TOPEKA, KS – Phil Cosby, an Abilene, Kansas-based activist has taken his anti-pornography efforts to the State House of Representatives, calling for changes to the state’s obscenity statute. Cosby says alterations to the statute’s language are necessary in order to fix flaws which Cosby asserts are preventing effective obscenity prosecutions.Cosby told the House Federal and State Affairs Committee that changing the statute would allow communities to prosecute sex shops peddling products that violate “community standards.”
Such prosecutions are not feasible under the current law, Cosby claims. The courts have ruled that an aspect of the state’s obscenity statute is unconstitutional because it effectively outlaws “legitimate” sexual materials in addition to obscene matter.
“Every community should be able to have its day in court,” said Cosby, who protested a 15-year hiatus in prosecuting alleged obscenity violations in Kansas.
Prosecutions have not been undertaken in Abilene, Cosby asserts, because of a ruling last year in which a judge threw out obscenity charges brought by a grand jury against the Lion’s Den Adult Superstore.
Cosby and a community group called “Citizens for Strengthening Community Virtues” fought a two-year battle against Lion’s Den, including a petition drive that resulted in the impaneling of the grand jury.
The judge, according to Cosby, dismissed the charges against the store because of a 1990 Kansas Supreme Court decision that language prohibiting materials with a “sexually provocative aspect” was too broad.
Cosby, along with Topeka attorney Austin Vincent, have proposed deleting those words from the state’s obscenity law, and instead, including language that allows prosecutors to charge sex shops with selling products that are “unwholesome” based on the community’s standards.
“This is the quickest answer to the problem,” Vincent said.
Some Kansas lawmakers have expressed doubt that the proposed changes will actually open the door for more obscenity prosecutions, because the changes might not solve the underlying problems with the law’s constitutionality.
“My concern is whether this is going to do what you want it to do,” said Republican Rep. Barbara Craft.
Other members of the committee praised Cosby for his anti-porn efforts, however, and for bringing the issue before the legislature.
“It’s not an easy job,” Republican Rep. Richard Kelsey, said. “It’s not a fun topic to deal with.” Republican Rep. Lance Kinzer, added that it was important for the state to have a “functional obscenity law.”
No opponents of the measure testified, but some representatives did worry that the anti-porn measure could go too far. Democratic Rep. Tom Burroughs, expressed concern that the measure could end up repressing “innocent” expressions of sexuality as well as obscene materials.
Cosby countered by saying there is a difference between sex, which is “good,” and “obscenity,” which he asserts is harmful to a community and promotes crime and depravity.
“Obscenity is not protected speech,” Cosby said. “It is illegal speech.”
