PRINCE GEORGE COUNTY, OH — Strip club owner Larry Bledsoe is unimpressed by two new laws enacted by the Prince George County City Council. Unsurprisingly, the laws in question are custom designed to restrict the kinds of activities that can go on in an exotic dance establishment and, equally unsurprisingly, they’re all justified by the unproven concept of secondary effects.”Where are your studies that show dancers, dancing inside a club, has an effect on crime outside?” Bledsoe demands. “It would be easier to go to Baltimore or D.C. to dance, instead of Prince George’s County.”
According to Bledsoe, the new laws have cost his business $80,000 already. Additionally, he claims that he has customers who have refused to visit the club again until the federal lawsuit he and two other club owners have initiated has been resolved.
“We think the county has abused its power when it comes to strip clubs,” he explained to Gazette.com. “There are things we have to jump through that’s different from any other business in the county.”
Bledsoe’s Showcase Theater in Beltsville is affected by county bill 61, known as the Adult Entertainment Clubs Bill. The highly restrictive bill denies dancers the opportunity do dance nude in public places, mandates that they keep a six-foot distance in private clubs, and criminalizes the act of touching a nude dancer. Those who cross the legal line face the possibility of six months in jail or a $1,000 fine.
County documents claim that the measure is a result of a desire to protect against the possibility of prostitution, drugs, and sexually transmitted diseases. The law itself states that “The County Council finds that limiting proximity and contact between adult entertainment performers and patrons promotes the goal of reducing prostitution and other casual sexual conduct and the attendant risk of sexually transmitted diseases,” although it does not explain how STDs are transmitted by means other than traditionally understood sexual contact.
County bill 31 further extends the arm of the law to authorize immediate closure of any business that operates without a use and occupancy permit, something not uncommon for strip clubs to do.
This isn’t the first time that Bledsoe has taken the county to federal court. Three years ago Showcase Theater sued over county bill 86, which was similar to the current Adult Entertainment Clubs Bill and was eventually set aside upon advice of the county’s legal council. U.S. District Court Judge Deborah K. Chasanow denied a motion by club owners in September to delay enforcement of the new laws but in November U.S. District Court Judge Marvin J. Garbis did the same to the county’s request for dismissal.
Prince George’s County entrepreneurs labeled the county anti-business in 2005, the year that it added a smoking ban, restricted tow-truck companies, and shortened liquor store hours.
