Knoxville, Kentucky- Lexi is everything and nothing you’d expect. The exotic dancer-she doesn’t mind if you call her a stripper, in the right company-has long caramel-colored hair, an ample bosom and a throaty, memorable laugh. Dressed for her day job as a lawyer’s assistant in a long floral skirt and a black knit top, she says, “I look a lot different when I’m at work. I don’t wear my glasses, and I’m really tan because I’ve got this great stuff that you just shhhh,” she says, making a spraying noise. “And of course I’ve got my heels on. I’m so used to them, I can run in them. I really can.”

Right away, she’s your friend, an open book, a woman who punctuates her jokes and opinions with a nudge of your elbow. She sits in a wreath of legal papers spread on the floor of her office, and pulls out an album filled with vacation pictures of her 10 children-three biological and seven adopted or foster.

Lexi, who prefers to go by her stage name, works weekends at Th’Katch to support her kids-aged 21 to two-several of whom have special needs. “I love my kids,” she proclaims. “My kids are my whole world.”

Despite a buoyant independence, Lexi nurses some substantial fears. After divorcing her husband many years ago, she’s still embroiled in a court battle over child support due for the couple’s twin daughters. And, because she’s never revealed her profession to Tennessee officials, there’s always the worry that her children could be taken from her. Never mind that she was a known dancer and president of a foster parent’s association up north before relocating here: “I moved to Tennessee, and I’m the devil,” she says. At PTA meetings, church and the bank, she keeps her profession to herself.

Lately, Lexi’s livelihood has caused her more grief than ever. She’s utterly dismayed by the two stringent ordinances, passed unanimously by both Knox County (on March 28) and the city (on May 24), that will mandate the licensing, location and conduct of adult businesses. In other words, in the strip clubs there will be no more nudity, no more lap dances and no more alcohol on site. From now on, each employee and business will be required to obtain a license, and bookstores and cabarets will close each night by midnight, on Sundays and on national holidays.

Before they voted on the ordinances, Chattanooga attorney Scott Bergthold presented both the County Commission and City Council with enormous binders of case studies from across the United States, in an effort to cite the deleterious secondary effects of adult operations. Such effects allegedly include decreased property values, increased crime and prostitution rates, and the spread of sexual diseases.

Lexi and hundreds of others in the industry adamantly dispute these accusations, and fear for the fate of their careers and their families.

“Putting a bikini on these girls, is it really going to stop the crime rate?” asks Lynn Davis, general manager of the Emerald Club, a strip club on Clinton Highway.

“I work in a safe, controlled environment,” Lexi says. “They can look at all the police records. There’s never been a prostitute arrested at our club.”

Sherrie, a single mom of an 18-year-old daughter, moved here from Michigan years ago. She worked as a dancer at the Mouse’s Ear before starting at Th’Katch, where she’s been for the past two years.

“I own a home, with a big pool and big deck, and I’ve got 10 more years to pay on my mortgage,” Sherrie says, her voice lilting with irony. “I’m not a stripper. I am a dancer. I am elegant. I am not a whore. I am just me. I put my pants on just like everybody else.”

Deflecting misconceptions, perhaps, seems written into the job description of an adult entertainer. Many strip bar owners say that the young women who work for them are university students and single mothers.

“[Legislators have] picked on us from day one,” says Don Rowe, manager of the Mouse’s Ear, a Kingston Pike strip club. “I’ve been doing this for 25 years now. One year they want us to keep our clothes on, the next year we can take them off. It’s back and forth. They can’t seem to make up their minds, but it seems very serious this time, and we’re going to try to do something about it.”

“We’re talking about 300-plus families affected by this,” says Davis, who’s worked at The Emerald Club since its opening in 2001. “Now that’s quite a lot of tax revenue to the city to begin with, so it’s more serious than just a frivolous thing like, ‘We’re going to take a morality stance and wipe out these businesses.'”

With a gravelly voice, a neatly trimmed mustache and a background in radio, Davis says his club has always upheld strict rules in order to comply with the letter of the law. “We get compliments all the time from officers who work this end of town, who thank us for running a tight operation where they never get called out here,” he says. Davis argues that the focus is misdirected. He pulls out the phone book and flips quickly to the escort section, running his finger down a lengthy list. “If you really want to get rid of prostitution and crime, there are 120 of these to look at,” he says.Davis refutes the notion that his club’s had a negative effect on surrounding property values, pointing out two new businesses nearby. Caleb Cannon, manager of West Knox News, an adult bookstore on Kingston Pike, echoes that, mentioning the brand new Colony Place shopping center across the street.

But Rick Parker, vice president of Parker, Shiflett and Company, which owns Colony Place, says that having an adult bookstore near his property has had a negative effect on his leasing activity. “I’ve had several prospective tenants that have commented on the fact that it’s across the street,” he says. “I couldn’t tell you that we’ve lost anyone over it, but then you never know the reasons.”

Not everyone is quick to point out the cons of Knoxville’s adult industry; in fact, some say we’ll miss it sorely when it’s diminished, or gone. After all, as Knoxville works to grow into its convention center, the absence of adult nightlife might be a deterrent for travelers looking to book a conference here. Davis says the Honda Hoot, and a recent bowling tournament, significantly increased his business, as does most any event that draws out-of-towners.

In response to the ordinances, Towne and Country Bookstore and Knoxville Adult Video Superstore have filed suit jointly against the county for violation of their First Amendment rights, among other things, and at least four of the city’s adult-oriented businesses-Th’Katch, The Mouse’s Ear, West Knox News and The Last Chance Adult Theater, another strip club-say they’re gearing up for lawsuits of their own.

First Amendment activists have long reasoned that nude dancing warrants the same protection afforded to “legitimate” theater and dance performances and that it’s a viable form of artistic expression. At Last Chance, for instance, there’s a sort of naked gymnastics that occurs, replete with hand walking and tumbling, in glittery, platform shoes, no less. The costumes are theatrical, if brief. Women spin so quickly they’re a blur of skin and long, whipping hair. They hitch their feet to the tops of shiny poles and stretch upside down, lithe and lean. They’re strong and self-assured; they’re moneymakers; with come-hither faces fastened on.

At Last Chance on a given evening, each of the women seems cut from the same cloth, or from the same man’s fantasy: thin, young and blond. At Th’Katch, they’re better suited to fit a variety of appetites: voluptuous and toned, brunette and blond, black and white, mature and just-of-age.

Those who argue that erotic dancing is a form of expressive conduct refer to ancient passages by Euripides and Aristotle. They describe the origins of belly dancing, of flamenco dances in European cafes, of Spanish gypsies. They mention famous striptease artists Gypsy Rose Lee and Blaze Starr. Some even call it “high art.” And, though the Supreme Court has historically agreed that nude dancing is a form of artistic expression, it’s often relegated to the outer perimeters of First Amendment protection.

Because litigation of this sort is a hotbed for First Amendment lawsuits and often requires a lengthy appeals process, some community members are fuming over the potential cost to taxpayers.

City Councilman Joe Bailey says his concerns during the voting process were relatively inconsequential, as his constituents seemed resolved to vote for the ordinance. “We’ve already got a tight enough budget without going and duplicating a lawsuit,” he says. “I thought we should just wait and see what the courts [ruling on the county lawsuits] say before we start going into another lawsuit.”

Rowe says he attended the City Council meeting during which the ordinances were unanimously approved. “I was so mad,” he says. “I was the first one in that meeting and the first one to step out. There was a room full of people there to protest the thing, and bam, bam, bam, it’s gone.”

City Councilwoman Marilyn Roddy says there was a push to duplicate the county’s ordinances “in the spirit of cooperation, of leveling the playing field.”

There was also a concern that the city would become an attractive place for adult businesses to relocate, Roddy says.”Right there in front of the whole Council, the city attorney said that was the whole reason, but I don’t know where that came from…. These other businesses are grandfathered in,” says Bailey, who feels Council was wrongly supplied with the relocation excuse. As it is, strict zoning regulations would make it arduous if not impossible for new adult businesses to open shop in the city of Knoxville.

Many business owners scramble to “go bikini,” preparing to become “go-go” bars once the ordinances are in effect. The women at the Emerald Club, for one, will wear bikinis, but many are convinced that go-go bars won’t be as well attended as strip bars.

Davis predicts Knoxville isn’t prepared for the influx of go-go bars that will surely crop up and, without the regulations currently protecting the strip bars, he says they’ll have a much worse monster in their hands. “You’ll have the bare minimum of what’s the legal status in clothing,” says Davis. “Suddenly there will be no restrictions to prevent 100 such clubs.”

In the meantime, the new ordinances have not yet been enforced, as the businesses have been granted a preliminary injunction. County Law Director Mike Moyers says the county is filing a motion “to dismiss most, if not all, of the claims and arguments made by the other side.” The plaintiffs will have 30 days to respond, and a hearing will be scheduled in late July or early August. “Our position is that it will be dispositive and that we’ll have a case more clearly focused on the issues that remain,” says Moyers.

Home for her lunch break, Lexi bends down to embrace each of her children. Her spindly little girls contemplate her with big, round eyes, in apparent awe of their ebullient mother. Lexi tickles and kisses them, smooths their hair, praises them in turn. Despite her son’s learning disabilities, she pronounces him her “wizard,” her “genius.” Lexi works only one or two nights a week at Th’Katch, but often makes in one night (on average $200 to $300) as much as she makes all week at the lawyer’s office. This may soon change. Besides prohibiting full nudity, the new codes specify that all sexually oriented businesses be closed by midnight. Because she makes 50 to 60 percent of her money between one and three in the morning, that threatens to severely hamper Lexi’s income. The new regulations would limit hours of operation from 8 a.m. to midnight.

“From my perspective, if the city was really serious, they wouldn’t want [adult businesses] open during school hours,” says Davis. “The city would say, ‘you can’t open till 10 o’clock at night ’til all the kids are in bed.'”

Dancers claim they’ll lose further income when the implemented ordinances essentially do away with the lap dance, as customers must keep a distance of six feet from dancers at all times. Lexi says she derives the bulk of her money from chair or couch dances, not stage performances.

“Men aren’t going to want to see a beautiful woman from six feet away,” says Sherrie, another local dancer. “You can’t even tip a woman from six feet away.”

City Law Director Morris Kizer says the lap dance provision was included because “there’s a case in the court of appeals in [Jackson, Tenn.] that says that lap dances fall within the Tennessee statute’s definition of prostitution.” The Tennessee Code Annotated defines prostitution as “engaging in, or offering to engage in, sexual activity as a business,” and the particular case to which Kizer refers took issue with whether lap dancing could be included in this definition, ultimately determining that it could.

Supreme Court cases regularly determine that lap dancing is conduct, not speech, thus obviating First Amendment concerns. However, some federal courts have struck down six-foot buffer zones, in favor of a three-foot buffer zone that wouldn’t ban as much expression.

Lexi thinks the local strip clubs will lose a lot of business without personal contact from dancers. “When [customers] come in, that’s what they need, not just touching, but the closeness of being able to sit and talk,” she says.Yet another specification will force strip clubs and adult bookstores to close on Sundays and all national holidays. “We don’t mind being closed on holidays,” says Th’Katch’s manager Wayne Northcutt. “But if we’re closed on state holidays or federal holidays, are they going to pay us? They pay people working for the government, and we feel like we’re working for the government.”

The “brown bag” rule, also, will no longer apply, doing away with any alcohol on the premises of a strip bar, and simultaneously “taking away the party atmosphere,” says Lexi, who doesn’t see a need for the changes, as the clubs in town already tightly regulate alcohol. Under the previous ordinances, all alcohol had to be consumed, and off the tables, by 1 a.m.

Some employees are disturbed by the new ordinance provision requiring businesses and employees to obtain a sexually oriented business license from the clerk’s office, to be renewed once a year. That was reportedly included to ensure that anyone with a drug or sex-related felony history could not work in the business.

Lawyers and employers have taken issue with that for a number of reasons. “It’ll knock out some people who don’t want their name associated with the job, some students who are going into a law profession, people who don’t want this to come back and bite them at a later time,” Davis says, though he admits he’s not completely opposed to licensing his employees.

Ed Summers, attorney for Th’Katch, says he disagrees that criminal pasts ought to determine a person’s vocation. “One or more of the dancers will be plaintiffs in the lawsuit on the theory that if you’ve been convicted of certain offenses and you’re not able to receive your license to work, they think that’s an unlawful restraint on their ability to make a living,” he says. “If they have been convicted of something, and they’ve paid the penalty, why shouldn’t they be able to proceed with their lives?”

