Lost Girl
Strip-club advocates agree. "Any club owner who is running a legitimate business would never, ever condone that," says Angelina Spencer, executive director of ACE, a national trade association of adult club executives. "We're called 'adult entertainment' for a reason: we're not for kids. If a club owner would knowingly hire a 12-year-old girl to work in an adult club, then let the chips fall where they may and let him face the consequences." Ali Stout, publisher of Metro ANE, a weekly newspaper for Dallas's adult entertainment industry, adds, "Everybody's just sick about it. As hard as they're working to make these clubs legit and a nice place to go, something like that takes them back 10 years. It makes them all look bad, like there's horrible drugs and crime and underage women and that women are exploited and blah blah blah. But it's not true. It's these few little clubs that get desperate. It's not the norm."
The case is the latest blow for the large Dallas adult club scene, which has been trying to fight off stiffer regulations and attention from religious leaders and other critics. Nationwide, club owners have successfully argued their constitutional right to provide nude dancing as freedom of expression, but many municipalities and states have placed significant limitations on the business in the last decade, preventing alcohol from being served in all-nude clubs, creating no-touch buffer zones around dancers, and forcing strip clubs away from residential areas.
Just a few years ago one could find small neighborhood strip clubs throughout Dallas, next door to churches, schools and family diners. Now most of the city's 43 sexually oriented businesses have been corralled along an industrial strip of Interstate 35 and Harry Hines Boulevard, where evangelical Christians from Heartland World Ministries Church and others sometimes come to pray for the salvation of club employees and patrons.
Houston, which may have more strip clubs than any other city in America, according to "The Ultimate Strip Club List," is also famous for being the largest city in America without zoning. But officials have drawn the line at strip clubs. After a decadelong legal battle, the Houston police cleared the last legal hurdle in February and plan to start sending warning notices to force an estimated 200 to 400 sexually oriented businesses farther away from residential areas, parks and schools. "We really haven't had teeth for the last number of years to fight them, because of all the lawsuits and court appeals. Now that those are exhausted, it is going to give more power to the city and the police department to start taking action," says Houston police spokesman John Cannon.
Meanwhile, a Texas law dubbed the "pole tax" that assessed a $5 cover charge on all strip clubs to help rape victims and those without health insurance was struck down last week by a state judge, who called it too broad. A revised version is expected to eventually become law.
Strip club owners say they are being unfairly harassed by these increasingly restrictive regulations, arguing that current laws against prostitution, drugs and child abuse are sufficient to keep the bad apples out of the business. Exotic dance clubs generate $15 billion a year in the United States, providing tax revenue and jobs, says Spencer, the industry's national advocate. She says she worked her way through a private Roman Catholic college as a stripper, then opened a successful club of her own and eventually retired early to Florida. She says the industry does have some thorns but contends that most strip clubs are not dens of evil filled with "perverts and geeks."
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Member Comments
Posted By: DAVBR4934 @ 05/16/2008 9:14:02 PM
