What a monumental set of circumstances have brought us to this point in history, a moment of collective trauma, activation, shift, rage, sorrow, and hopefully, radical change. We recognize large gaps in our understanding of racism and have committed to anti-racist education for ourselves, but we need to do better. It is more than talk and education that is needed.

As sex workers/educators we live an already political life, combating the intersections of shame, sex-negativity, and sex work discrimination, but not a single one of us white or white-passing people can truly understand what Black people are dealing with in this country, the violence and the silence they have had to endure. 

BLACK LIVES MATTER & BLACK TRANS LIVES MATTER. But it isn’t enough to say this, we are committed to doing the internal work to disrupt racism and white fragility, educating the other white people we have access to, activating our sphere of influence, using our privilege, and donating money and time to these causes for Black lives and Black futures.

Sub Rosa stands also with the PDX Stripper Strike – a labor movement demanding fair treatment of Black dancers at strip clubs in Portland. We have endorsed and have committed to doing more DEI training with our members as well as pushing for the other organizations/clubs/venues that we work with to do the same.

Some other places you can start/support: buy and hire services from Portland POC-owned businesses, donate to direct aid with Portland’s Equitable Giving Circle, read: this antiracist reading list, watch this movie: The 13th, donate to organizations that support Black trans folks (recognizing the underreported recent murders), PUSH for your companies and organizations to enlist the services of this local DEI training group: Empress Rules Equity Consulting, or find a Black-led DEI consulting group.

This is so important right now, our Black and Indigenous friends cannot wait for us to act any longer. 

love and strength and spanks, 

Viola & Natasha

A friend of Sub Rosa’s, Dr Evelin Dacker, recently posted this article on opening up social circles in the days to come. We encourage you to read it to help you understand your risks, and those of your social circle to stay safe as things reopen.

We are in the process of creating processes to keep ourselves and our renters safe.

We are watching the news to stay informed as to what the best practices are in businesses like ours. Currently we are available to regular vetted renters who are quarantined together. We are asking that people arrive in masks to greet us, and refrain from using the public toys for now. If there are toys you usually borrow from us, let us know and we can have them out for you.

We are taking care to wipe surfaces down with Clorox wipes – especially those heavy touch areas like door knobs, sink knobs, toilet handles. We are asking you to do the same at the end of your play time. Of course we clean all surfaces after you leave as well, but we don’t know what you’ve been up to during your stay so taking care to clean up after yourselves will at worst, leave some places doubly cleaned, which isn’t a bad thing in the time of Covid.

Classes and other social gatherings like 50 Shades of STFU and Quink will continue, but online. We are just starting to add classes to the roster, so check back often!

We will be using our blog, as well as our newsletter to keep you up to date on our current policies. If you have any questions, please feel free to reach out.