Strip Club News

All over America, governments at the state, county, and city levels are enacting restrictions on “sexually oriented” businesses such as strip clubs. These restrictions are designed for one purpose only: to harm the ability of clubs to do business.

These restrictions make strip clubs less economically viable by not allowing the sale of alcohol or nudity and pushes them out on the fringes away from population centers and the customers who patronize them. These arbitrary and unnecessary regulations enable governments to punitively circumvent prior court rulings upholding free expression rights of citizens.

In a news article, Ocean City, Maryland, city planner Jesse Houston was quoted as saying: “There must be sites physically and legally available for (adult oriented) uses according to the First Amendment. Whether these locations are economically viable is not relevant.”

Thus, city planner Houston has revealed the true intent of these types of strip club restrictions.

Article

A new strip club called All Fours received a liquor license despite a court challenge from the state of New Mexico. The club will be located in Albuquerque at 2294 Wyoming Blvd., in the former site of Chapter II, a topless bar.

Neighborhood groups were unhappy with the city of Albuquerque’s decision to allow the liquor license transfer, prompting complaints. As a result, the state went to court in an attempt to block the liquor license. But the challenge lost in District Court and was rejected by the state Supreme Court which upheld the lower Court’s decision.

The Board of Commissioners in Shelby County, TN, has voted to place new restrictions on strip clubs to make it harder for them to conduct business.

The new law which will go in effect at the top of 2008 requires all dancers to be licensed. Any dancer with a criminal conviction within the past few years will be unable to work. In addition, the law prohibits alcohol at clubs. Any violation of the new ordinance will enable the County to shut down clubs.

Shelby County is yet another in a long list of municipalities that are purposely circumventing prior court rulings in favor of strip clubs by enacting harsh new laws which serve no purpose other than make it difficult to conduct business.

State lawmakers in Utah are in a huff because a tax intended to stick it to strip clubs has backfired because the law only applies to nude clubs.

What’s most interesting is the logic of one of the sponsors of the strip club tax. He claims that strip clubs are partly to blame for juvenile sex crime. Too bad he doesn’t realize that juveniles don’t go to strip clubs because the law doesn’t allow it.

Former DFL lawmaker Duane Bourdeaux is quoted as saying:

“We’re seeing a lot more juvenile sex offenders. Someone has to pay for that treatment. Right now, the taxpayers are paying for it. I believe we should put it on the backs of those contributing to it. Look at the research…porn and strip clubs is what got them into some of it. It starts to play into their abuse cycle. Later on whether they rape someone or molest a kid, that’s what kind of got them down that path.”

These are the kinds of people working to shut down strip clubs…absolute idiots.

The Entire Article

The North Carolina Court of Appeals has upheld a December 2005 county court decision allowing Pitt County to enforce an ordinance banning strip clubs and other adult entertainment establishments.

The ordinance passed in October of 2002 prevents sexually oriented businesses from being located within a quarter mile of homes, churches, and parks. The ordinance also requires adult establishments to obtain a special license and prohibits nude dancing.

There are four clubs operating in Pitt County that are in violation of the ordinance. They are: Cherry Lane, Club Vegas, Deja Vu, and Silver Bullet Dolls. The 2005 decision ordered the already-existing clubs to cease operation or relocate.

This law was enacted to force legal, constitutionally protected businesses out of business by making it impossible for them to find suitable locations to operate.

The assault on our rights continues…

Pitt County Website

Chris Teague, owner of Boise, Idaho, strip clubs Erotic City and Night Moves, was sentenced to a minimum of two years in prison for taking earnings from prostitution. In addition to owning two strip clubs, Teague owned AAA Anytime Escort Service. Teague used the escort service as a front for prostitution. Teague was convicted on four counts in July. His first trial resulted in a hung jury.

Work is underway on a new gentlemen’s cabaret in Austintown, OH. Go Go Girls Cabaret is expected to open in about two months. According to news reports, the club will feature “live, exotic striptease dancing”.

The club will be located at 5455 Clarkins Drive, near the I-80 and State Route 46 interchange.

