In the wake of attorney Jeffrey Douglas' "replacement," Mike Ross has thrown his hat in the ring for the executive directorship of the Free Speech Coalition.
Douglas has this to say: "We're going to be replacing me, that's all. As uncontroversial and as amiable as it can be, I am not able to do what the organization needs and deserves. I'm trying desperately to maintain a private practice, and there's so many hours in the week. There are skills that I don't have that the organization needs in terms of grant writing, fund raising and recruiting. We would be far better served if we had someone who had experience in non-profit
Ross in an official communiqué has suggested to the Free Speech Coalition that the AEIEF and the FSC merge all of which would include revamping the board's operations and instituting new position and policy statements. Ross' suggestion is that he be named so that he could oversee these changes. Ross said that he was looking forward to working with the industry's new leadership to help fight censorship while promoting the industry economically.
Ross: "It is my hope that Adult Entertainment Industry Education Fund [AEIEF] and the Free Speech Coalition [FSC] should work together. The AEIEF is the only registered adult political action committee in the country. The AEIEF is made of people in the industry and deals with adult issues. Here's the tough part. In the last couple of years we've seen the ups and downs. I have tried to do as many things as I can humanly do to help educate, organize and push Free Speech in the right direction.
"I publish a newsletter that talks about all the bills that are going on in the legislature. They - Free Speech, Kat Sunlove, Jeffrey Douglas - don't even show up for the bills they oppose."
[The bill, according to Ross, was AB 749. The bill increases penalties for selling alcohol to minors; the second aspect requires retailers licensed by the ABC to arrange video recordings with boxcovers depicting harmful matter as defined in penal code section 313 to place a cover over the video boxcover. "This bill is designed for liquor stores who sell adult tapes," says Ross. This bill has a socially responsible position. We have to be in the position of living with our neighbors. 17 people were in town, nobody was there."]
Kat Sunlove says this: "That bill was fixed. I was in touch with the ACLU lobbyist Monday night, and he said that bill was fixed. I went to the hearings Tuesday morning. I saw the ACLU lobbyist there and asked him again if it was fixed. He said yes. So I left to continue lobbying with the 30 people that were there who needed my leadership."
Ross: "They opposed a bill that was up yesterday. They didn't show up for the opposition, and they were all in the capital. What I want to do is organize the industry, fight back, be a team. Jeffrey Douglas got in my way. There's a management change going on in Free Speech. I think I have a lot to contribute. I still have support on the board. People read my newsletter, they know the information, I'm respected in the capital, I'm doing this around the country. There's nobody who's more qualified to help organize, unite and lead the future of this industry into the next generation. I have positive, forward-thinking ideas. The industry for the last 20 years has been reacting to everything under the sun. It's time to get pro-active. The reason that people are coming to me is because they see I get there before the problem happens.
"I'm a person who likes to be out there on the cutting edge of societal evolution. The Rush Limbaugh statement. I'm not conservative like him, but I believe the industry has a problem. That problem is professional representation. Professional representation has not been there. Have you seen the recent issue of The Free Thinker? You're a member. If I were you, I'd be embarrassed. I've heard this from club members. They [The Free Speaker] ran a negative story on what John Weston and I are trying to do. All we're trying to do is organize [club owners].
[Kat Sunlove is quoted as saying, in her opinion, Ross and Weston's "approach is wrong and dangerous." "To make a long story short," Sunlove writes, "they [Weston and Ross] promoted the idea that the cabaret segment of our industry is better than the rest of the industry, is contaminated by the rest of the industry, and thus, should separate itself from the rest of the industry. This is a concept that both frightens and saddens me."]
Ross: "Nobody's trying to stop people from joining Free Speech, all I'm doing is what America provides - and that is competition. They published an article about how bad it was that John and I wanted to organize. Then they published an article by Greg Zeboray? [Titled: "Wake Up Time"] He's not even the insurance commissioner anymore. That's the problem Free Speech continually has.
"I can raise money, I can organize, I can professionally represent. I get calls from [adult] companies all the time. There are a lot of companies who have not joined Free Speech. Who do you think they're calling when there's problems? They call a John Weston, a Roger Jon Diamond, or a Mike Ross. Nobody on the board of Free Speech has given me any credit. I got kicked in the nuts and got thrown out. Obviously my heart is committed to what's going on, and I feel I got the shaft.
"You know what's going on with my stuff at AVN? Yes, you can be in. No, you can't. One month they write a story about me. One month I'm the worst thing in the world. The last article that Mark Kernes wrote about the fund-raiser we did in La Mirada, I think that that was the best overall article for one reason - every time we're counted out and not considered, and they think we're history - we come back and do something else. We continually do. We're filling the void that these companies are telling us exist.
"In Indiana, my newsletter came out with stories about what was going on in Indiana. AVN never published an update as to what was going on in Indiana.