Comment: 1ST OF ALL THERE ISN'T NOTHING WRONG WITH LIVING IN DALLAS. THEY SUBJECT SHOULD HAVE BEEN "BE BETTER PARENTS TO YOUR CHILDREN". I AM 21YRS OLD AND I'VE BEEN IN DALLAS FOR 21YRS. OVER THE TIME PARENTS ARE TO BUSY TRYING TO BE FRIENDS TO THEIR CHILDREN INSTEAD OF BEING PARENTS. WHEN I WAS YOUNGER ABOUT 7YRS OLD, I REMEMBER MY MOM TELLING ME "DON'T TALK TO STRANGERS". MY MOM WAS VERY STRICT ON HER CHILDREN. WE HAD CHORES AND WE KEPT GOOD GRADES IN SCHOOL. I WAS THE DAUGHTER THAT MOM THOUGHT WAS GOING TO HAVE SEX FIRST BECAUSE I USED TO WERE SKIMPY CLOTHING. I MADE STRAIGHT A'S IN SCHOOL AND I HAD A REAL BAD ATTITUDE. PARENTS THESE DAYS ARE TOO AFRAID OF THEIR CHILDREN. HOW DO A 12 YR OLD CHILD RUN AWAY LONG ENOUGH NOT TO BE ABLE TO FIND HER? APPARENTLY YOU WEREN'T LOOKING HARD ENOUGH. AND A RUN AWAY IS NOT GOING TO TELL ANYONE THAT THEY RAN AWAY FROM HOME, THEY'D BE TO SCARED SOMEONE WOULD TELL THE POLICE. HOW DID SHE KNOW SHE COULD TRUST ANYONE ENOUGH TO TELL THEM THAT SHE RAN AWAY? AND HER AGE DOESN'T MEAN ANYTHING BECAUSE SHE LIED ABOUT IT AND SHE DOESN'T LOOK HER AGE. IF YOUR CHILD HAS THE BODY OF A 20YR OLD AND SHE IS 12, SHOULDN'T YOU BE PROTECTING HER AND NOT LETTING HER RUNAWAY??? NOW SHE PUT HERSELF OUT THERE YOU WANT TO TRY TO GET SOMEONE ELSE IN TROUBLE FOR THE MISTAKE YOUR DAUGHTER MADE? SHE RAN AWAY 4 TIMES, SO THE FIRST TIME SHE RAN AWAY YOU SHOULD HAVE MADE IT TO WHERE SHE DIDN'T WANT TO RUN AWAY AGAIN. NOW MY FRIEND IS DOING TIME BEHIND HER WANA BE GROWN ASS!! AND THE LIL GIRL EVEN TRIED TO BE WITH MY COUSIN AND MY COUSIN LOOKS YOUNG BUT HE IS 31 AND I'M PRETTY SURE THE "LIL GIRL" KNEW HE WAS WELL OVER HER AGE. HER PARENTS NEEDS AN ASS WHUPPIN AND SHE NEEDS AN ASS WHUPPING TOO. AND ONE MAIN THING, YOU CAN'T KIDNAP A RUNAWAY UNDERAGE OR LEGAL AGE. I DON'T KNOW HOW THE POLICE CHARGED HIM WITH ALL OF THESE CASES. AND IF DAVID BELL WAS CHARGED WITH SEXUAL PERFORMANCE AND HE DOESN'T EVEN WORK AT THE CLUB, WHY DIDN'T THE MANAGER GET CHARGED? IT'S HIS DUTY OVER ANYONE ELSE TO GET PROPER IDENTIFICATION VERIFIED AND COPIED AND PRINTED OUT. AND NO ONE KNOWS BUT THERE WAS A CASE FILED AGAINST DAVID BELL THAT WAS DROPPED, SO APPARENTLY THE GIRL LIED ABOUT SOMETHIN BECAUSE THE CHARGE THAT GOT DROPPED WAS A REAL BIG DEAL ASS CHARGE!!!! HMMMM IF THAT GOT DROPPED WHAT ELSE COULD BE A LIE? ALL OF IT!!! FREE DAVID BELL!!! I AM NOT WRITING THIS JUST BECAUSE DAVID BELL IS A FRIEND, IF HE'S WRONG I APOLOGIZE BUT IF HE IS PROVEN INNOCENT LIKE I KNOW HE IS, HE DESERVES AN APOLOGY NATIONWIDE BECAUSE OF THE TIME HE IS SPENDING BEHIND THIS NON DISCIPLINED CHILD OF PARENTS WHO CAN'T EVEN TAKE CARE OF THEIR CHILDREN!!! WHAT'S GOING TO HAPPEN WHEN SHE RUNS AWAY AGAIN? IT IS OBVIOUS SHE DOESN'T LIKE HER HOME... ANYBODY THAT READS THIS STORY WATCH OUT FOR A LIL GIRL, ID ANYBODY U DON'T KNOW!!!!
Posted By: skyblizzer @ 04/10/2008 5:52:56 AM
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Posted By: Nins @ 04/08/2008 7:39:22 PM
Comment: I'm a Christian Republican and I am in favor of abortion being legal, not because I think abortion is acceptable, but because it is obvious to me that reproductive freedom is an essential civil right. Ask the women who were forced to live in the conservative Mormon compound recently raided in Texas, where girls were mated against their will in incestuous polygamous marriages as soon as they reached puberty. I realize that this is an extreme (and thank goodness, finally illegal - it wasn't always), but if women don't have the final say over their reproductive organs, this is the kind of abuse that ensues. Look at the poor little girl discussed in this article. And realize that her story is less rare than it is shocking.
I am a medical doctor and the things I have seen over the years would curl your hair (or break your heart). There is a huge amount of tragic suffering in this country inflicted upon young women in the form of rape, incest and sexual abuse. Teens who get pregnant are highly likely to have been abused. Prostitutes have a huge incidence of childhood sexual abuse. These personal tragedies are just as immoral as abortion, and our society needs to address this. We need to recognize that a large percentage of the young women seeking abortion need love, support, guidance and counseling. They do not need to be censured or legislated against.
Also, since there are so many different opinions on abortion and we are a democracy, we are obligated by the spirit of our constitution to come to a fair compromise when we disagree on important matters. A fair compromise does not outlaw abortion, but sets standards as to in what circumstances is abortion allowed. Early term abortion, medically necessary to save the mother's life, and cases of rape and incest are GOOD compromises, compromises that weigh the rights of the individual against the needs of society and the different belief systems that make up our nation.