Myrtle Beach, S.C.- The sign at Inserection reads "Welcome to the Sexual Revolution," yet the revolutionaries at the adult-video parlor seem to be losing the battle against officials who want to place tighter controls on the Strand's adult businesses.
Police raids, zoning citations and orders to cease and desist are a few of the ways local officials are clamping down on adult bookstores, video parlors and strip clubs. Owners of adult businesses say they stay within the laws and have a right to operate.
Those laws might be changing, and the days of strip clubs and pornography shops on U.S. 501 might be numbered or at least their ways more restricted.
Though courts have ruled that adult businesses are protected constitutionally, local officials say they must keep a tight rein on the stores, which run counter to the Grand Strand's self-proclaimed image as a family beach. Plus, officials say, if not scrutinized, the clubs and parlors sometimes can promote drugs and prostitution.
Last month, county officials raided several adult clubs and video parlors and issued 30 citations for public nudity, prostitution and zoning violations. State officials are poised to shut down Danielle's Dungeon because it has no connection to city sewer lines and relies on an outdated septic tank.
Now County Council members propose to revise the county's rules for adult businesses - potentially changing regulations on the businesses' appearance, location and size as well as what is allowed inside.
"I don't mean for this to be a witch hunt," said County Councilman Howard Barnard, one of the officials who prompted the latest attempt to revise the adult-business ordinances. "But we advertise ourselves as a family beach. Let's sit down with the solicitor and the county attorney and write an enforceable law."
The owners and managers of the adult businesses say the attention is unfair but not surprising. They say officials focus on adult entertainment every few years but do little.
"Every four years, they talk about it and make it an issue, but there's not a whole lot they can do," said Danielle's Dungeon Manager Tim Hicks.
Danielle's Dungeon, formerly known as Miss Kitty's, has fought the city, county and the S.C. Department of Health and Environmental Control, which issued an order to shut it down for failing to have sewer service.
For years, Hicks' lawyers have kept officials busy with one lawsuit after another. This week, he filed another one.
At the intersection of Third Avenue South and U.S. 501, at a major entryway to the city, the strip club has been a particularly visible example of what an adult business can do to a community's image.
Officials say the problem of adult businesses at one of the area's busiest entry points can be dealt with through patience and carefully crafted law.
Myrtle Beach officials have relegated adult businesses to Seaboard Street between U.S. 501 and Mr. Joe White Avenue, but many adult businesses are in pockets of unincorporated Horry County even though they are surrounded by the city.
This allows them to avoid city zoning restrictions that would ban them from the area. County Council Chairwoman Gilland said it is time for the county to take responsibility for the area.
"The onus is on the county to clean up the entryway to Myrtle Beach," said Gilland, who first got into politics by fighting the proliferation of topless bars.
Stores such as Inserection enjoy a loophole that allows them to claim they are not adult businesses at all, even though the intentionally risque spelling error in the name tells a different story.
The law says businesses are "adult" only if more than half of their merchandise is "adult." The law was designed to protect general video stores that rent a small number of adult movies from a cordoned-off room.
"We're not an adult business," Inserection Manager Joey Solesbee said. That's because half of the store is devoted to nonadult items, he said, including G-rated videos, condoms and oils.
Nevertheless, only those 18 and older can enter the store.
County Councilman Marion Foxworth, whose district includes the U.S. 501 clubs and stores, said the "50-percent rule" is one of the first things that need to be changed.
He recalls the owner of an adult-video parlor exploiting the loophole by filling two large barrels with screws and nuts.
"He counted each screw and nut as a merchandise item and thereby got the loophole," Foxworth said.
County Council soon will review various options for regulating adult business.
Some governments have created special "adult-business permits." The new rules could be as simple as insisting that adult stores use smaller, less-explicit signs.
"I think you're going to see some more [raids]," Foxworth said. "I think you're going to see stricter enforcement. I also think you're going to see some changes to the adult-business ordinance. I know what we've got now isn't working."
Whatever happens, officials say they must be wary of the First Amendment.
As Hicks at Danielle's Dungeon has proved, the clubs and stores are adept at filing lawsuits. Hicks said he does not think officials can do much more to restrict his strip club. The city cut his sewer lines years ago, and now the state is ordering him to close.
But Hicks is unperturbed. He's even planning to change the name of the club. Again.
"I'm thinking Pink Pussycat, the Booby Trap or the Kitty Cat Lounge," he said.