Recently, the Knoxville Adult Video Superstore moved into a building just off I-40 on Lovell Road. Many community members were chafed by the new shop, perhaps because roughly a mile away in either direction of the bookstore sits the sprawling US Cellular Soccer complex and the Lovell Heights Church of God. Though it certainly wasn’t the community’s first adult-oriented business, the repercussions of this particular shop were far-reaching, creating the current chain of litigation.

Lovell Heights’ pastor, John Hughes, says that his church, along with Concord Baptist on Kingston Pike, let its displeasure be known to the county.

“I’m against any business like that,” he says. “It’s just an unhealthy thing for the environment. It’s a slippery slope once that gets into your community, and it appeals to the lowest common denominator, to the base instincts.” Hughes was especially appalled that the bookstore opened directly across the street from a truck stop. “They’ve targeted the truckers specifically,” he says, and Lexi says that indeed Th’Katch, just down the road from the same truck stop, does get a lot of truck driver customers.

“Some of the churches recognize a viable issue that gives ministers primarily something to jump up and down about,” says attorney Joe Lovett, who’s representing Towne and Country Bookstore and West Knox News. “To what extent they’re really sincere about it, I question. Years ago when we had some of the very first litigation over adult business, the leading spokesman for the religious right wing had a great collection of pornographic films.”

Pastor Hughes says he’s also concerned about pornographic material getting into the hands of children. That seems unlikely though, as Hal and Lynn Worthington, owners of the Knoxville Adult Video Superstore, run a pretty tight ship. In order to gain access to the spacious, well-lit back room of the Adult Video Superstore, you’ll be ID-ed first. Several months ago, the Worthingtons covered up the word “Adult” on the signs outside their business, but at night, when the signs are lit, the word “adult” glows like a beacon of defiance through the clumsily rigged paper cover. Hughes, and others, see that as an attempt to wrangle unsuspecting customers.

The shop’s front windows are smoke-colored and mirrored, though there doesn’t seem to be much need for the shield, as the front room is stocked with only G-, PG- and R-rated movies. There’s even a poster promoting the new Hillary Duff movie. (The starlet is fully clothed.) And behind a cage, there are three glistening creatures: vintage motorcycles, described as being worth $245,000 in total. The Worthingtons, who were on vacation and couldn’t be reached for comment, are motorcycle aficionados who apparently placed their prized motorcycles for sale as a clever move to circumvent a previous city code that defined an adult store by the value of its inventory. The new ordinance takes care of that, including seven litmus tests to determine the existence of an adult store. After the county received complaints about the bookstore, Moyers contacted Scott Bergthold, a Chattanooga lawyer in his early 30s with a lengthy resume and a reputation as one of the nation’s only lawyers focused exclusively on drafting and defending municipal adult business regulations. Bergthold, who refused to comment, is also the former president of an organization called the Community Defense Counsel, funded by the Alliance Defense Fund, a religious group devoted to family-values and sanctity-of-life causes.

After he drafted the county’s ordinances, the city hired Bergthold to configure theirs as well. Despite Kizer’s and Moyer’s appraisal of the man, whom they say they’re “enormously impressed with,” not everyone feels confident that Bergthold’s got Knoxville’s best interests in mind.

“This guy out of Chattanooga goes around talking to cities about his ordinances, and he knows they’re going to be generating lawsuits, so he makes a pretty good living,” says Seymour, The Last Chance’s attorney. “I think they got sold a bill of goods by this guy.”

Even Councilman Bailey questions the attorney’s motives, saying, “I really did not buy what this attorney was saying about our community. It didn’t hold true to this area. If you’re an attorney, that’s a good way to make a living. I’d like to have a business like that. He spends 50 percent of his time creating a lawsuit and the other 50 percent of his time defending it.”

Moyers wants to make it clear: “Mr. Bergthold didn’t call me. I called him.”

