A recent story reported that two proposals to limit sexually oriented businesses in the Northwest’s Yellowstone County will go before voters in June, the first being an obscenity ordinance which proponents believe would ban hard-core adult entertainment, but which actually merely outlines the Miller test for obscenity, with a few questionable additions.
Unclear on the concept, the story reported that proponents claim, “The law, if passed, would work hand in hand with the sexually oriented business law by making it illegal for adult bookstores to sell the obscene or hardcore pornography that they sell now. If this law passes the adult bookstores would only be allowed to sell softcore pornography similar to what is sold in the Town Pump stations."
The other proposal, reported Dallas Erickson for the Montana News Association to go to the voters involves amendments to county zoning regulations which would create new regulations for sexually oriented businesses, including exotic dance clubs.
The conservative group Citizens Against Sex Exploitation (CASE) initiated both proposals in the face of longstanding resistance to the ordinances on the part of the Yellowstone County Commissioners, who fear expensive legal challenges and the reactions of many Montanans who simply don’t see a problem.
"I find it “obscene” that even though Mayor Tussing, our past Chief of Police, has testified that the erotic stores, gentlemen's clubs and massage parlors do not create policing problems and the city county planning department recommended not going forth with this ordinance, you [CASE] still persist with this," Terry Zee Lee of Billings told the Montana News Association.
Portions of this courtesy of the Free Speech X-Press, the weekly newsletter of the Free Speech Coalition. More info at www.freespeechcoalition.com.
