General Membership Meeting March 17th
The next General Membership Meeting will be held at the Warner Center Marriott at 21850 Oxnard Street in Woodland Hills, California on Thursday, March 17, at 5:30pm. The staff and Board of Directors will meet and greet the members over hors d’oeuvres and drinks.
        FSC invites members to participate in a strategic planning session, which will be facilitated by Michelle L. Freridge, FSC’s Executive Director. Joan Irvine, Executive Director of Adult Sites Against Child Pornography will give a presentation on how the adult entertainment industry can help end child pornography. New and continuing supporters will have the opportunity to pay their dues, make a donation, and pick up recent FSC publications and products.
        Finally, the meeting will end in a St. Patrick’s Day networking party with a no-host bar. Please RSVP with Neva Chevalier at (818) 348-9373 or by email at Free_speech@sbcglobal.net
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LEGISLATIVE REPORT
The following is a small sampling of bills that have been introduced in the current legislative session. Authors’ names and party affiliation are in parentheses. Thanks to Angelina Spencer of ACE for her contribution to this report.
 
ILLINOIS
H 602 - (Eddy – R.)
Provides that no billboard for a sexually-oriented business shall be located within one mile of any State highway.
To House Committee on Rules.
 
MISSOURI
H 122 – (Meiners – D.)
Imposes a tax on adult entertainment
S 32 – (Bartle – R.)
Regulates sexually oriented businesses; imposes an admissions tax.
(See X-Press Legislative Alert 1/21/05)
To Senate Judiciary & Civil & Criminal Jurisprudence Committee
 
OHIO
H 23 – (Reidelbach – R.) and
S 27 – (Amstutz – R.)
Hours of operation restrictions, no private VIP rooms or booths, civil sanctions, clubs can be under control of townships. Licensing and permit regulations for staff and entertainers.
To House Committee on Civil and Commercial Law
 
