Watching the coming presidential sweepstakes and possibly watching how adult entertainment presents itself were the main topics at a vibrant Free Speech Coalition seminar Tuesday, the first day of the East Coast Video Show.
FSC President Gloria Leonard also told the small but rapt seminar gathering that one of the coalition's prime goals is to start a research project aimed at refuting the so-called "harmful secondary effects" theory involving adult-oriented film, literature, Internet and other materials.
And Leonard also warned that the more extreme adult Web sites and materials proliferating today could end up doing more harm to the industry than people in and out of the business realize.
"More important than our board of directors and election," Leonard said, alluding to the recent four-member departures from the board, "obviously the election that will dictate the politics of our country for the years 2000-2004 matters."
She urged the membership to watch the presidential campaign closely, but she later agreed that merely because the Clinton White House has been lax in porn prosecutions doesn't necessarily mean Democrats will be any friendlier to privacy rights than Republicans.
Leonard also provoked some small discussion when she observed that a lot of adult Internet sites "are out of control," with a new generation unaware of previous struggles and victories assuming that just about anything goes and can be thrown "in your face style" without repercussions.
"Far be it for someone who supposedly works for the Free Speech Coalition to be talking about censoring," Leonard continued, "but I do think that there is a current generation of people…who somehow see themselves as having reinvented or discovered the adult world, and doesn't seem to understand or respect the fact that there is a history…by pushing certain envelopes and producing certain materials, they are drawing unnecessary attention to this industry, and there will always be guilt by association."
Not everyone sitting in on the seminar agreed all the way with that. Veteran adult producer Stephanie Martin, for one, said she would "not take one single step" backwards. Martin said concern over the more extreme adult Web sites and other products might have been a shade premature - for now.
"There should be no limit except for what is truly illegal," Martin said. "Other than that, if they push us one step back, they'll push us a hundred steps back. And as somebody in and out of the porn business, whenever they let me in and out…I don't think that we should back down…be careful when you hold that line that you don't censor yourself."
