotline. In an email sent to Stacy that I obtained, she was told she violated policies. The policies listed were discrimination, harassment and unprofessional conduct. In the “specific behavior listed” category, the following paragraph was written:
“It was brought to our attention that you were involved with a foot fetish community and discussed this with other hourly partners at H-E-B. During the investigation, you provided additional information about your involvement in online adult explicit materials. Such behavior has created a disturbance within H-E-B, which is a violation of our Standards of Conduct Policy. As a result of this behavior, you are receiving a Final Written Warning. Because your role as Community Coordinator is a representation of H-E-B to the Community, you are being removed from your current position. As a result of the above stated behavior and policy violations, the following action is being taken: You are being issued a Final Written Warning. As a result of this Final Written Warning, you must submit an action plan to show you are going to improve your conduct in these areas. It is every H-E-B’s Partner responsibility to contribute to an atmosphere of respect and dignity.”
After receiving this notice from H-E-B, Stacy was put on paid suspension until the end of the investigation, which resulted in her firing. After four months of being removed from her position, Stacy still receives texts and emails from people in the community that they are sad she is gone.
Another unfortunate tale of sex worker bias forced Miss Mary Jane out of her job as a production assistant for a California-based company specializing in commercial video for real estate agents and small productions. Working for the company for seven months, Mary’s job consisted of production work, as well as running errands for the company while helping producers and clients when filming.
As a college graduate who studied film, Mary was hoping to build a career in Hollywood while moonlighting as an adult creator. One day, when Mary returned from running company errands, she arrived at the office and was confronted about her Instagram page by her employer in front of other employees. “I come back from running errands and everyone in the room was just staring at me,” she shared. “My boss said, ‘Who is Miss Mary Jane? We need to talk about this’ and I was immediately uncomfortable.”
Mary stated that her boss received a recommendation from Instagram to follow her alias, and she had listed a link to her ManyVids page on her social media. She was fired immediately and had to return to her family and explain how she lost her job. “I was afraid my family would learn about my adult work, so I had to tell my Dad that I got into an argument with my boss so she let me go,” she said. “I didn’t even apply for unemployment, because I was afraid it would get out.”
In a state like California, where adult work is prevalent, it is shocking to find similar issues with employers. Known as a liberal state, unlike Arkansas, Florida and Texas, adult work is legal in California. However, California is also an “employment at will” state, as are the other three states. This clause means an employer in those states can terminate an employee at any time for any reason, except an illegal one or for no reason without incurring legal liability.
The U.S. Equal Employment Opportunity Commission Title VII prohibits employment discrimination based on race, color, religion, sex and national origin. There are now also protections for physical or mental disabilities, reprisal, and most recently added, sexual orientation. Given that so many workers are discriminated against for their occupations, we are fighting to have occupational discrimination added to the list of protected classes.
Far too often, workers are blocked from housing, banking, education and from being hired by companies because of their former employment. The stories are all too common. Performers have been denied access to fair banking, or blocked from using payment processors such as PayPal because of their line of work. A recent decision by the Office of the Comptroller of the Currency lifted the rule that pushed for specific groups of high-risk accounts to be blocked simply for being listed as high-risk. The final rule forces banks to hold individual assessments, no longer allowing people to be judged as a category. This recent decision offers hope to the adult community that discrimination against our workers from banks may soon be coming to an end, opening the door to fair treatment.
Although the banking issue offers hope, until occupational discrimination is deemed illegal, workers from our industry will continue to be mistreated. As President of the Adult Performance Artists Guild (APAG) I am working to fight against this discrimination and we’ve begun the conversation with government officials to have occupation added as a protected class. As part of their 2021 agenda, APAG announced their intentions to take this fight to Washington, D.C. and will be amplifying the voices of those discriminated against to their representatives.
For more information about our cause, visit APAGUnion.com or follow us @APAGUnion on Twitter. You can also give a Twitter follow to myself @alanaevansxxx, Diamond @britneydiamond4, Stacy @phoenix_stacy and Jane @missmaryjanexxx.