Dancers, a nude club located in Palatine, IL, has lost its battle with Lake County and has closed for good.

Dancers had been fighting the county’s adult entertainment ordinance for years and racking up huge fines in the process. The parent company, XLP Corp., has paid $135,000 in fines and ceased operation.

Baby Dolls, a nude club in Wadsworth, IL, is also a victim of Lake County’s freedom robbing tactics. Last week the club was fined $204,500 for operating in violation of county ordinance.

The county’s draconian ordinance is designed to harm adult oriented businesses by restricting operating hours, customer tipping, and seating and stage arrangements.

Lake County, Illinois, Website

A coalition of Ohio strip club owners and dancers has temporarily halted the implementation of new rules prohibiting touching and forcing sexually oriented businesses to close at midnight. The new regulations were slated to go into effect today. If the signatures are valid—over 382,000 of them—the issue will be put on a statewide ballot this November.

Ohio gentlemen’s club owners and dancers are planning to present the Secretary of State with petitions containing roughly 400,000 signatures to force a statewide vote on oppressive restrictions passed earlier this year.

In April of 2007, a law was enacted to require all sexually oriented business to close at midnight. As part of this law, all nude or semi-nude dancers would be required to remain at least six feet away from patrons at any time. If this initiative makes it on the ballot, the regulations won’t go into effect until after the vote in November, instead of this coming week as scheduled.

Considering that many strip clubs don’t get busy until close to midnight, these regulations could significantly harm the income of club owners and dancers.

The Ohio Statute

The owner of Platinum Gold in Boynton Beach, FL, Norman Goddard, was reportedly arrested along with two dancers and five other people following a month-long undercover investigation into on-premise prostitution and drug sales on August 31st.

The owner was charged with drug trafficking, deriving support from proceeds of prostitution, and keeping a house of ill fame.

Two dancers were charged with drug possession, one of them was also charged with solicitation of prostitution. Five others including a 17-year-old girl were charged with either drug possession or sales.

Employees said that they paid the club’s owner a portion of the proceeds from the sale of drugs. Oxycodone, methadone, cocaine and marijuana were found inside the club.

Police expect that there will be charges of selling drugs brought against eight more people in the near future.

The Barre city council has renewed the business license of the Planet Rock gentlemen’s club despite earlier allegations of inappropriate touching of a dancer by a patron. The city council had originally refused to reinstate the license of Vermont’s only strip club citing the one prior allegation of a customer placing his head between a dancer’s breasts.

The new license prohibits “lewd physical contact” between dancers and customers. The owner of the strip club, Daniel Garr, is currently suing the city claiming that the contact and three-foot rules are unconstitutional. A superior court judge recently rejected Garr’s request that restrictions on distance and contact be lifted.

The Barre city council is refusing to renew the license of a nude strip club because a patron allegedly touched a dancer in July of 2006.

Planet Rock’s nude dancer license is set to expire on December 31st. Last July, a county liquor inspector allegedly saw a customer place his head between a dancer’s breasts, violating a requirement that dancers stay at least three feet from customers. Now the city is using that one isolated incident to eliminate nude dancing.

Obviously, the city of Barre is using this minor incident to rob people of their constitutional right to enjoy nude entertainment. Their interest isn’t the safety and welfare of dancers, the rights of citizens, or anything else. Their true interest is to eliminate nude dancing anyway possible. Expect more of this type of thing across the United States as more and more municipalities enact harsh restrictions on strip clubs that could result in more “gotcha” situations such as this.

The Alabama Attorney General’s Office has agreed to a settlement with 18 adult nightclubs to allow topless strippers to use a spray-on latex product to cover parts of their body required to be covered under the state’s anti-nudity law.

Alabama’s anti-nudity law is one of the most restrictive in the entire nation. Under the law, any part of a dancer’s body that would normally be covered by a bikini must be covered by opaque clothing. Dancers have been using the spray-on latex on their breasts and bottoms to comply with the law.

