Pro-Family Advocate Condemns Ruling Striking Down Nude Dancing Ban
by Allie Martin
August 29, 2006
(AgapePress) - - The AFA of Pennsylvania is asking the state's Attorney General Tom Corbett to appeal a recent court decision that struck down a ban prohibiting nude dancing and lap dancing at businesses that hold liquor licenses. A three-judge panel of the Third Circuit Court of Appeals declared the ban unconstitutional. The Pennsylvania statute that banned nude dancing and lap dancing at alcohol-serving establishments had been in effect more than 50 years. Now that the law has been overturned, pro-family advocates are predicting a negative impact on families and communities.
Diane Gramley is president of the American Family Association of Pennsylvania (AFA of PA). She says the Third Circuit panel's decision is a "very bad" ruling that plays "right into the hands of the pornographers" -- those proprietors of sexually-oriented businesses that profit from the exploitation of women and the moral weaknesses of their clientele.
These "pornographers," as Gramley calls them, are not interested in the good of the community, the pro-family advocate asserts. Instead they are, "at the end of the day, counting their receipts and looking at the money they've brought in," she says, "and they're not counting the cost in human degradation and the harm to the individuals involved."
Pro-family groups like the AFA of PA have called attention to the harm these businesses cause not only to individuals but to the surrounding neighborhood and the community as a whole. Among the effects that have been documented are increased crime, including sexual assault, prostitution and illegal drug trafficking; decreased values for both residential and commercial property; and "urban blight" resulting as wealthier people and businesses flee the community.
"Even the Third Circuit panelists acknowledged that sexually oriented businesses have a negative impact on a community," Gramley asserts. "The court recognizes that." But in the panel's ruling, she adds, the judges "were saying the way the law is written is too restrictive."
Nevertheless, the pro-family spokeswoman believes the decision to strike down the ban was influenced by interests primarily motivated by money and greed. "So, either we're hoping that Attorney General Corbett will appeal it," she says, "or, if that appeal process fails, we are encouraging the legislative body to rewrite the law [so that] it's not as restrictive as the courts are saying it is."
Last year, in an effort to arm communities against sexually-oriented businesses and their negative influence, the AFA of Pennsylvania contacted all municipalities in the state to inform them of the legality of passing zoning and licensing ordinances to regulate such businesses.
Allie Martin, a regular contributor to AgapePress, is a reporter for American Family Radio News, which can be heard online.