[There were two bills in Indiana, one bill would have closed down topless places, the other would have outlawed obscene products brought into the state.]
"We put out lobbying efforts and killed the bill," Ross said. "It was made to look like we were lying, that there was nothing going on in Indiana. Other clubs, in fact, sent me there to kill the bill."
They never told anybody. Kat Sunlove's newsletter never told anybody. Why? Does she not have the chutzpah to say Mike Ross is doing a good job here, let's pat him on the back? No, she censored me."
To those charges, Sunlove has this to say: "Mike does not communicate, to me, what he has done. He never sends me his information, therefore I have no way to know it. It didn't make the news in Indiana because I do have a news tracking service. It didn't show it there. Excuse me if I'm not aware of his little incidental bullshit."
How can you guys run an organization that's pro-active and positive when you're internally censoring somebody who works for Free Speech at a dollar a month. The reality is that I have very good intentions. I see this industry as needing leadership, not fighting. We were discussing merging and being friends and working together.
"Late last year the city of Sacramento was trying to put together a new ordinance on dealing with adult businesses. Kat Sunlove lives in town. She never once participated in any the hearings. I produced a secondary effects report. AVN never wrote about it. Not the greatest, but I did it. Kat Sunlove never participated in the process. I sent a letter to Russell and Gloria. I said I recognized that this was a project bigger than me. I can't do it by myself. A man's got to know his limitations. The reality was that it was beyond me. Kat would never call me and talk to me. The upshot was that Kat Sunlove could not find a copy of the proposed ordinance. She told the Free Speech board it didn't exist. Kat Sunlove is rewriting history. That's what's happening. Correct information from the capital is not filtering down to the board. They're being lied to and not being told the truth.
Sunlove responds: "There have been no hearings, and he [Ross] does not know what level of participation I have in these things unless he has a wiretap on my phone. I was, in fact, in touch with the city attorney's office repeatedly who kept informing me that the hearing was being put over, that their wasn't a hearing yet, and to stay in touch. Why does Mike worry so much about what I'm doing? Do your job Mike Ross."
"Everything I've shown this industry continually comes out. Don't you have to give a guy credit for publishing a newsletter for three years and providing all this information to the community? This takes time, energy and money, but no one on Free Speech has ever said I do a good job with this. They turn around and copy me. Now Kat Sunlove has a newsletter."
[Ross also raises issues about the Saturday night fund-raiser that have to be addressed at another time because of time constraints in doing this posting.]
Ross: "I want to say this on the record. Luke [Ford] has been given a lot of shots the nuts. There's a lot of times where he deserves them, but I spent four days with the guy. Whether you like him personally or not, is not the story. A lot of things he does are similar in nature to the press people who I work with on a day-in, day-out basis. Why does everybody pick on him? Because he publishes actresses' names?
Gene Ross: "Ford has publicly stated that he doesn't care two wits about the adult industry which kind of makes your pro-active stance totally contradictory to the friendship you acknowledge with him. What's with you and Luke Ford?"
Ford: "From a professional standpoint, you have to stand one-step back. From a professional standpoint, I like what Luke's doing. He puts his balls on the line. Luke is doing the same thing as I am as the Luke Ford's of the 21st century - online printing, using the Internet, being hi-tech. He should be patted on the back for that. You and Luke have changed the nature of reporting in this industry. AVN was it. A two month lag ain't going to work. We need a faster mechanism. You, I and him are the ones leading this industry into the 21st century. We're providing today's industry, and we all have our specialty and that's the key to the next millennium - the control, use and delivery of information. Some of the stuff Luke does, I don't like, but I can't control his website. It's free speech. Why can Free Speech say whatever it wants but nobody else can?
Nobody can claim that I don't support the industry. They might not like the way I go about it, but why is it the message I have is selling and the message Free Speech has, isn't? I want to bring that message to Free Speech. I want to be sure the small guys feel safe and the big guys feel safe. I don't care how much I get paid, but there's nobody more qualified to lead the Free Speech Coalition into the next generation than me."
Kat Sunlove said that both Ross and Luke Ford were hanging around her all day Tuesday. "Luke Ford witnessed two of the most incredibly positive interviews with legislators and staff that anybody could ever want to have, but I'm told that this stupid twit has, once again, put up all kinds of misinformation out there - total untrue stuff like this 749 bill. What is it? It's absurd. It's beyond belief. These two children [Mike Ross and Luke Ford] need to go back to their rooms and write 500 times, 'I will stop being a jealous little prick.' It's so annoying when you know the truth. I'm there. I'm there with Luke Ford. Mike Ross is skulking about us all day long. I don't mind, but I know what he's doing. He's trying to find something that he can attack. Boy, some friend of the industry, I'll tell you."
"Let's clear up one accuracy from Luke Ford's site," said FSC president Gloria Leonard. "[Jeffrey] Douglas' funding has not been withdrawn. Jeffrey's practice has INCREASED substantially over the last year. He has been telling us for many months that he didn't think he could maintain his practice and his job."