In order to give its case against adult business some local relevance, the city hired private investigator Greg Lundy to visit several adult businesses on two evenings in late April. Afterwards, Lundy drew up an affidavit, reporting on his findings. On his visit to the Mouse’s Ear, he reports that he received a couch dance, and noticed a yellow/green substance on an adjacent chair that he reckoned was human semen. At each club he visited, Lundy received a private dance and purchased beers or sodas for himself. When the story broke on Knoxville news stations, some community members expressed anger that $300 in municipal funds was used to fund the investigation. Club owners claim Lundy’s observations were erroneous and question his interests. Summers says that Lundy once installed a lighting system for Th’Katch, but he’s not sure if it’s legally a conflict of interest. Lundy had also approached club owners in the past, Davis says, to suggest that they hire him to pose as a customer in order to find wrongdoing among his staff. The club owners each turned him down, says Davis, creating a possible resentment. Davis disputes much of the affidavit, including a section that details one of his dancers trying to put her vagina on Lundy’s face. “To begin with,” Davis says, “that would be the end of her career here… Police officers are coming in and out of here on a constant basis. If these things were occurring the way he described, they would have arrested someone by now.”

This legislation isn’t the first of its sort to move from Knoxville into the court system. The city’s case against Entertainment Resources, owner of a defunct adult bookstore called Fantasy Video, was resolved just this past Wednesday after seven years of litigation. The state Supreme Court determined unanimously that the City’s 1998 ordinance specifying the definition and location of adult businesses was unconstitutional.

From the day of the store’s opening on Papermill Road in ’98, KPD conducted almost daily inspections of Fantasy Video, each time issuing citations for violation of Knoxville City Code. Four months after the store opened, the city was granted a temporary injunction against Fantasy Video, shutting it down because they deemed a “substantial” or “significant” portion of the store’s stock was composed of videos depicting sexual activities. That violated the city code because the store was within 1,000 feet of an establishment that sold alcohol, a Boy Scouts Administrative Office, and a residentially zoned district.

Fantasy Video filed its answer, declaring the city’s ordinances unconstitutional, and questioning the “vague” wording of Knoxville City Code 16-468.

Along with two Nashville attorneys, Knoxville lawyer Richard Gaines argued that the terms “substantial” and “significant” were too broad, as his clients did stock the shelves in its front room with thousands of G-, PG- and R-rated films. “This is the biggest case of its sort that’s come out of the state Supreme Court in a while,” says Gaines, who calls the case a huge victory for First Amendment rights. “It’s an attempt to exclude these businesses, and just a clear and open violation of the First Amendment to the Constitution.” After the Entertainment Resources case, Gaines says, “Any judge is going to think twice about backing the city up.”

County Law Director Mike Moyers isn’t sure what impact the case may have on current litigation. “We’re studying the case, and if we need to make any changes to reflect what the Supreme Court has done, we’ll make those changes,” he says.

The Supreme Court opinion rewarded Entertainment Resources damages and attorney’s fees. Though the exact amount has yet to be determined, it may cost Knoxville taxpayers up to $1 million dollars. Some fear that the new litigation over adult businesses could be even more costly.

Returning to work, Lexi calls out for her 16-year-old son to lock the door behind her. A tremendous pile of collapsed bicycles borders her modest house, and her two rottweilers woof contentedly from her back yard, the yard where she hopes to install an aboveground swimming pool next summer.

For now, she braces for the inevitable, for a change that will likely disturb her life in profound ways. She plans to go to court, to plead for her occupation, to put a face on her profession. Though it’s just the beginning of summer, Lexi already dwells on its end, when her older children won’t be able to look after the younger ones anymore.”If somebody out there thinks my job is so horrible, then you let the first good Christian step forward and pay for daycare for me and give me a job where I can afford to feed my children and take care of them all,” she says.Some adult entertainers worry that they’ll be unable to find jobs outside of the business they’ve worked in for many years. “I’m really concerned about my employees that I’ve been with for 10 years or so,” says Rowe. “This business keeps them alive. I’ll tell you what, I got out of the business in ’91, and it took me three months to find a job. Nobody wanted to hire a titty bar DJ. You just can’t take people’s livelihoods away from them.”

Already looking into a move to Georgia, where adult ordinances are more lenient, Lexi might just have to pick up and start over again, though it’s surely no easy task to relocate 10 children. Despite her worries, it doesn’t take much for Lexi’s voice to get big with dreams again. “If it were my dream,” she says, “I would make a hell of a lot more money. I would buy a huge house way out in the country; I would take more kids that are hard to place, and I would dance as much as I could.”