ST.PAUL, MINN—Minnesota Sen. Tarryl Clark (D-St. Cloud) has introduced a bill to prevent state employees from spending state funds at hotels or meeting rooms in the state that offer guests adult videos that are deemed too violent. The language of the legislation, which was introduced in February, is somewhat vague on what constitutes restricted content, however.
“State employees, constitutional officers, and members of the legislature may not use public funds to pay for the cost of lodging, training, meeting, or any other use of a facility that makes pornographic images or performances available to its patrons,” reads S.F. No. 2861. “This section does not apply when a compliant facility is not reasonably available and a written explanation of that circumstance is maintained with the record of payment. For the purposes of this section, ‘pornographic image or performance’ means a sexually explicit image or performance that objectifies or exploits its subjects by eroticizing domination, degradation, or violence.”
The state’s Department of Administration would maintain a directory of approved facilities to help employees plan travel. If passed, the law would go into effect July 1, 2010.
The bill does not determine exactly how films will be categorized, or by whom, or whether funds will be set aside to hire people to screen each adult video available in hotels throughout the state. (AVN can help with that!) Because one woman’s degradation is another’s turn-on, it also seems as if the law would need to take into account the subjective nature of sexuality if it has any chance of success.
Of course, if domination is off the table, the law could result in a severe spike in divorces, since most married couples require erotic domination on the side to stay married. But the senator works in politics and should know this better than anyone.
It also remains to be seen whether the hotels on the sanctioned list even want to be included on it, especially if their competitors not on the list—you know, the ones with the good porn—are suddenly filled to capacity.
