They've tried and failed for years to pass bills barring nude dancing in this state. Now, though, West Virginia State senators think they have the key to bearing the nude dancers - a proposal to force strip club owners to buy expensive "exotic entertainment" licenses for a limited time only.
The state Senate Judiciary Committee passed the bill unanimously Feb. 15, says the Charleston Daily Mail, which the paper says encourages predictions that the bill would do away with strip clubs in due course. It would make exotic entertainment licenses necessary to run a club or business with any topless or bottomless nudity, the paper continues.
These licenses, according to the bill, would cost $3,000. And no more licenses would be granted after this year - one could be reissued but, once expired or revoked, it would be lost permanently.
One state Senator, Republican Frank Deem, wants the bill to be amended to include adult bookstores. "These . . . I don't know what you'd call them, pornographic truck stops -- it's just like nude dancing," Deem tells the Mail. "They're just as bad, morally, or even worse."
