CHICAGO, IL – When world-famous female impersonator Dame Edna took the stage at Chicago’s Oriental Theater last year, the performance was actually illegal.No, Dame Edna didn’t strip off clothing, fellate a horse, or anything close; it was the appearance itself, in “drag,” that – technically – violated Chicago’s city code and adult entertainment ordinance.
The next time Dame Edna graces the Windy City with his/her presence, however, the performance will not run afoul of the law. That’s because Alderman Tom Tunney (of Chicago’s 44th district) has persuaded the Chicago City Council to remove the words “male or female impersonator” from the city’s definition of “adult entertainment cabaret.” The city code hitherto has defined an “adult entertainment cabaret” as any venue, public or private, that features “topless dancers, strippers, male or female impersonators.”
“This [male or female impersonators] is not adult entertainment as people define it in 2006,” Tunney told the Zoning Committee on Tuesday, according to the Chicago Sun Times.
“The code was archaic and not reflective of what’s going on in the entertainment world today,” added Tunney.
The change that Tunney spearheaded will remove the zoning hurdle from businesses that want to feature male and female impersonators, and open the door for new cabarets (but still not “adult cabarets”) to be built in areas of the city that had been off limits under the city’s zoning ordinances for adult businesses.
Under Chicago’s zoning ordinances, adult entertainment cabarets must have a license as a “public place of amusement,” as well as a “special use permit” in any area zoned as business or commercial. Adult entertainment cabarets also cannot be located within 1,000 feet of churches, parks, schools, residential areas, or each other. Tunney asserts that those restrictions shut off “95 percent plus” of the land in Chicago.
One of Tunney’s fellow Aldermen, Burton Naturus (42nd district) concurred with Tunney, and further argued that the zoning code contradicted the city’s human rights ordinances.
“We don’t discriminate because of sexual orientation,” Naturus said, according to the Sun Times. “By putting that in the definition, we’re discriminating automatically. We’re discriminating against a talent, an art form.”
According to the the paper, Tunney first proposed the alteration to the definition of “adult cabaret” last spring, on behalf of local club owner Jim Flint, who operates the Baton Show Lounge.
At the time, Flint said he had no solid plans to move his club, which features female impersonators aping the acts of pop divas like Madonna, Whitney Houston, Cher, Janet Jackson, and Tina Turner. Flint argued that his club, which he describes as more of a “Broadway cabaret” than an adult entertainment cabaret, should have the option of moving. Without a change to Chicago’s zoning requirements, the Baton would be stuck with the tag of being adult cabaret and, along with that tag, stuck in its current location.
