Ah, the Pacific Northwest, home of purple mountains? majesty, the lapping tongue of the Pacific Ocean, trembling Douglas firs, and more vegans than you can shake a stick at. The PNW also finds itself home to a bevy of peepshows and strip clubs, most notably Seattle?s infamous
Lusty Lady, and Portland, Oregon?s notorious reputation of having more strips clubs per capita than any city in the US.At Babeland, we love our vegan friends (not to mention that quite a fair amount of our Babes are vegans themselves); we also love our sex-worker friends (and fair number of our Babes, have been, are, or have become sex-workers in their own right). To honor all these folks, we offer delectable lines of
vegan lube,
vegan cuffs ,
vegan floggers (
BARE Leatherworks makes a 100% vegan flogger, available in our shops), and more; there is a professional discount for sex workers; in the past, we have played host(ess) to sex-worker luminaries the likes of
Annie Sprinkle and
Nina Hartley; and we often feature texts in our book section on the topic of sex work itself.It should come as no surprise that in this wonderland of sex-workers and vegans (and sometimes vegan sex-workers), a vegan strip club was bound to pop up. And pop up it has: Our sister city to the South, Portland, has upped its own ante by birthing the world?s first vegan strip club? Casa Diablo? which opened its doors on February 1st.Lillian Hogan, of
wweek.com, writes:
Casa Diablo Gentlemen?s Club, stranded in outer industrial Northwest Portland on St. Helens Road, features attractive, well-shaven dancers, working for a man so dedicated to veganism he swears he?d rather give up sex than eat meat??Our stripper-happy city?s new joint is owned by Johnny Diablo, a 44-year-old Los Angeles transplant. He opened a vegan restaurant in September 2006, Pirates Tavern, in the same building that now blends strippers and soy. Pirates Tavern went out of business in December 2007, Diablo says, because most vegans live at the poverty level or below.But Diablo, a self-described ?ethical vegan? of 23 years, thinks Portland will support veganism and vaginas in part because Casa Diablo is Portland?s only smoke-free strip club.Sexy carnivores are welcome to dance on his stage, although Diablo says most of his strippers are vegans or vegetarians. He says he tries to convert the meat eaters by offering them free vegan food and preaching his vegan ways.The club?s main claim to veganism seems to be that strippers cannot wear any leather, fur, silk or wool. If a dancer slips up and sports snakeskin heels, Diablo says he pulls the woman aside to talk about ?not bringing murder victims into the establishment.
Didn?t think you?d live to see the advent of a cruelty-free, smoke-free, and clothing-free club? Think again. While the news of the club?s opening is already sparking internet jokes and gossip galore, I do know one thing: This omnivorous Babe will soon be trekking to Portland in order to sample the vegan fare and tuck as many crisp bills as possible into the garters of our fierce, fearless, and hard-working sex-worker sisters.s.