TENNESSEE
H 31 (Swafford – R.) and
S 78 (Burks – D.)
Clarifies that adult novelties, risque gifts, and marital aids that are of a sexually oriented nature are sexually oriented materials regardless of how labeled as used in the definition of adult bookstore
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SOLONS ATTACK JUDGE FOR DECISION
WASHINGTON, DC – Senators Orrin Hatch and Sam Brownback, in a snit over U.S. District Judge Gary Lancaster’s dismissal of charges in the federal government’s obscenity case against Rob Black and Lizzie Borden of Extreme Associates, have written on op-ed piece in the Washington Times lambasting Lancaster as an “activist” judge and a “bad” judge.
        “Activist judges continue to prove that bad judges make bad law,” said the senators. Judge Lancaster could only come to his bizarre conclusions in this case, argued Hatch and Brownback, “by stitching together bits and pieces from inapplicable precedents (and making a few things up altogether) to form a Frankenstein's monster of judicial activism.”
        Hatch and Brownback go on and on in this vein against Lancaster. In the wake of such decisions, they say… “the Constitution lies in shambles, statutes passed by the people's representatives are in the dumpster, the rule of law loses its vitality and, once again, the people are deprived of the right to govern themselves and define the culture.”
        It’s no surprise Hatch and Brownback are upset. They are both bitter foes of adult entertainment. Their unseemly personal attack against a single judge, however, is misdirected. The constitution is not in shambles but federal efforts to reign in sexual liberty may be; and not because of a single federal district court judge but because of a U.S. Supreme Court decision.
        “The nation’s obscenity laws cannot stand in light of Lawrence,” Lancaster wrote in his decision, referring to Lawrence vs. Texas, the pivotal case in which the U.S. Supreme Court struck down a Texas anti-sodomy law. Many other observers  have speculated that Lawrence may have far-reaching consequences for laws related to the right to sexual privacy. None other than Justice Scalia suggested exactly that in his dissent in Lawrence.
        Whether Lawrence dooms federal obscenity law, as we have grown to know and hate it, remains to be seen.
        In the meantime, while we have no knowledge of Judge Lancaster’s ambitions, his chances for promotion on the federal bench cannot have improved. Senators Hatch and Brownback are both on the powerful Senate Judiciary Committee.
        Nor have prospects brightened for any other federal district court judge or appellate judge who decides that obscenity laws cannot stand in light of Lawrence v Texas. So much for the ideal of an independent judiciary.  
From Orrin Hatch (R-UT) and Sam Brownback  (R-KS), 2/9/05
http://washingtontimes.com/op-ed/20050209-082410-9837r.htm
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COMPANY BACKTRACKS ON HARDCORE PLAN
PHOENIX, AZ -- Stuart Char, owner of the Palace Cabaret, an exotic dance club in a former adult bookstore location here, has been arrested on a misdemeanor charge of occupying a structure without obtaining certification of occupancy. It seems Char defied city officials, who had demanded that he install fire sprinklers and reinforce the floors, ceilings and walls.
        "I believe that I have a right to be here," Char said before his arrest, wearing a black T-shirt reading "Support Your Downtown Phoenix Strip Club."
            "I believe that we have all of the documentation necessary to open, and we're moving forward," he said.
            News accounts do not provide enough information to evaluate the righteousness of Char’s stand. Fire safety codes are obviously important. However, it is not unknown for government officials to discriminate by using fire codes and the like against unpopular enterprises.
            Char faces six civil offenses in two citations from the city's Development Services Department, said Larry Litchfield, the department's assistant director. If Char reopens the club, Litchfield said authorities would shut it down again and the owner would face another round of charges.
From Brent Whiting, Emily Bittner, Arizona Republic, 2/8/05
http://www.azcentral.com/business/articles/0208phxclub08.html
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SHOWDOWN OVER VIDEO STORE LICENSE
CRYSTAL CITY, MO – In a more transparent effort at using bureaucratic regulations to keep adult businesses at bay (see above story), Major Tom Schilly has rejected a business license application from Pure Pleasure Megacenter, an adult establishment trying to open here. Information about the building's lighting and monitoring of viewing booths was not sufficient, said the Mayor.
        Pure Pleasure’s attorney was not impressed with that justification for denying the license.
        The result was an overflow crowd at City Hall during a hearing on the matter, most of those present protesting the opening of the store. Pure Pleasure’s owner Don Kleinhans described the protestors as a vocal minority.
        "Obviously, there is a silent majority that is happy we are here and ready to buy our product," said Kleinhans, who says he is confident his efforts to open the adult video and novelty store will be successful.
        Mayor Schilly said he will not be swayed by public opinion. "I understand people are upset, but this decision cannot be based on emotions," he said.
        The Mayor has just a few days to make a decision regarding Pure Pleasure's appeal for a business license.
From Cordell Whitlock, KSDK TV, 2/8/05
http://www.ksdk.com/news/news_article.aspx?storyid=74665
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THE LATEST FROM ANIMAL SCIENCE
SAN FRANCISCO, CA – From S.F. Bay Guardian columnist Andrea Nemerson comes this scientific tidbit that Nemerson uses to help explain why a distraught reader’s boyfriend had a secret stash of adult DVDs hidden in the basement.
        A recently published study in the Current Biology journal, explains Nemerson, explored the way that monkeys value "social information," in this case pictures of high and low-status individual monkeys and of female monkey perinea.  Boy monkeys will "sacrifice fluid" (not what it sounds like, explains Nemerson; it means the guys will forgo a glass of fruit juice) to see pictures of high- ranking monkeys and female monkeys' rear ends. On the other hand, the boy monkeys had to be bribed to get them to look at the faces of loser monkeys nobody likes. In other words, monkeys will pay to look at movie stars and adult entertainment.
        The moral of the story, explained Nemerson to her reader: Show your boyfriend that you're ready and willing to climb him like a monkey and he'll be sacrificing fluid for you in no time.
From Andrea Nemerson, San Francisco Bay Guardian
http://www.sfbg.com/39/19/x_alt_sex_column.html

UpComing Events

MAR 18-20 – Adult Expo USA, L.A., CA http://www.adultexpousa.com/

MAR 31-APR 2 – The Phoenix Forum, Tempe, AZ http://www.thephoenixforum.com/

APR 11-13 International Lingerie Show, Las Vegas, NV www.spectrade.com

APR 18-19 – Celebrate Free Speech Lobbying Days, Sacramento, CA, 800-476-7813

MAY 1 – Adult Con 8, Los Angeles Convention Center, www.Erotica-LA.com

JUNE 10-12--  Erotica L.A., www.Erotica-LA.com

JULY 11-13 – ANME, Mandalay Bay, Vas Vegas, NV

JULY 18-20 – AVN Adult Novelty Expo, Pasadena, CA. www.adultnoveltyexpo.com

JULY 26-28, -- VSDA's Home Entertainment 2005, Bellagio Resort, Las Vegas, NV, http://show.vsdahomeentertainment.com

AUG 5-6 – Internext, Hollywood, FL., www.Internext-expo.com