The Providence Board of Licenses shut down the Foxy Lady Wednesday, a week after three employees were charged with prostitution.
But Steve Brown, executive director of the Rhode Island chapter of the American Civil Liberties Union, said that prostitution is a misdemeanor and doesn’t warrant shutting the strip club down.
“The government would be no more proper in deciding to shut down the ballet because one of the dancers had been arrested for a crime,” Brown said.
The owners of Providence’s Foxy Lady strip club are appealing the loss of their entertainment license to the Rhode Island Supreme Court Friday. They’re also asking for the board’s decision to be suspended during the appeals process.
Lawyers for the club will appeal to the state’s Department of Business Regulation to get the club’s liquor license back.
Meanwhile, dancers and other workers are left with no income and little chance of getting a job before the holiday.
“It’s an actual business with real people and real lives that are really affected by this,” said Tammy Marie Kruwell, an employee at the Foxy Lady. She gives shoulder rubs to customers for the length of a song.
Kruwell has a 14-year-old son at home and one son who’s grown. Her husband is putting off shoulder replacement surgery because of the uncertainty of when she might find work again, she said.
Christmas this year won’t be what she had planned.
“Now, I have to take what I put aside for Christmas and put it toward my bills,” she said. “I was able to put a little bit away. It’s just not enough.”
State labor officials said Thursday they had left a message with the club to help those out of work with services such as unemployment insurance, career counseling and job training.
