Act Now to Stop Senate Bill 16

(Scroll down for update.)

If you live in Ohio, please contact your state representative today and tell him or her to vote NO on Senate Bill 16. It's not just bad for strip clubs; it's bad for all Ohioans. The Ohio General Assembly makes it easy to find your representative's contact information here.

On Tuesday, the Ohio Senate approved Senate Bill 16, which would place new restrictions on strip clubs and other adult entertainment establishments. Aaron Marshall of the Plain Dealer reports:

A bill that would effectively end the strip club world as we know it in Ohio passed the Senate Tuesday afternoon in a 24-8 vote.

Senate Bill 16 was proposed by an initiative petition filed by the Citizens for Community Values, a Cincinnati-area group that successfully pushed the gay marriage ban in Ohio. The bill was approved 7-1 Tuesday morning by the Senate's State and Local Government Committee.

The bill now moves to the House of Representatives. Every Ohioan, even those of us who aren't strip club patrons, should oppose this bill. Here are some points to consider:

• The organization pushing S.B. 16 is led by self-proclaimed former porn addict Phil Burress. I guess Mr. Burress has trouble conducting himself responsibly when it comes to sexual matters, and so he figures the rest of us do too. As Aleister Crowley said, "The Prohibitionist must always be a person of no moral character; for he cannot even conceive of the possibility of a man capable of resisting temptation."
• The adult entertainment industry generates $250 million per year in Ohio, according to Angelina Spencer, who testified in committee against Senate Bill 16. If this economic activity is eliminated, state and local governments will lose tax revenue, and will probably have to raise your taxes to make up the shortfall. If S.B. 16 becomes law, hold onto your wallet!
• Ms. Spencer also stated that adult entertainment employs 10,000 people in Ohio. The last time I checked, Ohio didn't have 10,000 extra jobs waiting to be filled. More excerpts from Ms. Spencer's testimony can be found at the Progress Ohio blog.
• At Writes Like She Talks, Jill Miller Zimon attacks S.B. 16 on local home-rule grounds. Ms. Zimon points out that the General Assembly just gave townships the power to regulate strip clubs last August, and now is poised to take that power away by setting a statewide standard.
• If S.B. 16 becomes law, an exotic dancer who gets within 6 feet of a customer would be committing a first-degree misdemeanor. Some other first-degree misdemeanors in Ohio are assault, theft, domestic violence, aggravated menacing, and negligent homicide. It's more than a little ridiculous to put a stripper getting too close to a customer in the same league with such fairly serious crimes.
• S.B. 16 would be futile. Prostitution is illegal in Ohio, but you wouldn't know it by looking at the advertisements in the back pages of the Scene, the Free Times, or other alternative weeklies. If police can't enforce laws against prostitution, what makes anyone think they'll be able to enforce S.B. 16?
• S.B. 16 won't keep Ohioans from attending strip clubs. Ohio strip club customers would just go out of state, just as Ohio casino customers currently do. No part of Ohio is more than half a day's drive away from Canada, which offers not only full-contact exotic dancing (or so I've heard), but also legal prostitution.
• And speaking of Canada, take a look at these statistics from the Public Health Agency of Canada and compare them to these statistics from the U.S. Centers for Disease Control. Canada's rates of most of the sexually transmitted diseases that both agencies report are substantially lower than those in the United States. Additionally, Canada has a lower abortion rate than the United States, according to the Alan Guttmacher Institute. While correlation doesn't necessarily imply causation, it would seem that Canada's tolerant attitude toward sex work isn't causing too much harm to the health or morals of Canadians.
• Finally, and probably most importantly, if you don't like strip clubs, you don't have to go to them. Consenting adults should be free to choose whether and under what conditions they operate, patronize, or work in strip clubs. The State of Ohio has no business making that choice for its citizens.

If you live in Ohio, please contact your state representative today and tell him or her to vote NO on Senate Bill 16. It's not just bad for strip clubs; it's bad for all Ohioans. The Ohio General Assembly makes it easy to find your representative's contact information here.

UPDATE: Daniel Jack Williamson makes a great point in the comments section on this post at Writes Like She Talks. Mr. Williamson points out how S.B. 16 might actually increase prostitution. As Mr. Williamson states, "Those that support this bill haven't understood that more "restrictive" does not equal more effective." If you're on the fence on this, please read Mr. Williamson's entire comment.