After the entrepreneur responsible for bringing the first sex robot “brothel” to North America praised Donald Trump for helping to create a market for his business in the United States, the first major U.S. city targeted as the site of the first “brothel” to open south of the Canadian border changed its local laws to keep the sex business out.
Yuval Gavriel, the owner of KinkySDolls—which advertises itself as “The first SexDoll ‘rent before you buy’ Spa in North America—had targeted Houston, Texas, as the first location in the U.S. for his “spa,” telling the conservative Washington Examiner newspaper that the unregulated business environment pushed by Trump will allow him to open 10 sex robot locations in the next two years.
So far, his only North American “spa” is located in suburban Toronto, Canada. But Gavriel told the Examiner that he expects business in the U.S. to be even better.
"The States is a bigger market, and a healthier market, and God bless Trump," Gavriel said. “(My lawyer) went through all the laws and all of the regulations and currently there are no regulations for this kind of service.”
But what Gavriel and his lawyer did not count on, apparently, was new regulations suddenly appearing, specifically to stop his business. That is exactly what happened in Houston, Texas, on Wednesday, after Gavriel announced that he would open his first U.S. outlet there.
Following protests from residents, according to CNBC, the Houston city council passed a new ordinance that effectively bans sex between humans and artificial devices that look like humans.
The ordinance actually updates an existing city law that bars sexually oriented businesses from operating within 1,500 feet of a public park, but while the existing ordinance banned “arcade” devices—meaning devices used to view porn videos—the new ordinance also bans “anthropomorphic” devices, according to The Houston Chronicle.
Houston Mayor Sylvester Turner said the update was intended to close “loopholes to make the ordinance more current,” and was not “on any one business. It is on any businesses that fall within this category.”
Council member Greg Travis said that the updated ordinance was not intended to “legislate morality.”
“We don't care what people do in their bedrooms. If somebody wants to order these dolls and have them in their homes, it's weird, that's fine, they can do that,” Travis said, but he added that the KinkySdolls “spa” business “degrades our city.”
Gavriel has yet to comment publicly on the new Houston law, which appears to have stopped him from opening his sex robot brothel.
Photo by Ars Electronica / Flickr Creative Commons
