WASHINGTON, DC—The really lackluster Washington Nationals may have a shiny, new stadium to play baseball badly in but the cost of the new building has proved to be way too high for some local adult clubs.Zoning laws in the city do not leave the clubs many places to relocate, but three of the straight strip clubs booted out of their previous locations by the Nationals have applied for license transfers under legislation introduced earlier this year by Democrat Councilmember Jim Graham. Graham’s bill, “One-Time Relocation of Licensees Displaced by the Ballpark Amendment Act,” became law on October 18th after Congress completed its required 30 legislative day review of the measure and chose not to block it.
Nexus Gold Club, Edge-Wet and Club 55 have all found space to open in a warehouse district in Ward 5. The warehouse district is considered desirable by club owners because it is away from residential neighborhoods and most likely would not subject the clubs to a series of other restrictions and regulations from which the Graham bill doesn’t protect them. However, it is expected that there may be some trouble from local community activists because the Alcoholic Beverage Control Board is considering allowing the three straight strip clubs into the ward despite a provision in the Graham bill that restricts the number of adult-oriented clubs displaced by the stadium to two per ward.
The two-club-per-ward restriction was added to the bill at the request of Ward 5 Council member Harry Thomas, who expressed that his constituents did not want any new adult businesses in their neighborhood at all.
However, the three straight strip clubs reopening with liquor licenses in Ward 5 will leave two gay strip clubs — Ziegfeld’s Secrets and Heat — out in the cold, as far as opening in Ward 5.
The remaining seven wards available to the gay clubs have all long opposed adult businesses opening near them.
Skip Coburn, executive director of the D.C. Nightlife Associations, which represents all the strip clubs along with other businesses that serve alcoholic beverages, said the Council added so many restrictions to the Graham bill that it would be nearly impossible for the displaced gay strip clubs — which had been at their pre-baseball stadium locations for 30 years — to find new locations in other wards.
Gay activists, led by veteran activist Frank Kameny, are asking the City Council to make a one-time change in the zoning laws, as well as the liquor law, to allow the displaced gay clubs to move, saying that since the city forced the clubs out of business that they have an obligation to allow them to reopen.
“We never asked the city to let them open anyplace,” said Rick Rosendall of the Gay & Lesbian Activists Alliance to the local media. “We have always said the city has a moral obligation to allow them to reopen someplace.”
The gay strip clubs have been closed for over a year and a half.
