TOLEDO, Oh. - A May 21 editorial in the Toledo Blade called the state's look-but-don't-touch law — which was passed last week by the Ohio House on a 72-24 vote and now moves back to the Senate — "as pointless a piece of legislation as has come down the pike in quite a while."
"The fact that a ludicrous requirement that dancers and patrons keep six feet apart has been removed from the bill is scant improvement," the editorial stated, adding that "in all probability only a stroke of the veto pen by Gov. Ted Strickland can stop [the bill] from becoming law."
Drafted in response to pressure from the Cincinnati-based ultra-conservative group Citizens for Community Values, the new bill prohibits physical contact between dancers and patrons as well as nude or semi-nude performing between midnight and 6 a.m. It additionally requires that all clubs without liquor licenses close at midnight.
The Association of Club Executives (ACE) has rallied against the bill, calling it unconstitutional. The Blade editorial points out the bill as an example of state lawmakers pandering to conservative lobbyists by placing the regulation of strippers and strip clubs above more pressing issues of public education, the environment, taxation, and public health.
"Opposition to this bill does not equate to an endorsement of the adult entertainment industry," the editorial stated. "It is, instead, opposition to a measure that wastes lawmakers' time, that allows them to posture for a special-interest group, and demonstrate what little imagination they have for the issues that really matter to Ohioans."
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