Minneapolis Dispatch: Smitten Kitten, the Sex Store that keeps doing good
Support their Rent Relief Fund now.
Note, been working on a couple of pieces about current news and of course a backlog of work from Minneapolis. More is coming soon! This interview is from February.
Smitten Kitten is a sex shop in Minneapolis that sells, well… you know… dildos, toys, and other stuff. They also provide information about how to feel comfortable with your own body.
That was mainly all they did until ICE invaded Minneapolis. Pretty quickly they saw the need of residents of their community and got into gear. Anne Lehman (they/them), the shops social media coordinator saw local businesses running food kitchens and deliveries for people who needed it so they decided to jump in. Putting up a Venmo to raise money for mutual saw a surprisingly quick response, Anne took it down and decided to plan for bigger things.
Anne saw the need for more than just pizza’s so they decided to use their store as a drop off and distribution for things like diapers, toilet paper and other household goods that people might need in a disaster. They said the response was incredible, “every 15 minutes there’s a SUV pulling up that just gone to Costco. Just pelting our store with donations.” They received enough goods that they had to close the store for a time and just do mutual aid.
Unfortunately ICE caught wind of this operation and started using the location as a place to stake out cars that were distributing goods to people in need, so the location was moved.
A month later with ICE still patrolling the city Smitten Kitten is now focusing their efforts on virtual fundraisers. Since many residents can’t go to work under the fear of ICE raids at their jobs they aren’t able to pay their rent.
You can support their tax-deductible fundrasier on GoFundMe. If you don’t have the cash please share this link and or story https://www.gofundme.com/f/smitten-kitten-x-nhn-rental-relief-fund
From the GoFundMe:
We have watched our neighbors be kidnapped, separated from their families and unable to meet their basic needs. Seeing this, we thought to ourselves “where the hell is the city and state government on all of this?” and also “we can’t just sit here and watch this happen, we need to do something. now.”
City and state elected officials have turned away from communities in the Minneapolis area that have been devastated by anti-immigration activities that have upended daily life. Thousands of families have spent months sheltering in place. Afraid to go to school, the doctors office, a funeral, a birthday party etc.
Many now face an urgent financial crisis: in March, households behind by up to three months on rent will be at risk of eviction. The average ask is $1,400 aka one months rent, but these families need so much more. THE CURRENT RENTAL DEBT OF MPLS COMBINED IS AN ESTIMATED 16 MILLION DOLLARS DIRECTLY RELATED TO OPERATION METRO SURGE.
