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Free Speech X-Press
Delivering Weekly Censorship Updates to the Adult Industry

Vol. VI, No. 14, February 21, 2004 -- A Member Service of the Free Speech Coalition
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Free Speech X-press is researched and edited by Kat Sunlove and Layne Winklebleck.
Copyright 2004 Free Speech Coalition. Permission to reprint granted to FSC members; please give credit.
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VISIT OUR WEBSITE FOR FSC MEMBERSHIP INFORMATION
http://www.freespeechcoalition.com
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Please note: This weeks Free Speech X-Press is a day late due to computer problems. Next week we will be back on schedule at our regular Friday AM publishing deadline. Thanks for your patience.

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"SIN" TAX BILL PROPOSED
DES MOINES, IA A bill to tax adult entertainment has been introduced in the Iowa House of Representatives. The Adult Enterprises Excise Tax Acts would levy 25% on
all goods and services that are sold, leased, or rented by an “adult enterprise"

The bill defines two types of adult entertainment subject to be taxed. One is a place that bars entry to anyone under the age of 18 and “allows or permits an entertainer to expose the genitalia, buttocks, or the nipple of female breasts." The second definition is a place that "sells, leases, or rents obscene material."

As Scott Ross notes in his AVN piece on the proposed law, the second definition, as currently written, describes an illegal activity (selling obscene material) which is obviously not applicable to operations in the adult retail industry.

The bill stipulates that a portion of the revenue from the tax would go into a victim compensation fund. Revenue would also go to the Department of Justice for the purposes of providing grants to care givers who serve victims of domestic abuse, rape and sexual assault.
From Scott Ross, Adult Video News, 2/19/04
http://www.avn.com/index.php?Primary_Navigation=Articles&
Action=View_Article&Content_ID=74972

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ADULT PRODUCT SEIZURES HALTED
HOUSTON, WACO, DALLAS, TX -- In December we reported that the Texas-based Carico Distributing Company had gone to court to stop the Texas Alcoholic Beverage Commission’s (ABC) raids on liquor stores selling the company’s adult magazines and novelties (See “Adult Distributor Asks Court To Stop Raids," X-Press, 12/5/03).

The ABC raids -- in which agents confiscated magazines, DVDs and other materials without obtaining a warrant or judicial ruling that the materials were obscene -- were based on two state regulations. One bans lewd or vulgar entertainment or acts that “offend public decency." The other prohibits the display of “a card, calendar, placard, picture or handbill that is immoral, indecent, lewd or profane."

In the latest development, U.S. District Judge Vanessa Gilmore has approved a temporary injunction banning the enforcement of the two regulations and requiring ABC to purchase suspected materials from liquor stores instead of seizing them without notice.

Carico attorney Michael Lamson said the injunction halts the commission’s practice of seizing items and declaring them indecent without notifying the company an allegation has been made.
"hey were taking everything on the rack -- Penthouse, whatever was there," Lamson said.

Carico is also challenging three other commission regulations that allow the revocation or denial of a license based “on the public sense of decency," a phrase Carico says is too vague.

Carico also says that liquor stores carrying its products have been threatened with losing their liquor licenses.
From Harvey Rice, The Houston Chronicle, 12/3/03
http://www.chron.com/cs/CDA/ssistory.mpl/metropolitan/2269121
And from Harvey Rice, The Houston Chronicle, 2/14/04 http://www.chron.com/cs/CDA/ssistory.mpl/metropolitan/2402388

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ADULT ZONING SEEN AS A WELCOME MAT
DANVERS, MA -- A referendum has been put to the voters here on a bylaw establishing an adult entertainment zone. As it stands currently, adult businesses are free to open shop at any location in the town, although at present none are located there.

"Right now there is zero protection," said Jim Sears, former Planning Board chairman. More than 70 communities have passed similar adult zoning bylaws, Sears said.

The bylaw, which was approved at a Town Meeting by a vote of 86-26, would create a 64-acre section for adult businesses. Under the bylaw, adult businesses are defined as one in which 20 percent or more of the activity or stock consists of sexually explicit material for sale, rental, distribution, or exhibition. This would include stores selling explicit magazines, books, videos, and paraphernalia. It also would include adult entertainment businesses such as strip clubs and movie theaters.

Despite the Town Meeting vote and the support of the Board of Selectmen, however, there is opposition to the proposal. Hence the referendum, since the law provides that any item voted on at a Town Meeting can be put to a public vote if 4 percent of registered voters petition to do so within five days after the vote.

Opposition is based on the fear that the bylaw may be seen as inviting adult businesses to town, and to a desirable location. The 64-acre parcel proposed for adult entertainment has the highest property values in town and already is packed with several large businesses, including Costco, Circuit City, and the Marriott Hotel.

"For 250 years we haven’t had an issue, said Town Meeting member Jim Morose. “No one is beating down the door. Why are we saying you’re welcome here?"