The state is already defending itself against a lawsuit filed by gentlemen’s clubs over this unfair law. The state agreed to go along with the clubs’ idea to use latex to avoid having a judge follow through on his threat to throw out the entire law as unconstitutional.

West Memphis, Arkansas, is considering strengthening its ordinances to discourage strip clubs from locating in the city. Hoping to create a strong deterrent, city leaders are considering new laws to prohibit nudity and tipping of dancers.

“Adult entertainment is not the best thing we need to have here in West Memphis”, said city councilman Marco McClendon. “I hope the ordinance right here and the regulations within it will deter them even considering West Memphis as a possible location”, he added.

Currently, adult businesses are restricted to a small industrial area within the city of 28,000 residents. McClendon readily admits that while the city can’t legally prevent adult entertainment establishments from opening, that he hopes to make it much more difficult.

Who says politicians aren’t abusing their authority to circumvent the Constitution and court rulings?

At a recent public hearing in Campbell County, KY, proposed regulations against the adult entertainment industry were discussed. The proposed regulations are chiefly designed to target strip clubs.

The proposed law would require adult businesses to be licensed and require strippers to have licenses before they would be allowed to work. The dancer licenses would cost around $150. Also, the ordinance would prohibit dancers from mingling with customers for at least one hour after the end of their shifts to discourage prostitution.

On 12/19/2006 the Missouri Supreme Court upheld a lower court’s decision striking down a state law that barred nude dancing and touching between dancers and customers.

The law banned full nudity, imposed a requirment that dancers stay at least 10 feet from customers and remain behind a rail, barred dancers from touching customers, and required both patrons and dancers to be at least 21 years of age.

The law never took effect because the lower court struck it down days before it was to go into effect back in August 2005.

The Supreme Court ruled the law unconstitutional because it had a “change of purpose” as it made its way through the legislature. The strip club restrictions were tacked on to a bill that dealt with intoxicated driving offenses. The court ruling did not weigh whether or not the law infringed on constitutional rights. It is likely that the sponsor of the law, Republican state Senator Matt Bartle, will try again to harm the strip club industry and waste even more taxpayer dollars attempting to elminate something the courts have ruled is a constitutional right for decades now.

A federal judge ruled that Grand Rapids, Michigan may begin enforcing new restrictions against strip clubs prohibiting nude or topless performances. The judge deferred ruling on the constitutionality of the ordinance adopted in April, 2006, until later this fall.

Mark London filed suit against the city of Grand Rapids to prevent the new ordinance from taking effect alleging the new ordinances violate his constitutional rights. London owns one strip club in the city and had planned to open another until the new ordinance was enacted.

Among the restrictions placed on clubs in the city is that all dancers must wear pasties and G-strings, stay at least six feet away from patrons, and must dance on a stage elevated above the floor.

Unfortunately for strip club owners and patrons alike, the new clothing requirements for dancers are nothing more than one can see at a public beach.

News reports indicate that a grassroots citizens’ group has donated $100,000 to the city to help defray legal costs incurred in their battle to eliminate nudity in strip clubs.

This latest battle in Michigan is typical of what is happening in communities all across America. Cities in numerous states like California, Washington, Utah, and Minnesota have enacted or are considering laws prohibiting full nudity and female toplessness in strip clubs. Apparently the rights of the patrons, owners, and dancers do not matter.
Strippers Rally To Protest Proposed Ban On Private Rooms
2006-08-19 – San Francisco, CA

Strippers in San Francisco rallied to voice their opposition to a proposed ban on private rooms in city gentlemen’s clubs.

About 50 dancers got together to protest outside of city hall as the San Francisco Entertainment Commission held a public hearing about a proposed ban.

The dancers are opposed to a ban on private rooms because many of them derive a significant portion of their income from work in these rooms.

The city is considering a ban to prevent sexual assaults against dancers and prostitution.

Rick’s Cabaret International, Inc., announced that it has added another gentleman’s club to its portfolio.

The company acquired Centerfolds Gentleman’s Club in San Antonio, Texas, for a total of $2.9 million. Centerfold’s is a topless club that serves alcohol.

