ANAHEIM : Stripper Law With Strings Is Sought

Following recent court decisions that nullified the city’s adult entertainment ordinance and allowed two strip clubs to open, the city attorney last week said his office is drafting a law that would require strippers to remain partially clothed.

City Atty. Jack L. White said the ordinance, which will be presented to the City Council next month, would require female strippers to wear at least a G-string and pasties while performing at bars and clubs in the city.

“When I went to law school, I never thought I would be talking about G-strings and pasties,” White said.

If approved, the new ordinance would set specific limits on how close an adult business can be to a school, church or neighborhood, White said, but it would eliminate the council’s ability to deny a license to an adult business that meets the guidelines.

The new ordinance is necessary because federal and state judges ruled last month that the old ordinance violated federal court decisions that found adult businesses are protected by the First Amendment’s free-speech clause. The decisions said adult businesses must be permitted to operate within a city, although the city could set limits keeping them a reasonable distance from neighborhoods, churches and schools.

Anaheim’s old ordinance was nullified by the judges because it gave the council too much discretion on whether an adult business would be permitted to open. The old ordinance, while forbidding adult businesses within 1,000 feet of a school or church, also said an operating permit could be denied to an adult business if it would have an “adverse affect” on the surrounding neighborhood.

The court rulings allowed a bar to begin offering topless dancing and a nude strip club to open.