DALLAS, Tex.—Last August, the Exxxotica Lifestyle Convention made its Texas debut at the Kay Bailey Hutchison Convention Center—and sure enough, the Usual Suspects were all bent out of shape about it.
The Dallas Women’s Foundation, for example, said that the expo would “feature numerous enterprises that contribute to the sex trade industry” and that sanctioning such events would undermine efforts to combat human trafficking—despite the fact that, of course, no reports of human trafficking having anything to do with the convention were ever filed.
Still, Roslyn Dawson Thompson, the foundation’s CEO, was upset that the convention would “glorify the sex trade,” and assured the public that, “Conventions like this are not beneficial.” (Actually, of course, the convention brought lots of visitors—and their cash—to the city.)
And now the controversy gets to begin all over again!
"On Wednesday the Dallas City Council ended its two-day retreat with a half-hour executive session concerning Exxxotica, where porn stars and dominatrixes peddled their scantily clad wares and mingled with daytrippers turning fifty shades of grey and bright red," reported Robert Wilonsky of the Dallas Morning News. "City attorneys were on hand for Wednesday’s private discussion with council members; so too were Dallas police officers.
"It’s unclear, for now, what the council discussed behind closed doors," the blog post continued. "But following the meeting, Dallas City Manager A.C. Gonzalez said 'there is the possibility of some action' at council next week concerning Exxxotica. 'And that’s all I can tell you.'"
Trouble is, of course, that the convention center is city-owned, and is therefore barred from discriminating against potential users based on the content of their intended speech, and the convention center's executive director Ron King said, following last year's show, "As far as people inside the show or city employees, we did not receive any complaints."
Exxxotica director J. Handy agreed: "Last year’s event was straight A's. The event, like the 27 others we’ve produced in the last 11 years, went off without a hitch. We were happy with the way the event happened, happy with the way the city handled it, happy with the building. Everybody was right on par with what we are: a professional company that does a legitimate business. And we look forward to getting the final approval documents so we can return."
Needless to say, the local religious crowd was somewhat less hospitable, with the Morning News publishing photos of skinheads wearing "Fear God" T-shirts, carrying Bibles and signs reading, "AIDS: Judgment or Cure?" and "You Deserve Rape." (Real classy, guys...)
The dates for the proposed Dallas show have not been released, and though Dallas Mayor Mike Rawlings, through a spokesman, answered the question, "Does the mayor want Exxxotica to return in 2016?" with a resounding, "No!", it appears that the city has no legal recourse to prevent another Exxxotica convention there, so we're guessing the announcement of the show's dates is probably only days away.
