Ohio- A pretty, young woman with more than a passing resemblance to Demi Moore in “Strip Tease” gyrates on the dance floor as a middle-aged, bearded man admires her nearly nude body up close.
The patron of Just Teazin gentlemen’s club in Painesville Township slips a dollar bill in her garter belt on a recent Friday night before shyly walking away, apparently satisfied.
“We’re here strictly for entertainment,” says the dancer, a 23-year-old Willoughby woman whose stage name is Leah. “It’s an everyday job. Guys who are lonely come here to talk to someone.”
But if a conservative religious group has its way, that type of personal, one-on-one attention at adult-oriented businesses will soon be illegal.
Cincinnati-based Citizens for Community Values – the same group responsible for Ohio’s constitutional ban on gay marriage in 2004 – has now set its sights on adult book stores, strip clubs, peep shows and massage parlors.The group’s Community Defense Act would force any sexually oriented business in Ohio to close from midnight to 6 a.m. Strip clubs with alcohol permits could stay open later, but “sexually oriented entertainment activity” would have to stop by midnight.
The measure also would prohibit nude or semi-nude dancers from being within 6 feet of patrons, which would effectively ban lap-dancing – the bread and butter for many dancers.
Proponents say the law would help protect citizens from pornography.
“If we can change the constitution to protect marriage, why can’t we pass a law?” asks Phil Buress, [pictured] president of Citizens for Community Values.
But opponents call the group’s plan nothing more than a thinly-veiled attempt to restrict the rights of Americans.
“How can you tell an 18-year-old man fighting in Iraq – willing to die for our country – that he can’t look at a naked breast after midnight?” wonders Bill Martin, a disabled veteran and ordained minister who owns Just Teazin.
“We’re all just here to work,” said a married 25-year-old Ashtabula woman who dances at the bar using the name Arianna. “It’s hard. Gas prices are going up. Everything’s going up.”
Arianna adds that she worries what would happen to her 4-year-old son if the proposal became law.
“If they closed at midnight and did the 6-foot rule, we’d all be homeless,” she said. “No one’s gonna pay us $10 or $20 to stand 6 feet away from them. They’d pretty much shut us down.”
That’s exactly what many Christians are hoping for, according to Bernie O’Leary, an 82-year-old Painesville man who has spent nearly every Monday evening for the past nine years protesting two Painesville Township adult bookstores.”Some people swear at us,” O’Leary says. “They do it because they feel guilty. They know that it’s wrong. Some give us the thumbs up that we’re OK.”
O’Leary, a member of St. Mary Catholic Church in Painesville, first began making his public stand for right and wrong in front of Route 20 Video and News and Painesville Books and News in May 1997.
Back then, it was common for 100 people from 28 houses of worship led by Shiloh Christian Church in Leroy Township to join the protests six days a week. Now, it’s just him and a handful of others standing outside the Mentor Avenue businesses, but O’Leary said that won’t deter him from his fight.
“We’re gonna keep picketing,” he said.
“One thing that bothers me is they’re right across the street from the fairgrounds. We just want them to know that we still don’t want ’em.”
O’Leary said he believes in the CCV’s cause so much that he has signed up to circulate its petitions in Lake County and sends the group money whenever he is able.
“Maybe they can figure out a way to shut them down,” he said. “Anything to get them so they wouldn’t be open so much.”
Employees at Route 20 Video and News and Painesville Books and News declined comment.
Meanwhile, many area communities are taking their own proactive approaches to regulating such businesses or limiting where they can operate.
After Chardon Village Council adopted a zoning ordinance in 1998 that restricts sexually oriented businesses from locating closer than 1,000 feet from schools, churches and parks and 300 feet from residences, several other area communities followed suit.
Other cities have been successful in shutting down existing businesses.
In 2003, Eastlake Police boarded up the back room of Vine Street News adult bookstore after an investigation showed illicit sexual activity had been going on inside the store’s video booths and outside in the parking lot.
A judge eventually ordered the entire operation closed down.
In 2004, Mentor officials enacted a new law to keep “massage establishments” that cross legal lines from setting up shop.
That law was prompted after Happiness Spa on Mentor Avenue was raided by city and federal agents and shut down after it was determined some masseuses were prostituting themselves to customers.
Unlike the gay-marriage issue, a constitutional amendment that was overwhelmingly approved by voters statewide, the new proposal is an initiated statute in which supporters gather 1,000 signatures of registered voters to submit the language.
The Community Defense Act hit a snag after the CCV submitted proposed language to Attorney General Jim Petro that was rejected July 17 because it did not contain a statement saying that violating the law would be a first-degree misdemeanor.
However, substitute language already has been submitted to the attorney general’s office, which must still rule on its validity, said Kim Norris, a Petro spokeswoman.
The group’s goal is for the act to be passed by the General Assembly or approved by voters in November 2007.If voters approve it, the law would become effective 30 days after the election.
“It’s insane to watch the church try and destroy the First Amendment,” said Just Teazin’s Martin. “It’s crazy how our government is going right now. What cracks me up is if Michelangelo was alive today and did the statue David, would that be called pornography? The church thinks their morals are stronger than the First Amendment. The ironic thing is the people who are trying to regulate it aren’t participants of the industry.”