BIRMINGHAM, AL – Under a settlement reached between the Alabama attorney general’s office and 18 adult clubs that filed suit against the state, dancers at clubs across the state are now using flesh-colored latex in order to comply with the state’s anti-nudity law, according reports in the Associated Press and local Alabama news media.Alabama’s statute regulating exotic dancing, considered to be among the strictest in the nation, states: “It shall be unlawful for any business establishment or any private club to show or allow to be shown for entertainment purposes the human male or female genitals, pubic area, or buttocks with less than a fully opaque covering, or the showing of the female breast with less than a fully opaque covering of any portion thereof below the top of the nipple, or the depiction of covered male genitals in a discernibly turgid state.”
A lawsuit filed by Charlie’s Club challenging the statute was joined by 17 other clubs. When the presiding judge, U.S. District Judge L. Scott Coogler, indicated that he would likely declare the law unconstitutional, the Alabama Attorney General’s office moved to compromise with the clubs.
“We had a choice between no regulation and some regulation,” said Keith Miller, Chief Deputy Attorney General, according to The Birmingham News. “Theoretically there could be totally nude dancing in every juke joint in the state.”
As the relevant statute does not define what types of “fully opaque covering” are or aren’t acceptable for compliance with the law, the latex compromise does conform to the law, technically.
Angelina Spencer, executive director of the National Association of Club Executives, said the settlement is similar to agreements and practices in other states where nude and topless dancing has become a contentious legal issue.
Spencer added that she wore latex coverings herself, back when she danced at a club in Ohio in the late 1980’s and early 1990’s.
“It hurts to take it off,” Spencer said, adding “You peel it off like a bandage; rip quickly.”
Given that the underlying justification for the ban on nude dancing relates to purported “negative secondary effects” of such dancing, one expert questioned how latex coverings can be considered a legitimate solution.
“Is latex that powerful?” asked Judith Hanna, a senior research scholar from the University of Maryland’s Department of Dance, who has been called as an expert witness on behalf of adult clubs in numerous lawsuits. “Does that mean that if you don’t have latex, you will have more crime and depressed property values?”
Hanna contends that the law itself serves no purpose, noting that in societies that are more tolerant of nudity, there is no evidence that the community is falling apart due to any associated negative secondary effects.
“All over Europe people go topless, and in theater and dance you have nudity,” Hanna said. In the U.S., however, there’s “an element of the Christian Right that is fearful of anything sexual,” Hanna added.
As noted by Deputy AG Miller, the settlement may not be the final word on nude or partially nude dancing in Alabama, as state lawmakers may choose to alter the law in an attempt to repair the constitutional problems identified by Judge Coogler.
“What comes next is for the Legislature to decide,” Miler said.
