Around New England

Strip Club Manager Out After Owners Won’t O.K. More Diverse Strippers

February 6, 2020

A strip club manager in western Massachusetts who wanted to bring in queer and transgender strippers quit after the owners refused to go along with the plan.

Bella Vendetta, who had managed the club under a previous owner before it was sold in August 2019, “said she decided to return … because new ownership had agreed to support her vision of creating a more diverse strip club,” according to The Valley Advocate, which has an office in Northampton.

The strip club is in Whately, a town of about 1,500 about 7 1/2 miles northwest of Amherst.

A lesbian night in October was a success, Vendetta said, but the following week the owners “would not allow her to move forward with a queer night at the club,” according to The Valley Advocate.

So Vendetta quit.

Instead, she plans to “continue her sex worker advocacy through the nonprofit she founded,” The Valley Advocate reports, featuring meetings that “will offer yoga for strippers” and other services.