| Dear
Friends,
As many of you are aware, there is an establishment in Juneau, located
at 114 East Oak Street, which features nude dancers as
"entertainment." I know that most of you are appalled by this
sort of lewdness from a moral standpoint and also because of the
degradation and danger it brings to a community. For instance, according
to police and FBI statistics, so-called "adult entertainment"
businesses often greatly increase the incidence of prostitution and sexual
crimes in the areas in which they are located.* Of course, the presence of
a nude dance club also degrades both women and men, corrupts the minds of
young people, and desensitizes the community to sexual immorality and
exploitation.
The good news is that you, the citizens of Juneau, do not have to put
up with the nude dancing which is taking place in your town. The
environment in which your children grow up does not have to be polluted by
this establishment which prostitutes women's bodies for the sexual
satisfaction of men. Your daughters, your wives, your sisters, and your
mothers do not have to be endangered by the presence of a business which
exists for the purpose of inflaming sexual appetites in all sorts of men,
some of them violent. Certainly your loved ones may never be sexually
assaulted because of the presence of a nude dance club in your town; but
on the other hand, it definitely could happen. It has in many other
communities. Why would anyone take that unnecessary risk? Regardless of
what you have perhaps been told, your town government can ban nude
dancing, even if it pre-exists an ordinance passed to ban it (see back).
Not only can nude dancing be banned in Juneau, but the attorneys for
the American Family Association Center for Law and Policy are willing to
write an ordinance for that very purpose at no cost. The American Family
Association has authorized me to inform you that should the citizens of
Juneau decide to pass such an ordinance banning nude dancing, the top
notch attorneys for the AFA will also defend the ordinance against any
court challenge, and they will do so for free! Such ordinances have
survived legal challenges in the highest courts of our land, including the
U.S. Supreme Court; and the AFA has some of the finest, most committed
attorneys in America. For the sake of what is right, not to mention the
welfare of your own families, why put up with nude dancing and everything
that goes with it? What sort of people would put up with it? I hope and
trust not the citizens of Juneau.
If you would like more information or technical assistance regarding
the banning of nude dancing in the town of Juneau, call Wisconsin
Christians United at (608)328-4841. We will put you in contact with
attorneys from the AFA.
I hope that you will take action immediately on behalf of your families
and the future of your community. It is past time that decent people stood
up and said enough is enough; we are no longer going to allow the
purveyors of immorality to bully their way into our midst and push their
perversion into the faces of our wives and children.
Ralph Ovadal, Director
* Final Report on the Attorney General's
Commission on Pornography, 1986.
Regulating Public
Nudity
In 1991, the U.S. Supreme Court ruled in the landmark case of Barnes
vs. Glen Theatre that it is legal to prosecute nude dancers under the
Indiana public indecency laws.
The U.S. Supreme Court decision in Barnes vs. Glen Theatre
stated in part:
The law is clearly within the state's constitutional power. And
it furthers a substantial governmental interest in protecting societal
order and morality. Public indecency statutes reflect moral disapproval
of people appearing nude among strangers in public places and this
particular law follows a line of state law, dating back to 1831, banning
public nudity.
The state's traditional police power is defined as the authority
to provide for the public health, safety, and morals, and such a basis
for legislation has been upheld [constitutionally].
The governmental interest [in preventing public nudity] is
unrelated to the suppression of free expression, since public nudity is
the evil the state seeks to prevent, whether or not it is combined with
expressive activity.
"Court Upholds Ban On Public Nudity,"
Wisconsin State Journal, October 4, 2000 - Associated Press
CUMBERLAND - A Cumberland ordinance banning full nudity in strip
clubs and restricting how long the clubs can stay open each day has been
upheld by a federal appeals court. . . .
Judge Michael Kanne wrote that it was not overly restrictive to
require strippers to wear such minimal clothing. He referred to a similar
ruling by the U.S. Supreme Court in March. . . .
The ordinance was passed after James Schultz opened the Island Bar,
a strip club, in Cumberland, a community of about 2,200 in Barron County
in northwest Wisconsin.
"Dancers Will Have To Wear More,"
Wisconsin State Journal, June 27, 2000 - By Richard W. Jaeger
LYNDON STATION - The dancers at Crusin' at Chubby's
"gentlemen's club" will have to wear more . . .
Juneau County Circuit Judge John W. Brady ruled last week that a
town ordinance forbidding such display is constitutional and ordered the
owner of the club, Peter F. Beyer, to pay $1,000 in fines or spend 10 days
in jail for each of two offenses. . . .
Mauston attorney Fred Hollenbeck, representing the town of Lyndon,
said he thinks the town will begin enforcing the ordinance against
Chubby's by moving to revoke the establishment's liquor license.
He said the ruling, issued late last week, should withstand an
appeal because of a related ruling last month. In that case, the 3rd
District Court of Appeals upheld a town ordinance in the Wausau area that
imposed similar restrictions to the Lyndon ordinance.
In his ruling, Brady said the town's efforts to promote public
health and safety by preventing "negative secondary effects" of
live, nude dancing in taverns and bars are within its police powers.
He said studies the town relied on to demonstrate that such dancing
could possibly lower property values and cause additional crime met
standards set forth in other constitutional challenges to similar
ordinances.
"New Gentlemen's Club Opens in Town of
Princeton," Berlin Journal Newspapers, February 8, 2001
The Green Lake Pub in the Township of Princeton [which] has been
sold is now under new management! The new name of the establishment is
"Dreamers Gentlemen's Club."
As the name suggests, the new owner has decided to add exotic
dancers to the venue in the new club. An individual (wishes to remain
anonymous) familiar with the owner and the new setting commented on the
new operation. "The owner has a connection with Cocktails and Dreams,
another gentlemen's club based in Juneau. From what I understand, the
building was available, in a central location, and since there are no
ordinances banning nude dancers, the owner felt it was an excellent choice
for the club." . . .
The source also related "Cocktails and Dreams" has been a
successful establishment in Juneau for the last two years, has had no
problems, and is even located across the street from the Courthouse in
Juneau. . . .
Exotic dancers affected one community in Green Lake County in the
past. The City of Berlin passed an ordinance banning nude dancing in
establishments two years ago, following complaints from concerned
citizens.
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