Count on us to be advocates of lively debate on controversial subjects.
After all, it was Supreme Court Justice Louis Brandeis who said, in his concurring opinion in Whitney v California (1927), "Those who won our independence by revolution were not cowards. They did not fear political change. They did not exalt order at the cost of liberty. To courageous, self-reliant men, with confidence in the power of free and fearless reasoning applied through the processes of popular government, no danger flowing from speech can be deemed clear and present, unless the incidence of the evil apprehended is so imminent that it may befall before there is opportunity for full discussion. If there be time to expose through discussion the falsehood and fallacies, to avert the evil by the processes of education, the remedy to be applied is more speech, not enforced silence."
Hence, we have no problem with attorney Martin Mawyer's stopgaydays.com Web site, part of his Christian Action Network, which seeks to prevent Orlando, Florida-based Disney World from holding its annual "Gay Days," (http://www.gaydays.com) where gays from around the world can come out of the closet and perhaps share a dream during the daily "Share A Dream Come True Parade." This year's Gay Days will be held May 30 to June 4, with events in Disney World itself planned for the last three days ... so the fundamentalists are running critically short of time to prevent this travesty of fun from occurring.
And just in case anyone is unaware of what sinful activities take place during Gay Days, stopgaydays.com has provided a helpful photo gallery at http://www.stopgaydays.com/photo_gallery.htm of some of the more intimate goings-on that allegedly have occurred during previous Gay Days.
But, sadly, there may be a fly in the ointment, which can be found here http://www.stopgaydays.com/MagicJourneys4744.jpg.
Yes, that's right; it's a photo of one guy clearly sucking off another one, and as anyone who's familiar with the regulations under 18 U.S.C. §2257 – the federal recordkeeping and labeling law – knows, even though actual oral penetration isn't visible in the photo, there seems to be little doubt that fellatio was being performed – and that's where Mr. Mawyer's problem arises.
Y'see, Sec. 75.2(a) of the most recent revision of the regulations under §2257 requires that, "Any producer of any book, magazine, periodical, film, videotape, digitally- or computer-manipulated image, digital image, picture, or other matter that contains a depiction of an actual human being engaged in actual sexually explicit conduct that is produced in whole or in part with materials that have been mailed or shipped in interstate or foreign commerce, or is shipped or transported or is intended for shipment or transportation in interstate or foreign commerce and that contains one or more visual depictions of an actual human being engaged in actual sexually explicit conduct made after July 3, 1995 shall, for each performer portrayed in such visual depiction, create and maintain records containing the following:
"(1) The legal name and date of birth of each performer, obtained by the producer's examination of a picture identification card. For any performer portrayed in such a depiction made after July 3, 1995, the records shall also include a legible copy of the identification document examined and, if that document does not contain a recent and recognizable picture of the performer, a legible copy of a picture identification card. For any performer portrayed in such a depiction after June 23, 2005, the records shall include,
"(i) A copy of the depiction, and
"(ii) Where the depiction is published on an Internet computer site or service, a copy of any URL associated with the depiction or, if no URL is associated with the depiction, another uniquely identifying reference associated with the location of the depiction on the Internet."
The producer of such material is also required to keep records of all the aliases and stage names used by those appearing in the material, and to index such records in certain ways.
To fail to obtain such identification documents and to index them properly is a federal felony, punishable by up to five years in prison for each offense.
Of course, if Mr. Mawyer and/or his group were a member of the Free Speech Coalition, and if he didn't take the picture himself, he might be exempt from the recordkeeping requirements as a "secondary producer," but we're guessing that a check of the FSC membership list would probably not disclose either name on it. Therefore, Mr. Mawyer would be subject to the full requirements of the regulations.
And of course, as an attorney, Mr. Mawyer would be particularly aware that "ignorance of the law is no excuse" – so we can only hope that he'll provide AVN with his address once he gets settled into his cell so members of the adult industry can write to cheer him up.
