Sex Workers

The first meeting to discuss the future of Amsterdam’s Red Light District was met with disagreement and polarizing opinions on Wednesday evening at the Compagnietheater, the 18th century former church that sits in De Wallen. The meeting, organized by Mayor Femke Halsema, gathered residents, sex workers, and entrepreneurs who will be affected by the proposed changes for the area. 

My Red Light, the sex worker-run window brothel that opened in Amsterdam's Red Light District in May last year, is facing financial difficulties. The brothel can't find anyone to rent its rooms over day due to the municipality's strict rules on who can rent the rooms, and strict screenings on sex workers who work there, board member Marcel Heyman said on Facebook. 

Amsterdam is implementing stricter rules for guided tours through the Red Light District from April, the city announced. The new rules, which are intended to reduce crowds in the busy area and to protect the privacy of sex workers, include a ban on tour groups larger than 20 people, and not allowing photographs to be taken of sex workers. 

"The number of organized tours has increased considerably in recent years. At the busiest moments, such as between 11 and 12 in the morning, 27 groups visit the Oudekerksplein in an hour", the city of Amsterdam said in a statement. 

In a city center that is filled with co-working spaces, it is not particularly surprising that a new hub for sex workers in Amsterdam's famed Red Light District is using ideas like flexible room rental agreements, a website showing who is working at any given time and what their skills are, and a sort-of networking lounge like those seen in many of the city's shared working environments. My Red Light was unveiled to journalists on Friday, over two years after the city's mayor first floated the idea of a brothel completely managed and run by sex workers.

A shocking number of male prostitutes in Limburg who find their customers online have a sexually transmitted disease.

"It's a funny, playful project and not meant to be a statement," artist Luis Risi says of his street art project, "The Red Mice District. The pieces feature mice made to look like pin-up girls in risqué outfits, each mounted in a white frame with a bright red light shining upon them. He had no intention of making a moral judgment or proclamation about prostitution when he started hanging his street art pictures around De Wallen, Amsterdam’s most famous Red Light District.

Amsterdam Mayor Eberhard van der Laan has found a party that is interested in the premises of the brothel the municipality aims to open. The municipality announced in February that it wants to set up a brothel that is run by prostitutes themselves.

Triodos Bank may refuse opening an account for Proud, an association of sex workers, wrote Finance Minister Jeroen Dijsselbloem to parliament on Thursday. The bank gave sufficient reason in denying the organization access to its services, according to the minister.

Amsterdam Mayor Eberhard van der Laan has decided to close part of an Amsterdam window prostitution business because serious abuses were detected, the city municipality announced in a press release. The business will now continue with 29 instead of 47 windows.

PvdA parliamentarian Marith Rebel thinks that as sex work is a legal profession, sex workers should be treated as fully fledged freelancers, NOS reports. This means that they should be able to open bank accounts and deduct the cost of clothing and care from tax.

Utrecht is against prostitution in homes. Part of the municipal council had proposed at-home prostitution as a temporary solution for the women who have been unable to work as prostitute in Utrecht since 2013.