The only proof necessary to realize that the intention of Missouri's new strip club law is to drive all clubs out of the state is the fact that it was drafted with the help of the Missouri/Kansas faction of the American Family Association.
A
perfect illustration of the insidious and anti-American influence of this and other like-minded groups is the success they have had getting supposedly lethal laws like the strip club ordinances either passed or in motion in states like Missouri, Ohio and
Kansas, as well as in counties and cities throughout the nation. These ordinances are generally similar, imposing restrictions on hours of operation, dress codes, and the amount of physical contact allowed between dancers and customers, if any,
especially if alcohol is served.
But the Kansas City Star has reported that one club in the state, Bazooka's, is testing the limitations of the law in a very creative way, and thus far is not only getting away with it, but is creating very happy
customers as a result.
Bazooka's, an adult entertainment venue in downtown Kansas City, now offers videos of its nude and seminude dancers on large, flat-screen televisions adjacent to the stage, the paper reported. While a dancer performs live
with her intimate areas covered, as the law requires, a video of the same dancer---with those areas exposed---appears on the screens.
According to the club's owner, Dick Snow, the idea behind the videos is to meet the language of the law while
still allowing the club to stay open after midnight, while also giving his clientele what they came for.
A spokesman for the Kansas City Police Department said the department had received no complaints about Bazooka's videos and said it did not
appear that the establishment was violating any local or state laws, reported the Star.
Nine months after Missouri implemented further restrictions on the state's adult businesses, at least two local strip clubs are continuing pretty much as before relying on the authorities' lax enforcement of their X-rated entertainment.
Kansas
City Star reporters recently observed more than a dozen female dancers at Bazooka's and Temptations whose entire breasts were visible. Although state law allows such semi-nude exposure, clubs that regularly offer it must close at midnight.
Both downtown clubs, however, remained open and admitted customers well past that closing deadline.
Some dancers also appeared on stages less than six feet from patrons, another violation of the statute. Reporters saw chairs lining the elevated
stages in both clubs, placing some customers only inches from performers.
But Dick Bryant, a lawyer for Kansas City's adult entertainment industry, said the clubs are following the law, in part because he claimed the dancers only appear to be
topless. The exposed breasts, he said, are actually covered by a thin layer of opaque latex. Once they're covered, none of the rest of the law applies, Bryant argued.
He also said clubs are observing other parts of the new law, including
rules that prohibit full nudity and semi-nude dancers from touching customers. The Star found those regulations, as well as those involving the sale of alcohol, were being followed.
After a state court judge refused to delay implementation of the
new rules, a coalition of strip club owners sought a Missouri Supreme Court ruling that its provisions are unconstitutional. A decision is expected later this year.
With the end of the 2011 legislative session nearing, socially conservative members of the Kansas legislature turned down a last chance to keep a bill alive that would have imposed severe restrictions on adult entertainment business in the state. The
vote, which took place on the Senate, failed to garner the 24 votes necessary to approve a motion by Sen. Steve Abrams that would have pulled the bill out of committee and onto the Senate floor for a vote.
Without a word of debate, reported
the Tokepa Capital-Journal, the chamber voted 17-22 to reject Abrams' motion.
According to the Capital-Journal, Abrams, who could have probably seen a compromise bill passed by both chambers, said the state had an obligation to bring
order to sexually oriented businesses that damage communities with inspiring criminal behavior and creating other negative secondary effects.
The Kansas House has approved the miserable Community Defense Act , which seeks to repress sexually-oriented businesses in the state.
Representatives had to decide whether their moral beliefs took precedence over their beliefs about
government regulation of businesses.
The House chose morality.
But some argue that there's more to this bill than morality. Several representatives cite their supposed concerns over secondary effects of sexually oriented businesses, like
never seen increased crime rates and decreased property values.
State Rep. John Rubin spouted the shameful bollox: It is not an attempt to legislate morality or regulate sin.... RATHER ... this bill was carefully crafted for proper
public policy purposes: to protect the health, safety and welfare of our citizens without unconstitutionally or unduly infringing any personal liberties or property rights.