Rick’s already owns two adult nightclubs in the San Antonio market, XTC Cabaret and Club Onyx.

Rick’s, based in Houston, Texas, is a publically traded company (NASDAQ symbol: RICK) with 13 gentlemen’s clubs across the United States. As of this writing Rick’s has a market capitalization of aproximately $33 million dollars. In fiscal year 2005 Rick’s lost $215 thousand on gross revenue of $14.8 million.

Frank Boussad is planning to open Presley’s Playhouse Cabaret in the southern part of Salem and some residents are furious. A group of residents is threatening to fight the new club all the way to the state supreme court.

One woman quoted by salem-news.com claims that she and others are upset because of the message such an establishment sends to young women and because they find it degrading to women. “Using young girls to strip and dance around naked is degrading to all women,” the woman said.

There are a number of parks and day-care centers nearby which residents will use as ammunition in their fight to try to prevent the club from opening. Residents most likely will use the old, unproven argument that naked women somehow lead to an increase in crime.

There are currently 7 strip clubs in the Salem area. It is unclear at this time how one more gentleman’s club in the Salem area is going to lead to the downfall of society.

In Sept. of 2006 the Missouri Supreme Court will hear the state’s appeal of a 2005 lower court ruling striking down a 2005 restriction on strip clubs. The law prohibited full nudity, required dancers to stay at least 10 feet from customers, and required all dancers and customers to be at least 21 years of age. The lower court invalidated the law saying that the age restriction is unconstitutional because it violates free speech rights of dancers and customers. The state is arguing that the age restriction is valid because it attempts to deal with “adverse effects” (whatever those are) of sexually oriented businesses.

The Albert Lea city council has postponed enacting a new ordinance regarding strip clubs in the city pending the outcome of lawsuits challenging a new state law allowing cities to put tough restrictions on sexually-themed businesses. The proposed Albert Lea law would put the city in full compliance with maximum restrictions allowed under state law.

In 2006 Minnesota passed a law enabling cities to make it harder for any business that features live nude performances or depictions of sexually-oriented material to operate. In particular, the new powers granted to municipalities are:

* Local governments are not required to zone for adult establishments if there already is one within 50 miles

* Adult entertainment establisments are prohibited from operating with 1,500 feet of another adult establishment, within 500 feet of residential property, or within 2800 feet of a school or place of worship

* Such businesses may not open before 10 AM and may not stay open after 10 PM

* Local governments can enact more restrictive laws if they choose

There are currently lawsuits challenging the new state law.

Minnesota State Legislature Article

The Whisper Exotic Dancing club and Magic Moments strip clubs in the Delco area are currently under assault by religious fanatics who want them shut down for good. Both clubs are currently in court because of a county ordinance prohibiting such establishments within a certain distance of churches. The clubs were shut down by the sheriff’s office for being in violation of the ordinance. Both clubs are to remain closed pending hearings in the near future.

The Utah state Supreme Court ruled on 07/28/2006 that nude dancing is not protected expression under the Utah Constitution. Five years ago Salt Lake City passed an ordinance prohibiting nude dancing in clubs. Three nude clubs, American Bush, Leather And Lace, and Paradise Modeling sued the city asserting that nude dancing is a constitutionally protected form of expression. The Utah Supreme Court did not agree, ruling 3 – 2 that the Utah state constitution does not protect nude dancing as a form of expression.

The Court ruled that “the provisions of the Utah Constitution that guarantee Utah citizens’ rights to ‘communicate freely their thoughts and opinions’ do not extend protection to nude dancing in sexually oriented businesses,” thus enabling any municipality in the state to ban nude performances.

In May, 2001, the city council passed an ordinance prohibiting all-nude performances in all public places. Previously, nude dancing was permitted if alcohol was not served. Now, dancers will have to perform in G-strings and pasties to comply with the latest court ruling.

You can read a PDF of the Utah Supreme Court decision at http://www.utcourts.gov/opinions/supopin/AmericanBush072806.pdf.