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By: RYAN LEE
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Local governments are throwing buckets of cold water on area adult entertainment
stores, arguing the sex videos and novelty items they sell violate zoning ordinances
and state law.
The latest battle took place Aug. 13 at the Marietta City Council when it
voted unanimously to revoke the business licenses of two Inserection stores
and one Starship Enterprises outlet.
The city alleged the stores violated their business licenses, based on a May
investigation when undercover police officers found the stores distributed
hardcore adult videos and sex toys, Marietta City Solicitor Robert Donovan
said.
The city’s business license manager recommended the licenses be revoked
in June, and the city council obliged last week.
“My basis was that [the owners] did something they said they wouldn’t
do and the action the city took was appropriate,” Donovan said. “I
think there is a legitimate government interest in having zoning limiting where
these types of stores can be.”
Before the council revoked the licenses last week, Cobb County Superior Court
Judge Adele Grubbs ordered the Inserection outlet at 63 Cobb Parkway closed.
Inspired by the U.S. Supreme Court ruling in June that struck down an anti-gay
sodomy law in Texas, in part based on right to privacy arguments, an attorney
for the three Marietta shops appealed in hopes of overturning Georgia’s
law banning the sale of sex toys “designed or marketed as useful primarily
for the stimulation of human genital organs.”
“We’ve created a new challenge to the Georgia sex toys law on
the grounds that it violates the federal right to privacy that was mentioned
by the Supreme Court [in Lawrence v. Texas],” said Alan Begner, an attorney
specializing in obscenity law.
Begner filed an appeal with Cobb County Superior Court on Aug. 15, asking
that the city council’s decision be thrown out. In the meantime, two
of the three stores in Marietta remain open. If the appeal is denied, the stores
must close until Dec. 31 and apply for new licenses next year, Donovan said.
Begner also filed an application for appeal with the Georgia Supreme Court
to overturn closing Inserection location.
That appeal is pending, and the state Supreme Court has until Sept. 1 to decide
if it will hear Begner’s case, court spokesperson Richard Diguette said.
Storeowners criticized the action taken by Marietta officials and other area
governments pursuing the outlets.
“I think it’s a little ridiculous,” said Kelly Rogers, president
and CEO of Starship Enterprises, which has 11 locations in metro Atlanta. “We’ve
been there for over three years and never violated any policy.”
Starship was unaware that items it sold were banned in Marietta, but the items
were removed once the city alerted the chain that the products were illegal,
Rogers said.
“This is totally preposterous,” said Michael Morrison, the owner
of Inserection, which has 13 locations. “Any First Amendment law that
could be broken, was. I think these are people who are very conservative in
their values and want to censor free speech.”
The adult entertainment stores, with several locations in Midtown are longtime
favorites with some gay men and lesbians looking to rent gay videos, purchase
novelty items or obtain supplies like lubricant and condoms. The three companies
often advertise in local gay publications.
Morrison said his gay customers frequent all of the Inserection outlets, and
he blames a “vocal minority” in pushing Marietta officials to pursue
the stores, not anti-gay bias.
“The gay population out in Marietta is considerable, and that’s
really one of the reasons we located out there,” Morrison said.
Governments pursuing adult entertainment stores is likely motivated by politicians
pandering to conservative voters, said Bill Lyon, executive director of the
California-based Free Speech Coalition, an adult entertainment industry advocacy
group.
“It’s just crazy that the state or government is even involved
in trying to legislate that because it is intended for private use in one’s
home,” Lyon said. “What the hell are they so afraid of? They’re
obviously trying to satisfy their ultra-religious constituencies by legislating
sexuality.”
Government officials resist a culture change that treats sex-related materials
more leniently, Begner said.
“What’s happened is the big players have begun opening more stores
and the government is reacting to the fear of its ‘good citizens,’” Begner
said. “They feel that morality is going down the drain and the way to
stop it is to close these stores.
The adult entertainment industry experienced an unprecedented wave of success
in the last two decades, Lyon said.
“The demand has grown exponentially,” he said. “The overall
dollar value of the adult entertainment industry has ...
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