I think America’s innocence was done in a long time ago without the help of strip clubs.
Kansas- from www.cjonline.com – John Samples isn’t one to bite his tongue in a debate about topless clubs.
He’s been in the business for years and offered a guiding hand to Club Orleans, Baby Dolls and VIP Lounge.
True to form, Samples responded Tuesday to claims by supporters of House Bill 2107 — the “community defense act.” It would impose significant restrictions on new and established adult entertainment businesses across the state.
He was struck by testimony of Phillip Cosby [pictured], who represents the National Coalition for the Protection of Children and Families. Cosby said strip clubs were destroying America’s innocence.
“What mother is willing to let her grade-school aged child out of her sight today?” Cosby said.
Samples said adult entertainment has been widely available for decades. It existed in Cosby’s childhood, just as it does now. To believe otherwise is to be helplessly naive, Samples said.
“It’s not like this was a whole new thing,” Samples said.
During testimony to a House committee, the Kansas Catholic Conference stood to be counted among supporters of the bill mandating semi-nude dancers — full nudity would be outlawed — stay at least six feet from customers. This would, for example, end lap dances.
The legislation prohibits sale of alcoholic beverages in the exotic clubs and forces these establishments to close at midnight. The businesses currently stay open until 2 p.m.
New clubs couldn’t open with 1,000 feet of churches, parks, schools and day-care centers.
“We believe it is important … space remains in our society for decency to flourish,” said Michael Schuttloffel, executive director of the Catholic organization.
Samples said the state wouldn’t infuse a message of morality in thousands of Kansas entertainers, bartenders and bouncers thrown out of work if the bill became law.
If Kansas public officials want to do something beneficial for dancers, he said, child-support collection laws should be given more teeth.
“Many entertainers are working to stay off of SRS welfare because they can’t get child support,” he said. “Others are college students.”
He said his two clubs in Topeka produce $900,000 annually in payroll and $200,000 each year in liquor tax revenue.
With a flip of the switch in the House and Senate, and with concurrence of Republican Gov. Sam Brownback, it could all be gone.
Or so conservatives might think.
Passage of this reform bill would trigger litigation.
Topeka attorney Michael Merriam said four well-established rules had been developed to guide governments when considering restrictions on First Amendment activities.
Restrictions must:
— be justified by a substantial government interest.
— be content-neutral.
— not constitute a complete ban on the activity.
— be narrowly tailored, meaning no broader than necessary to achieve the substantial government interest.
“These constitutional rules are ignored by House Bill 2107 in a number of respects,” said Merriam, who has represented The Topeka Capital-Journal in legal matters.
He said flaws could be found in the prohibition of full nudity and semi-nudity under certain conditions, blocked clubs from operating past midnight and banned serving of alcohol.
“The loss of any one of these factors, let alone all three, will spell the closing of such businesses,” he said. “No new clubs would or could open.”
Schuttloffel, of the Catholic organization, said the constitutional claims were ridiculous.
“It strains credulity to believe that our Founding Fathers intended the Constitution to be an instrument of protection for sexually oriented businesses that wish to operate whenever, wherever and however they like,” he said.