The bill would require businesses like strip clubs, sex shops and
adult video stores to remain closed between midnight and 6:00 AM. Semi-nude dancers would have to stay six feet away from their customers. That means no more legal lap dances in the state of Kansas. New sexually-oriented businesses would not be able to
open within 1,000 feet of a similar business, school, day care center, place of worship, or library. The bill would also establish minimum lighting conditions and would ban private rooms and booths.
The bill approved by the Kansas House to restrict strip clubs, adult video stores and other sexually oriented businesses might not get a vote this year in the Senate, where members haven't paid much attention to the issue and some are
unenthusiastic about the idea.
The House vote was 91-28 on the proposed Community Defense Act, which supporters claim will protect communities from blight, increased crime and other problems they link to adult businesses.
Senators have
speculated that a vote in their chamber on the legislation could be close, but they also said they haven't studied this year's legislation in detail. Their leaders wouldn't commit to having a committee hearing on the measure this year and acknowledged
that the bill isn't as pressing a priority for them as it was for House members.
The
bill failed to clear a Senate committee which voted not to advance the bill to the Senate floor.
Committee chairman Senator Pete Brungardt, a Salina Republican, said the bill could now be brought to the Senate floor only by a motion requiring 24
votes. The Senate has 40 members.
Most of the committee's opposition to the bill hinged upon resistance to state involvement in what is generally perceived as a community issue.
I struggle with government intrusion into business, said Senator Jeff Longbine:
I believe this is an issue that is best left to be dealt with locally.
Senator Tim Owens said he didn't see enough evidence that crime spikes when strip clubs and porn shops open --- at least not in Kansas.
Nutters opposed to strip clubs, adult stores and other sexually oriented businesses in Kansas are starting another push for more state restrictions.
A Kansas House committee opened hearings on legislation to keep new sexually oriented businesses
at least 1,000 feet away from any similar business or from a school, library, day care center or house of worship.
Supporters claim that such businesses lower property values and cause problems such as crime, especially if they're clustered
together.
The House passed a similar bill last year, but it died in the Senate on a 20-20 vote.
The Kansas bill to place repressive restriction son adult businesses has been accepted by the House Federal and State Affairs Committee.
The proposed Community Defense Act would mean no nude dancers and no alcohol in sexually oriented
businesses.
The act would also limit business hours by forcing them to close early at midnight.
But the biggest problem for strip clubs would be the requirement that semi-nude dancers stay at least six feet away from their customers.
Owner Irvin Metz says: They work on tips only. How are they going to even get a tip if they've got to stay six feet away? What, are they going to throw them a dollar, or what?
Update: Just as similar restrictions are
declared unconstitutional in Maryland
A federal appeals panel has ruled that Maryland can't ban the mix of alcohol and adult entertainment, as well as certain simulated sexual acts.
The decision by the 4th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals upholds a federal judge's injunction against unconstitutionally overbroad
strip club regulations there.
We conclude that the statute --- which limits the range of permissible conduct, attire, and entertainment at establishments licensed to serve alcoholic beverages --- prohibits a broad swath of expression
protected by the 1st Amendment and is not susceptible to a limiting construction, 4th Circuit Judge James Wynn wrote for the court. Accordingly, we affirm the permanent injunction prohibiting enforcement of the statute.
Maryland amended
its laws to outlaw nude servers and hostesses, sexual attire simulating erogenous areas and sexual touching in venues licensed to serve alcohol. The new regulations were supposed to take effect in October 2005. Further, nude entertainers would also be
prohibited under the law from being within six feet of customers.
Nine months after Missouri implemented further restrictions on the state's adult businesses, at least two local strip clubs are continuing pretty much as before relying on the authorities' lax enforcement of their X-rated entertainment. 
A federal appeals panel has ruled that Maryland can't ban the mix of alcohol and adult entertainment, as well as certain simulated sexual acts. 