Move over, Mississippi - now, a proposed law in Arizona would make it a crime for a man to have an erection in a bar. We'd still like to know whether - if this proposal becomes the law of the state - losing his erection between the bar where he's busted and the cop shop where he's booked could get him a charge of concealing or destroying the evidence.
APBNews reports an amendment to a bill supported by some state lawmakers would forbid "male genitals to display themselves in 'a discernibly turgid state, even if completely and opaquely covered'." The amendment was added to one of two omnibus liquor bills aimed at topless bars.
Lawmakers who back the bills say they'll help eliminate drug dealing and prostitution in strip clubs by putting more distance between strippers and customers. The bills would mandate customers staying at arm's length from dancers by keeping stages a certain height and distance from tables, and also would bar clients from putting tips in G-strings.
"Part of the problem with the liquor department was that their agents felt that when these girls -- or boys, whatever -- would dance real close to the customer, they could get hands together and whisper into their ears to sell drugs or make dates for later," Rep. Dan Schottel, R-Tucson, tells APBNews.
The bills have lost momentum, though, APBNews continues, because bar owners and some lawmakers have called the anti-erection proposal ludicrous and absurd. "It's ridiculous. It's an erection prohibition in a bar, and it's any bar," says Rep. Steve May, R-Phoenix, who has been gathering opposition. "A patron who is aroused, even though he is fully clothed, is guilty of a Class 1 misdemeanor."
Some, APBNews says, don't even know what "a turgid state" actually means, never mind how to enforce a law against it.
"I'd like to know how they are going to come into a club or anywhere and find out if a guy is sexually aroused," Steve Stavroplos, general manager of a downtown Phoenix strip club, Jungle Cabaret, tells APBNews. "What officer is going to get that duty? Does he go in and say, 'Everybody's got to drop pants' so he can check?"
Even Schottel himself, who sponsored the bill, isn't sure. "That [arousal] could happen in most any place, but I think that's the way people are interpreting it -- that the guy should not be aroused," he tells APBNews. "I guess that would require some court interpretations."
