“I’m pretty sure the sluts are gonna save us,” Instagram influencer Jess Olivia Fox said in a recent video.
She is referring to the folks at Minneapolis sex shop Smitten Kitten, who have mobilized to support neighbors amid a violent and unrelenting crackdown by the Trump administration’s Immigration and Customs Enforcement agency.
Over the last week, thousands of ICE agents have been deployed to Minnesota. In this time, a United States citizen was shot and killed by a federal agent, at least 2,400 people have been arrested by immigration officials, students have walked out of school in protest and in fear, and just last night, another person was shot in the leg after allegedly assaulting an ICE officer.
Minnesota Governor Tim Walz has called for peaceful protest and asked for the federal government to “end its occupation,” while President Trump threatened to invoke the Insurrection Act on Minnesota protesters.
In the throes of political debate, and at the mercy of an occupying force across the Twin Cities — and the surrounding metro area — community members are organizing rapidly.
Smitten Kitten, located in Uptown Minneapolis, is one group leading the charge.
“Normally, we’re selling adult toys, providing sex education, and [running] a business,” Mikayla, a representative of the shop, told Substack creator and social media journalist Jolly Good Ginger.
But, now, inside the shop, volunteers are organizing canned foods, diapers, clothes, and other essentials to be distributed to vulnerable community members.
A stack of diapers, toilet paper, and other essential goods piles up inside Smitten Kitten. Photo courtesy of Smitten Kitten/Instagram
“We are raising funds and supplies for families that are stuck at home because they’re scared of the ICE presence in the city or their kids are out of school because the schools are closed down,” Mikayla explained.
“We’re just trying to make sure that everybody’s fed, every baby has a diaper on them that’s clean, and has baby formula. That’s all we’re trying to do.”
Every day, the shop’s Instagram page has been leveraging its platform to boost donation opportunities for community members in the area, sharing GoFundMe, Venmo, and Cash App campaigns.
“We’ve been filling them up, a couple grand at a time,” Mikayla said. “We’ve been trying to help people get their rent paid from not being able to work, get food in their refrigerator.”
Workers at the shop take to Instagram every day with a new ask.
“Hey guys, it’s Anne,” one person started a video. “I’m reporting live from Diaper Mountain. Usually we’re an adult store, but today we’re gonna be pushing Venmos of families that need resources immediately.”
It’s unclear how much has been raised in recent days, but even before the ICE crackdown escalated this January, Smitten Kitten was fundraising for immigrant community members.
In December, community members helped raise over $18,000 for Isuroon, a nonprofit that supports Somali women in Minnesota.
“Do you hate ICE? Do you love personal massagers? This Sunday … 100% of our profits at Smitten Kitten are going to securing immigration attorneys for 500+ local Somali and East African families at risk for deportation,” Anne said in a video in December.
In just one day, the community had raised $15,000.
“We broke a Smitten Kitten record,” Anne said. “We broke the record of how much we’ve raised in one day.”
That generosity has only amplified in the weeks since.
The shop is also partnering with neighboring businesses, like Wrecktangle Pizza, to make sure people are being fed. And volunteers are standing outside of the shop to protect anyone coming in or out from ICE agents in the immediate area.
“We have people reaching out to us who need help, and we have people reaching out who want to provide help,” JP, another representative of the shop, shared on social media this week.
And for Fox, who isn’t even local to Minnesota but is amplifying Smitten Kitten’s efforts, this grassroots community work reaches so much farther than Lyndale and Lake Streets.
“Right now, community and coming together and helping each other is probably the most important thing we can focus on,” Fox continued in her video. “And fight fascism, you know?”
“We built these platforms for a reason,” she concluded in her caption. “Now is the time to use them.”
You may also like: At risk to their own safety, Somali neighbors feed ICE protesters: ‘This is what it means to be a Minnesotan’
Header images courtesy of Smitten Kitten/Instagram
