TBILISI, GEORGIA — The 21st century is weighing heavy on some geographical and ideological segments of the globe – and the country of Georgia, which recently managed to lure Russia into a military skirmish is having a difficult time embracing sexual diversity; especially when it comes to nude men dancing.Although Patricia Deloni, the owner of the country’s first male strip club insists that the men who work there are “professional dancers who just want to make a living,” a local Orthodox priest insists that “It’s outrageous for Christians to watch men strip.”
At issue is the existence of Diva, a male-performer only club recently opened within the nation’s capitol of Tbilisi. In addition to dealing with father David Isakadze’s insistence in front of 50 protestors that “The club must stop the striptease immediately,” Diva’s first night of business was delayed for two-hours due to a power failure that kept the building literally in the dark.
While conservative forces within the United States must rely upon personal opinion when declaring the country a Christian nation, Georgian moralists have a stronger legal leg to stand upon, given that Christianity has been the official state religion within much of the country since the fourth century. According to a poll conducted by the Rustavi-2 television channel, a majority of the 4.6 million citizens of Georgia oppose the existence of strip clubs within their country, based on moral objections.
Nonetheless, according to the Georgian Daily, 50-year-old Deloni has opened the country’s first all-male strip club and allowed six young men wearing barely there underpants and hats to entertain 50 women sipping free champagne.
None of the men chose to strip to the skin in order to respect the area’s cultural sensitivities.
Deloni is unimpressed by the opposition to her club. Having left the country at the age of 18 and only returned three years ago, she believes that “It’s time for Georgia to wake up and take one more step toward Europe.”
While Deloni may respect her dancers for being sensitive to the country’s discomfort with male nudity, as far as she’s concerned, the hostility directed toward her and her club is hypocritical to its core, given that strip clubs that feature women already exist in the city – and none of them have received protests or complaints.
