City Council Repeals Limits on Dancing

After concerns raised by the owner of a bar catering to lesbians, the Ventura City Council on Monday repealed a 26-year-old policy that had prohibited club owners from allowing people of the same sex to dance together.

With no debate or discussion, city leaders voted 6 to 0 to rescind the 1968 resolution. Councilman Jim Monahan was not present for the vote.

“The city has no interest in regulating that kind of behavior,” Mayor Tom Buford said in an interview before the meeting. “I don’t think that the city has a legitimate interest in going as far as that resolution went.”

The resolution, adopted June 3, 1968, states that owners of clubs “shall not permit any person to dance with another person of the same sex” or hire entertainers “whose conduct encourages, promotes or condones the congregating of homosexuals, lesbians or persons pretending to be such.”

Dan Gaffaney, owner of the bar Lipstix, catering to lesbians, said he found out about the policy last month after requesting an entertainment permit. City officials had routinely sent him a copy of the resolution along with the permit application.

Gaffaney could not be reached for comment Monday, but in a previous interview, he said: “It’s discriminatory in its language and in its intent.”

After the resolution was brought to the attention of city officials, they reviewed the policy and decided that it should be stricken.

Officials say the resolution, which is a city policy, not a law, has never been enforced. It also did not carry any penalties for violations.

City Clerk Barbara Kam, who has been with the city since 1961, said Gaffaney has been the only person to protest the law. The resolution had been adopted as part of a larger package of rules and regulations for dance and entertainment businesses.

“We have never enforced it,” Kam said. “It has never been an issue.”

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The eight-page resolution also prohibited shows featuring female impersonators, unless a permit is obtained from the city manager. Entertainers were also forbidden from singing obscene words or from performing skits that would discredit religious groups or law enforcement agencies.

The resolution did not prevent Gaffaney from obtaining his entertainment permit at Lipstix, 577 E. Main St., in the space of the former Bermuda Triangle Bar. Lipstix has a full-service bar and a dance floor. Gaffaney also owns Incognito, a nightclub on Thompson Boulevard that caters to gays.

City officials said the policy had not been repealed before because no one had challenged it. It is rescinded effective immediately, City Atty. Peter D. Bulens said.

“We didn’t even know it existed,” he said.

Bulens said state and federal laws that have since been adopted make the city policy invalid.

“Most of the resolution is not enforceable,” Bulens said. “I think most of it’s unconstitutional. It has standards in there that are not acceptable under today’s laws.”