A gig worker or freelancer who sets up an LLC is essentially no different than an individual. They should have protections.

I don’t think most freelancers and gig workers are having trouble opening bank accounts.

I don't agree with sex work, but I will absolutely defend the rights of people to get paid for their labor.

Of course people should be paid for their labor. You don’t need a commercial bank account for this, even if your labor is sex work.

Doesn't this very story look like evidence that they do?

No. The banks are responding to a number of legitimate risks that they wish to avoid. They have a legal obligation not to facilitate money laundering and human trafficking and adult businesses are more likely to be involved in these.

You are mixing up a few things:

- "risks that they wish to avoid" seems merely to be a risk to their reputation "what are people going to say should stuff happen". It's a level of "legitimate" that applies to anything. That one is not illegal because sex work is not a protected class (more or less). Otherwise it would be.

- "They have a legal obligation not to facilitate money laundering and human trafficking". Hmmmm. No. A law against, say, human trafficking cannot make adult businesses illegal. Or if it aims to do that, it needs to name it. These businesses are not illegal. A bank has some obligations to be vigilant against some things - and might demand lots of paperwork and might still often do the wrong thing. But society does not need them to go vigilante and blacklist entire domains of legitimate activity.

And blacklisting / red lining is exactly what laws might try to prevent. Seems that sex work needs to become a protected class. (Never mind that "protected class" is american law, not canadian.)

I think you are the one mixing things up. I never said anything about adult businesses being illegal. This is about banks, which are businesses, choosing to avoid transacting with other businesses in direct response to obligations imposed by the government. Anti discrimination law in both Canada and the US protects individuals, not companies, so it’s unclear why you would mention protected classes in a discussion about an Ontario-incorporated business and their commercial banking relationship.