SACRAMENTO, Calif. — A Sacramento sex worker activist is condemning a sheriff's spokesperson from Georgia for saying that it was a sex addiction that led a gunman to kill eight people.
Jay Baker, a Cherokee County Sheriff's Office spokesman said a shooter that killed eight people, including six Asian women, targeted locations that would get rid of his temptation for sex.
Kristen DiAngelo spent years in the adult industry appearing in videos and most recently using her platform as executive director of Sex Workers Outreach Project Sacramento to host rallies at the state capitol declaring sex work is work. She describes Baker's characterization of the shooting as both discrimination and victim-blaming.
While it has not been said that any of the victims in Atlanta were sex workers DiAngelo says the very stigma around massage parlors needs to be addressed.
"(Sex workers are) scared to call the police," DiAngelo said. "When you're in a massage parlor the last thing you want to do is pick up the phone and call the police because those are the same people who come in, they raid you. they ticket you, they harass you."
Police believe the Georgia shooter would have continued on to Florida to target workers at similar spas if law enforcement didn't stop him. An issue DiAngelo feels is being lost in the national conversation.
"He targeted them because of an issue he had sexually," DiAngelo said. "So we need to talk about this."
DiAngelo is proud to have worked to get legislation passed back in 2019 to protect sex workers from arrest for misdemeanor sex work-related crimes after they report a serious and violent felony, such as rape.
"That means they can't take you to jail," DiAngelo said. "You get to have a voice in the state of California today."