Morose said the town should look into other ways of controlling or deterring businesses from operating in Danvers.
From Stephanie Chelf, The Boston Globe, 1/22/2004
http://www.boston.com/news/local/articles/2004/01/22/
election_set_on_creation_of_adult_zone/

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TEEN SITES NOT CHILD PORN SAYS FBI
HOUSTON, TX -- The FBI has completed a review of material on seized University of Texas-Houston computers based on complaints by university audit manager Cynthia Davis. Last fall, Davis contacted the FBI and University President James Willerson, reporting “horrific and egregious displays and behavior" in 15 audits over five years at UT-Houston, the most recent involving 10 male employees, including physicians, viewing pornography, eight of whom visited teen sites.
She also wrote that the problem is much worse than the 10 people selected as a sample and that she reported the matter to the FBI because she is “no longer confident" UT-Houston can investigate itself.

However, perhaps Davis did not realize that “teen," does not mean child in the adult Internet.
"We have reviewed the bulk of the computer hard drive material and found it didn’t meet our child pornography threshold level," said Bob Doguim, an FBI spokesman in Houston. “We interviewed experts and analyzed the images -- where they came from, when they were taken -- and concluded they didn’t constitute child porn."

Responding to the issue of misuse of university computers, President Willerson said that he wanted the UT-Houston community to know “that allegations of personnel viewing pornography on university computers were promptly and thoroughly reviewed. A decision had been made, he said, "to counsel those involved and place written reprimands in their files." He also said that those reprimanded were advised that “further similar incidents would result in termination."

In the meantime, Davis is no longer employed at the institution. She has resigned, citing the university’s failure to take stronger disciplinary action against the employees and what she called retaliation against her, which created a hostile work environment.
From Todd Ackerman, The Houston Chronicle, 2/18/04
http://www.chron.com/cs/CDA/ssistory.mpl/metropolitan/2409820

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BAN ON DOWNTOWN ADULT BUSINESSES SOUGHT
SALT LAKE CITY, UT -- With a moratorium set to expire April 1 on adult businesses locating in or around the central business district, the City Council is now considering a permanent ban. The Planning Department has scheduled an open house seeking citizen input and the citizen Planning Commission has also scheduled a meeting on the issue.

"You have to allow these [adult businesses]. You don’t have to allow them everywhere," Councilman Dave Buhler said. He said he can’t imagine hearing anything from the public to make him change his mind.

"These typically belong in the industrial areas," he said. “Where people [who] want to go there make the effort to go there, not where it’s in the main line of pedestrian traffic where you’ve got families."

The city already allows adult entertainment in two manufacturing districts, as well as in general commercial districts. The moratorium, passed in September, did not affect those areas.
"I’ve sort of realized what it does to surrounding property owners and what it does to a neighborhood. We’re so focused on making our downtown vital and vibrant, it would probably be better if we did not allow them in our downtown area," said council Chairwoman Jill Remington Love.

A permanent ban would not affect the Crazy Goat Saloon, a seminude venue a block from the LDS Salt Lake Temple and across from a Convention Center. Council members passed the moratorium after the Crazy Goat obtained a license.
From Heather May, The Salt Lake Tribune, 2/19/04
http://www.sltrib.com/2004/Feb/02192004/utah/utah.asp

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HIGH SCHOOL SHOW STIRS CONTROVERSY
AMHERST REGIONAL HIGH SCHOOL, MA -- From the Christian Right’s Agape Press comes this story of the fall-out from a high school performance of The Vagina Monologues. The controversial monologues are a well known feminist celebration which contains graphic content, including, says Agape Press writer Jim Brown, “the simultaneous chanting of the word ‘vagina' by a bunch of young feminists holding hands and seeking unity."

John Diggs, M.D., a Christian speaker on youth and sex-related issues, has bemoaned the performance, saying that the play “not only denigrates the entirety of a woman to a single anatomical part, it also serves the interest of sexual predators as well as those who do not understand that sex has more than just a physical component."

"When you have something that’s only an object, you can abuse it any way you want to," said Diggs. “You can lie to it, you don’t have to have a relationship with it, and when you’re finished, all you have to do is discard it."

Diggs says the play deals with the issue of violence against women yet, ironically, the title itself objectifies them. That, he says, could have a damaging effect on the community because it changes the topics that students talk about.

"Suddenly [the students are] talking about monologues and anatomical genitals instead," he explains. “So then, if someone makes a comment about some part of her anatomy, the precedent has already been set by the people who are their authority figures -- the principal, the teachers, the superintendent who allowed this play to go on."

The aftermath of the play, Diggs says, may be “legally actionable."
From Jim Brown, Agape Press, 2/19/04
http://headlines.agapepress.org/archive/2/192004e.asp

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UpComing Events

MAR 3-7, 2004-- Lifestyles, Miami Radisson Hotel http://lifestyles.org/

MAR 24-27, 2004 -- Nightclub and Bar Owners' Expo Las Vegas http://www.nightclub.com

APR 26-27, 2004 Celebrate Free Speech Lobbying Days,
Sacramento, CA, 866-FSC-9373

JUN 9-12 Cybernet Expo, San Diego, CA www.cybernetexpo.com

JUN 18-20 Erotica L.A., Los Angeles, CA http://www.erotica-la.com/

JUL 24, 2004 Night of the Stars Sheraton Universal Hotel
Los Angeles, CA - 866-FSC-9373

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