Re: Ross' application, Leonard said the board would take it under advisement at its next meeting.
Factoids Luke Ford might have bothered to check [as submitted by Mark Kernes]
\nZero clubs participated in the 20 person event held on Tuesday .... \n Pink Poodle owner Pete Kuzinich, an active participant in the lobbying activities up until Tuesday morning, left because he was the transportation for Madison, a dancer at his club who apparently became upset because she felt that a question she had posed regarding dance clubs was not properly addressed.
\nSunday Night's "Mixer" with the public attracted less than 25 people ... \n What "mixer"? The schedule for Sunday night included a dinner for the lobbying group, followed by a workshop on adult industry political activities. If he's talking about Saturday night, with the girls dancing at The Gold Room, the club was packed - standing room only - before the evening was out. The club, FSC and the dancers all made reasonable money on the gig.
\nThe one bill that the FSC opposed that was up when they were here, they failed to testify because Kat was "blowing her horn with the media" while we testified on the bill .. \n Sunlove answers that one in her above statements
\nThere were over a dozen bills that the FSC failed to take a position on, either support or oppose ... \n Just because Ross thinks FSC should take a position on the bill doesn't mean the FSC thinks so. With Ross carping on such bills as 911 phone calls, prescriptions, "safe water" and enterprise zones, his judgment as to what FSC should take positions on is highly suspect.
\nSunlove and FSC are opposed to a bill that we are sponsoring, yet have not met with the legislator (until today), did not know that the bill was being amended and taught a class telling everyone that it was a bad industry bill (yet didn't have the facts) ..." \n As of Tuesday morning, the bill - unnamed and unnumbered, but probably AB 1446 - had not been amended, as per the capitol's Bill Office, and it's doubtful that it could be amended to the point that it would be acceptable to any free speech advocate. That bill, which would prohibit employers from requiring employees to strip or in any way disrobe as part of their employment duties, is opposed by everyone from OSHA to the firefighters union to those dealing with hazardous wastes... to the Free Speech Coalition.
Luke writes: Monday morning I drive in to the capitol with Mike Ross and his two assistants. We arrive at the north steps at 9:30. The FSC press conference is already under way. Three TV cameras and about five reporters stand around.
It was Tuesday.
\n Wired News had this to say about the Free Speech Coalition trip to Sacramento this week.
It wasn't exactly Mr. Smith Goes to Washington. More like Suzeee does Sacramento. Members of the Free Speech Coalition, a lobbying group that represents the adult entertainment industry, lined up Rockette-style on Tuesday to urge California state legislators to leave them alone. The group rallied at the capitol to crow about the industry's US $5.175 billion contribution to the state's economy last year. The figure, which represents sales and rentals of adult entertainment, got a significant boost from Internet sales of $875 million.
Noting that it took porn videos to push VCRs into American homes, lobbyists said the same phenomenon is now happening on the Net. "The popularity of Internet porn is a strong factor in pushing certain technologies to the edge, like streaming video," said activist Mark Kernes.
The rally was designed to attract attention for the coalition's primary goal, which is to avert potential censorship laws. Though no such legislation is pending now, the group pointed to a measure defeated in 1998 that would have targeted the adult industry for additional taxation.
"No one considers passing laws regulating the nuclear industry without consulting the nuclear industry first,"said the coalition's executive director, Jeffrey Douglas.
"We are here to protect our rights," Douglas said. "There is nothing shameful about sex -- or the people who have mastered the performance art of it." Internet porn stars Christi Lake and videostar Shayla LaVeaux both beamed high-voltage smiles and flashed pretty ankles.
"Most importantly, we are an industry with tremendous economic impact," said ex-porn star-cum-activist Gloria Leonard.
The $5.175 billion figure is a number to be reckoned with and speaks for a voting force to be reckoned with, said Douglas. "We want to get out the vote. We are even thinking of setting up a lobbyist in Washington." The coalition already has powerful friends -- like the American Civil Liberties Union -- who help to fight the adult entertainment industry's negative image, Douglas said.
And the Free Speech Coalition is doing its part by sending young women like Lake -- best known for her Fun Fuxx video series, in which she has sex with fans who write letters to her -- into the community. The group also presented California lawmakers with a white paper detailing the sex industry's concerns. An effort to dispel the industry's Boogie Nights reputation, the paper addresses such as HIV and substance abuse. And it demands better and safer conditions for its workers.
The coalition has authored proposed legislation, such as the "Traci Lords Act," which seeks to criminalize the act of underage performers who misrepresent themselves as adults in order to make adult videos. "We want to make it clear to lawmakers that, as an industry, we are now sophisticated and mature and they have to deal with us, especially in this era of term limits," Douglas said.
The following is the text of the industry white paper:
