COLUMBUS, OH — Since January, Ohioans who work for adult entertainment establishments have one more thing to worry about: A conviction for “pandering” in the state now requires residents to register as sex offenders.It’s not difficult to be cited for pandering in the Buckeye State. In addition to its more common definition as “pimping,” in Ohio the legal definition of pandering also includes buying, selling, and renting adult videos. Critics of the law say it also could brand people for life with an unwelcome title if they engage in fairly innocuous activities like allowing teenage relatives to watch French films or hanging posters for burlesque shows. Basically, according to the law, anything deemed by some public official to be too racy for public consumption stands a chance of emblazoning a scarlet “SO” across the forehead of offenders.
“Dealing only in the works of recognized artists (excluding porn stars) offers no safety, either,” Features Editor Bill Andriette wrote in The Guide, a gay travel, entertainment, politics and sex magazine. According to him, Ohioans have been charged with pandering for displaying or selling works by Pedro Almodovoar, Pier Paolo Pasolini, and Robert Mapplethorpe. In 2001, a 22-year-old Columbus man was incarcerated for pandering based on the contents of his private journal.
In the past, convicted panderers faced up to one year in jail and fines. Under the terms of Senate Bill 10, signed into law by Democratic Gov. Ted Strickland on June 30th, 2007, they now also must register as “tier one” sex offenders for a period of 15 years. As such, they are barred from living in large portions of Ohio’s residential areas, because their homes must be no less than 1,000 feet from schools and daycare centers.
In addition, tier-one offenders must be photographed annually by the police, and the Ohio attorney general’s office posts registered tier-one offenders’ mug shots, names, home addresses, work addresses, vehicle information, and even the person’s usual parking spot on its website.
All of that might be fine if there were a bona-fide need to spread public awareness about the presence of a convicted rapist or child molester — but it’s a bit harsh for the sometimes young, often uneducated, minimum-wage slaves who man the cash registers at adult and mainstream stores, the front doors of cabarets, and galleries that display works of art that may not fit everyone’s definition of artistic.
The Ohio chapter of the American Civil Liberties Union decries Senate Bill 10 as “the most stupid and self-evidently unconstitutional law” passed last year, even though the state claims it was forced into the draconian measures by the Adam Walsh Act, an omnibus sex-crimes bill passed by Congress in 2006. States can lose federal funds if they do not comply with the act’s provisions by 2009.
“Even many of the most conservative law-and-order, anti-sex-offender, lock-everyone-up, and by-the-way-it-would-be-good-to-just-execute-them types were wary of this law,” Jeff Gamso, legal director of the Ohio ACLU, told The Guide. “A lot of them knew this violated the Ohio constitution.”
Gamso and other civil-rights defenders worry other states will follow Ohio’s lead and add obscenity crimes to the list of registerable sex offenses.
“Registration is bigger than the scarlet A,” Cincinnati attorney H. Louis Sirkin told The Guide. “I just think it’s cruel and unusual punishment.” In addition, he said, “it creates a prior restraint and a chilling effect” on speech. Fear of prosecution already limits what Ohioans can read and watch, he noted. “[To] add onto that the potential of registration, I just think is unbelievable.”
