THE FAMILY FOUNDATION

The grassroots movement to regulate sexually oriented businesses (SOB’s) in Kentucky over the past 14 months has created a positive stir in legislative and judicial circles across the state. Since December of 2003, 30 counties have passed comprehensive ordinances, which restrict sexually oriented businesses. Several cities, including Cadiz, Glasgow and Mayfield, have followed the counties’ lead and have passed similar laws. It is anticipated in 2005 that dozens of other municipalities and counties will consider such laws, which ban total nudity and public sexual activity in strip clubs.

SOB cases have filled court dockets across the state as well. Metro Louisville won a major victory on Dec. 14, 2004 when Jefferson Circuit Judge Stephen Ryan upheld the bulk of Louisville’s restrictive law. Strip club owners appealed the ruling to the Kentucky Court of Appeals but decency advocates are optimistic they’ll win. The same court upheld a similar law on Aug. 6 of last year when McCracken County’s ordinance was found to be constitutional. However, the ordinance, which served as a model for many other Western Kentucky counties, is still under review by a lower court because the Court of Appeals questioned some of McCracken County’s findings – another legal technicality that decency advocates expect to win. Court battles continue in Knox, Fayette and Hart counties.

Political observers wonder if the momentum for decency at the local level will carry over into the state legislature’s 2005 session via passage of The Public Decency Act (House Bill 306) – a measure that passed the House unanimously in 1998 but stalled in the Senate. The bill has since been repeatedly proposed since 1998 and has enjoyed general support from both liberals and conservatives. HB 306, sponsored by James Carr (D-Hopkinsville) and Ruth Ann Palumbo (D-Lexington), would ban total nudity in strip bars. If it passes, local ordinances would still be needed to fully regulate the businesses. Rep. Carr has criticized the negative effects associated with SOB’s and said it’s time for his party to fight for family values.

HB 306 is modeled after the Indiana state law that was upheld by the U.S. Supreme Court in the landmark Barnes v Glen Theatre, Inc. in 1991. Tennessee passed a similar law shortly after that decision.

Critics say that Kentucky’s lack of regulations coupled with strong laws in adjoining states has resulted in a flood of SOB’s opening up over the past 14 months. Graves, Hart, Henderson, Knox, and Muhlenberg counties were recently invaded by SOB’s. All were vulnerable because a statewide law was absent and only four of the five counties had local laws to protect them.

High profile SOB’s like Larry Flynt’s Hustler Hollywood barged into Lexington last summer. Others have proliferated more subtly like in Louisville, which experienced a fourfold increase in strip bars from January 2003 to May 2004. Prior to passage of the ordinance there were an estimated 175 sexually oriented businesses operating in Jefferson County.

According to legal experts, small towns and cities are at a disadvantage when attempting to regulate SOB’s at the local level. The SOB, intent on doing business, oftentimes responds by challenging the ordinance in court with a high-paid, out-of-town attorney who specializes in First Amendment issues. Usually, the city does not have the attorneys, funds or expertise to win.

Should HB 306 pass, it could lead to the closure of strip bars which make a great deal of money by strippers performing sexual acts on patrons. It would also blanket the state with a uniform law for all communities and protect each from being dominated by the sex industry.
Key Family Foundation Contacts: Kent Ostrander , Executive Director Martin Cothran , Senior Associate Policy Analyst

The grassroots movement to regulate sexually oriented businesses (SOB’s) in Kentucky over the past 14 months has created a positive stir in legislative and judicial circles across the state. Since December of 2003, 30 counties have passed comprehensive ordinances, which restrict sexually oriented businesses. Several cities, including Cadiz, Glasgow and Mayfield, have followed the counties’ lead and have passed similar laws. It is anticipated in 2005 that dozens of other municipalities and counties will consider such laws, which ban total nudity and public sexual activity in strip clubs.

SOB cases have filled court dockets across the state as well. Metro Louisville won a major victory on Dec. 14, 2004 when Jefferson Circuit Judge Stephen Ryan upheld the bulk of Louisville’s restrictive law. Strip club owners appealed the ruling to the Kentucky Court of Appeals but decency advocates are optimistic they’ll win. The same court upheld a similar law on Aug. 6 of last year when McCracken County’s ordinance was found to be constitutional. However, the ordinance, which served as a model for many other Western Kentucky counties, is still under review by a lower court because the Court of Appeals questioned some of McCracken County’s findings – another legal technicality that decency advocates expect to win. Court battles continue in Knox, Fayette and Hart counties.

Political observers wonder if the momentum for decency at the local level will carry over into the state legislature’s 2005 session via passage of The Public Decency Act (House Bill 306) – a measure that passed the House unanimously in 1998 but stalled in the Senate. The bill has since been repeatedly proposed since 1998 and has enjoyed general support from both liberals and conservatives. HB 306, sponsored by James Carr (D-Hopkinsville) and Ruth Ann Palumbo (D-Lexington), would ban total nudity in strip bars. If it passes, local ordinances would still be needed to fully regulate the businesses. Rep. Carr has criticized the negative effects associated with SOB’s and said it’s time for his party to fight for family values.

HB 306 is modeled after the Indiana state law that was upheld by the U.S. Supreme Court in the landmark Barnes v Glen Theatre, Inc. in 1991. Tennessee passed a similar law shortly after that decision.

Critics say that Kentucky’s lack of regulations coupled with strong laws in adjoining states has resulted in a flood of SOB’s opening up over the past 14 months. Graves, Hart, Henderson, Knox, and Muhlenberg counties were recently invaded by SOB’s. All were vulnerable because a statewide law was absent and only four of the five counties had local laws to protect them.

High profile SOB’s like Larry Flynt’s Hustler Hollywood barged into Lexington last summer. Others have proliferated more subtly like in Louisville, which experienced a fourfold increase in strip bars from January 2003 to May 2004. Prior to passage of the ordinance there were an estimated 175 sexually oriented businesses operating in Jefferson County.

According to legal experts, small towns and cities are at a disadvantage when attempting to regulate SOB’s at the local level. The SOB, intent on doing business, oftentimes responds by challenging the ordinance in court with a high-paid, out-of-town attorney who specializes in First Amendment issues. Usually, the city does not have the attorneys, funds or expertise to win.

Should HB 306 pass, it could lead to the closure of strip bars which make a great deal of money by strippers performing sexual acts on patrons. It would also blanket the state with a uniform law for all communities and protect each from being dominated by the sex industry.