Melbourne’s LGBTQIA+ and sex worker communities are mourning the death of “cherished friend” Bella Green.
Bella Green developed a successful stand-up and sketch comedy career based on her experiences working in the sex industry.
Titled Bella Green is Charging For It, the debut show was nominated for and won Fringe Festival awards around Australia.
In 2021, Bella released her memoir, Happy Endings. The book is a “funny, candid, can’t-look-away journey through brothels, strip clubs, peep shows and dominatrix dungeons”.
Friends have announced the “proud sex worker, comedian, author, and cherished friend” sadly died on July 25, sparking an outpouring of grief. Bella was 38.
Funeral planned for Melbourne
This week, sex worker advocacy group Scarlet Alliance paid tribute to Bella Green online.
“We extend our condolences and support to those who knew and cared for her, and all of our community who are impacted by this awful news,” the tribute read.
“Bella embodied so many of the qualities that make our community special. [She was] kind, caring, irreverent, brash, outspoken and brave.
“In her time here with us, she contributed so much to the sex worker movement and the lives of those who had the pleasure of knowing and loving her.”
Next week, Bella Green’s friends and chosen family will farewell her at a Melbourne funeral service on August 11.
Writing on an online fundraiser, loved ones mourned the “writer, comedian, massive hooker, public toilet aficionado, and deeply cherished friend”.
“Bella leaves behind a large community of grievers whose lives were impacted by all that she was and all that she created,” the tribute read.
“And certainly, somewhere, a few tearful johns who will never, ever forget that blowie.”
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Bella Green remembered as ‘natural storyteller’
In her memoir, Bella Green candidly shared her life’s highs and lows, including finding her place in the “surprisingly mundane and often entertaining” sex industry and her relationships with men and women.
The comedian joked that her greatest accomplishment was remaining employable despite tattooing both of her hands.
Bella also said she felt she’d discovered exactly where she was “meant to be” – on stage, telling jokes.
Cate Blake, Bella Green’s publisher at Pan Macmillan, also described her as “a natural storyteller”.
“I first met Bella through her stand-up work. It was — like her prose proved to be — hilarious, insightful and subversive,” Blake said.
“Chatting with Bella, diving into her words and ideas, was a pleasure and a privilege.
“She was a natural storyteller, a keen observer of humanity in all its flaws and glory, and gave of herself with low-key generosity.”
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