Strippers in Portland, Oregon, are working directly with lawmakers and lobbyists to improve their working conditions.

Dancers and lobbyists have already identified a number of issues they want to improve: They want strip clubs to comply with mandatory health and safety standards, including clean stages, structurally sound poles and appropriate security; facilities should also be required to display a poster outlining strippers' rights that lists a hotline to ask questions or report abuse, The Associated Press reports.

Elle Stanger, a five-year veteran of the Lucky Devil Lounge, said while her own club is in good condition, others lacked adequate facilities.

"Some of the buildings are literally dilapidated and not maintained," said the woman, who moonlights as assistant editor of Exotic Magazine, a local publication for the sex industry. "You have entertainers that could injure themselves from broken glass on the stage, poor wiring with the sound system. We just want to get these workplaces up to a minimum safety standard at least."

Claude DaCorsi, who operates a strip club and also presides the Oregon chapter of the Association of Club Executives, an industry group, said it was in everybody's interest to treat dancers as valuable employees.

"We're here to protect and make safe environments for entertainers," DaCorsi said. "They're the reason we exist."

Ironically, the greatest difficulty the strippers face may be Oregon's staunch free-speech laws, The Week said. They have earned the state's largest city the moniker "Pornland," but they also mean legislators cannot treat strip clubs differently from other establishments that sell food or alcohol.

Stanger, nevertheless, has found the effort rewarding, though trying to improve work conditions for adult entertainers comes with its unique challenges.

"The hardest part about being a stripper is battling the stigma that we are victims that need help from outsiders," she said. "It doesn't matter if you work in education, clergy, any kind of blue collar work -- the people who do the work know what the work environment needs."

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