SHEFFIELD, U.K. — The Spearmint Rhino location in Sheffield, U.K. — which had been in operation for 18 years and was recently the subject of a controversial campaign by local and national SWERF (Sex Worker Exclusionary Radical Feminists) groups — has surrendered its sexual entertainment venue license.
According to a BBC report, the strip club has also transferred their alcohol license to another operator, effectively shuttering operations in Sheffield.
The Sheffield Spearmint Rhino, along with the London location of the franchise in Camden, had been for over a year targeted by anti-porn crusaders aligned with sex worker-exclusionary feminism, who were demanding their closure, as XBIZ reported.
SWERFs Spying on Strippers
In early 2019, U.K. activist group Not Buying it — which openly organizes campaigns against sex workers who appear on “Page 3 [nude modeling], Strip Clubs [and] Porn” and boasts of a paltry 2,400 followers on Twitter — hired private investigators to record footage at the Sheffield and Camden clubs.
Nine dancers who were secretly filmed by private investigators fought in court against the release of that footage on the grounds that, according to British newswire service PA Media, “publication could infringe their human right to respect for private life,” and that “they want only their initials to appear on a case claim form."
A year ago, a London judge ruled against the dancers and allowed the surreptitiously obtained footage to be published.
In February 2019, Sheffield group Zero Option (motto: “Make Sheffield free of lap dancing clubs”) sent investigators twice to the South Yorkshire-based Spearmint Rhino. Then, in April, according to the BBC, “details of their findings, including claims of repeated sexual touching by dancers, were read out at a council meeting.”
After a Victory, COVID Strikes
In June, dancers and supporters of the Sheffield sex workers held a protest. Gabby Willis, a sex workers’ advocate from nearby Sheffield Hallam University, told the BBC that she supported “the dancers' right to earn money however they choose.”
"I think it's really important we stand by women's choice to do that in a safe environment for their job, if they want to,” Willis said. As for the secretly obtained videos of the dancers, Willis was skeptical and indignant. "We don't have any proof they even exist,” she told the BBC. “If they do, they are illegal. They constitute revenge porn."
"I talk to so many girls from the club,” Willis continued. "They're all professional, amazing women and even if they weren't, that doesn't mean they should have their rights stripped away to be able to do what they want in peace."
Rachael McCoy, one of the Sheffield strippers, told the crowd that the protest was “really important to us. This is our livelihoods. I'm a single mother. This job helps me feed my children. This job has actually changed my life for the better."
Last September, despite frantic campaigning by SWERF crusaders before local government, the Sheffield’s club license was renewed.
But this week, according to the BBC, the Sheffield City Council said the Spearmint Rhino has now withdrawn its latest application, backdated from April, when the U.K. was in lockdown. Dancers report that nightlife activity in Sheffield was decimated by the COVID-19 pandemic and the U.K.'s highly strict lockdown measures.
This summer, the Sheffield Spearmint Rhino also reportedly dropped a privacy case against the SWERF groups “who commissioned secret filming of dancers at work.”
Charlotte Mead, of Sheffield Women's Equality Party, celebrated to the BBC that “it's really good that they've left Sheffield after so long campaigning for them not to be here in our community right next to [Sheffield Hallam] students' union.”
