Visiting DC to Combat Financial Discrimination

The primary reason I founded MintStars was to combat the financial discrimination that sex workers face. Adult content creators constantly struggle with having their accounts shut down on PayPal, Venmo, Cash App, and others, which makes it very difficult to make a living for their work independently. I've always found it deeply unjust that people, especially women and gender non-conforming people, are excluded from the financial system which we all rely on simply for choosing to express their sexuality or make a living from their bodies.

That's why I was so overjoyed this month to have had the opportunity to go to DC with the Free Speech Coalition to lobby Congress on banking discrimination against sex workers. The Free Speech Coalition recently found that 2 in 3 adult industry workers have had a bank account or payment app shut down. Without access to banking, not only is it more difficult for sex workers to earn a living, but they're also made more vulnerable to employment discrimination, housing discrimination, or abuse or exploitation by a third party controlling their finances.

We traveled as a group of performers, creators, advocates, and business owners to Capitol Hill, where we met with the staff of both Democratic and Republican Congressmembers to share our stories of banking discrimination. Having worked as a researcher in this space for a long time, I was nervous about how we would be received - because of the stigma the industry carries, I feared that we'd be told that the Congressmembers did not support banking access because they dislike the industry, or that we'd be met with the usual myths that shutting down the industry is necessary to combat sex trafficking (having started my career as a researcher on human trafficking, I know the opposite is true - improving sex workers' rights is necessary to prevent trafficking).

Happily, we were met with a far more positive reception than I'd anticipated, on both sides of the aisle. Every office we met told us they understood how serious a problem this is and were grateful we'd brought it to their attention. While some offices said their Congressmember couldn't openly advocate for sex workers because their constituents might disapprove, they committed to fighting for all legal businesses to have access to banking. In my favorite meetings, prominent Senators' staff told us they supported the full decriminalization of sex work and that they would be very open to working with us to identify a solution to this problem. We hosted a reception in the evening, and I was touched that my ex-colleagues and friends from my fellowship in Congress last summer attended in support.

Banking discrimination is not so much a legal problem as it is a regulatory one. There is no law saying that banks should refuse to provide services to sex workers, but federal regulations and investigations of banks for supposedly "high-risk" activity, such as Operation Choke Point, have led many banks to crack down on legal adult businesses. I'm pleased to have had the chance to contribute my research experience to co-drafting a letter on this issue to banking regulators, and our next step is working on a bill for banking fairness.

Even as we build technological solutions for financial inclusion through MintStars, I firmly believe what's most needed is policy change. I'm deeply grateful to our investors and friends at SpankChain for inviting me into this advocacy space. Making political change is not easy, but for the first time in many years I feel optimistic.