Well, now we know. Rape and domestic violence are caused … by nude dancing.
So says David Caton, Florida's top morality cop, who seems to get local governments to dance routinely to his Christian conservative tune.
Most of these crusades are based on the simple notion that nudity (and sex) is bad. But now Caton, president of the Florida Family Association, has cobbled together some statistics that purport to show that Hillsborough County has an exceptional number of rapes and domestic violence cases because of the county's tolerance for strip clubs. He has urged the commission to pass a sweeping anti-nudity ordinance that would effectively ban erotic dancing.
The commissioners seem to be buying it — or at least grasping Caton's theory as rationale for another headline-grabbing assault on sin.
On Tuesday, July 29, at 6 p.m., the commission will hold a "workshop" session on the issue. Afterward, there will be public comment and a vote. Commissioner Pat Frank, an opponent, thinks the ordinance will be approved. "I would say that it's pretty certain," she says.
Passage would likely ignite a round of arrests and the start of an enforcement effort that the county sheriff's office estimates will cost nearly a million dollars a year. And the arrests, in turn, will provoke legal challenges and guerrilla tactics from Caton's arch-nemesis, Mons Venus owner Joe Redner. Tampa mayor Pam Iorio opposes the county's initiative, but the city may be dragged into the mess just the same.
Caton set forth his theory in a report titled "Crimes Related to Nude Entertainment" and submitted it to commissioners early this year. It includes statistics citing Tampa's high rate of rape and domestic violence cases, as well as data showing the city's large number of adult businesses (strip clubs, massage parlors, lingerie modeling shops, etc.).
The report makes no attempt to correlate the two. There are no statistics or evidence submitted about men who have gone to strip clubs and then raped or abused women. But in effect, Caton is saying: There simply must be a connection.
"The characteristics of men who frequent these places are that they have little regard or respect for their wives as people," Caton told the Weekly Planet. "Hypothetically, a man might watch an attractive nude dancer. Maybe his wife does not meet that level of attractiveness. The guy, disenchanted with what he has in the form of sex, might become physically abusive, harming his spouse or forcing her into some kind of activity she does not want."
Can it be that Caton's initiative will cut down rapes and domestic violence cases by running nudity out of town? Not according to the people who are serious students of such violence.
"I can't think of any clients where there was a connection between going to strip clubs and later sexual assault," says Dr. Ron DeMayo, a licensed psychologist in Tampa for 15 years and a licensed sex therapist for six.
While stressing that he did not wish to speak for all psychologists, DeMayo added, "I would say that the standard thought in my field is that the sexually repressive, sexually negative censure that Caton is trying to promote causes more sexual problems than the availability of pornography and other adult erotic outlets does. That's where my business comes from — [people with] sexually repressive backgrounds. David Caton is good for my business."
But is David Caton good for the taxpayers?
The sheriff's office estimates that enforcing a countywide ban on nudity at adult businesses will cost $900,000 a year. "They can push that figure to four or five-million," Redner scoffs. "I'll give 'em so much static."
Defending the anti-nudity ordinance in court would likely run up another seven-figure tab for the county. Redner is aware that the proposed law, modeled after one in St. Johns County (St. Augustine), has withstood legal challenges in other parts of the state. "They ain't withstood one like mine," he snorts.
The strip club impresario has a team gathering its own data to present at the commission workshop. "We're going to give them every opportunity to evaluate the situation," says Luke Lirot, Redner's free speech attorney. "And if they reject the truth for political expediency, they do so at their own peril."
Already, Randy Fisher Ph.D., the director of the Survey Research Laboratory at University of Central Florida, has completed "A Critical Analysis of 'Crimes Related to Nude Entertainment,'" which thoroughly debunks Caton's report. It shows that the Florida Family Association study omitted pertinent data that did not support its claims and inflated the number of nude businesses in Hillsborough. For instance, Caton's report correctly says that Tampa has the highest rate of rape of any Florida city with a population over 300,000. But there are only three such cities in the state, the others being Miami and Jacksonville. Furthermore, seven smaller cities have rape rates higher than that of Tampa, and three of them do not have adult businesses: Tallahassee, Winter Haven and Fort Pierce.
Here's another curiosity: Miami has a surprisingly low rate of rape, while its numerous strip clubs permit full nudity, lap dancing and the serving of alcohol.
Finally, Fisher dismantles any of Caton's notions about the causal relationship between nude businesses and rape or domestic violence.
"What he did was naive, incomplete and biased," Fisher says.
Late last year, Caton says, The Florida Family Association reached "closure" on a 13-year anti-pornography project when Lil' Champ succumbed to pressure and stopped selling girlie magazines, the last convenience store chain in Florida to do so. In the past, Caton also has been an avid anti-gay rights crusader, but he says he decided to put that issue "in the freezer" in favor of working to eradicate nude dancing. A November 2002 article in the Tampa Tribune citing increased rapes in Hillsborough County alerted him to "a real public safety issue." In a Kobe Bryant-like leap of logic, Caton surmised that adult entertainment businesses were the chief culprit. In 1990, Caton published a book titled The Big Lie, which chronicled how he overcame his addiction to pornography and masturbation. He found God and became a crusader.
His past troubles with porn have given his critics ammunition for ridicule. "He thinks he has to push his views on everybody else," Commissioner Frank says. "I don't know why he's doing it — maybe to build up membership in his organization which he makes money off of, or maybe to remove the temptation. Maybe he isn't over (his porn addiction)."
Caton claims to be surprised at the potshots, further explaining, "Knowing the depravity of the material and the influence that it had on my attitudes toward women helps me identify it as something to reduce in our culture at large. Not that it has in any way, shape or form some current leverage on me, but I do have a strong respect for the dangerous behavior it can incite."
On the face of it, Caton appears to have found feminism. During two lengthy phone interviews, he continually referred to the anti-nudity ordinance as a means to keep women out of harm's way. It's hard not to suspect, however, that he's just playing politics. Arguing that nude dancing is a smutty affront to God will no longer carry the day. The U.S. Supreme Court has continually held that erotic dancing is protected as free speech and that any regulation of it must come because of "adverse secondary effects" such as crime or decreased property values. Certainly, imperiling Tampa Bay's women would be construed as a dramatic secondary effect.
The St. Johns anti-nudity ordinance on which Caton's is based is voluminous, replete with wordy definitions of "breast" and "buttocks." It prohibits nudity in public places, including commercial establishments, even those with cover charges or membership requirements (read: strip clubs).
Hillsborough County currently has a statute that bans public nudity but exempts adult-use businesses. The county Land Development Code contains a series of regulations for adult establishments: licensing, inspections and distance requirements from churches, schools and neighborhoods, etc. It is also unlawful to serve alcohol in a club where there is nude dancing.
Caton's agenda was actually more ambitious than just crimping strip bars. He asked that the issue be put on the November 2004 ballot as a non-binding straw vote. "We wanted a referendum to send a message to law enforcement that people want more prosecutions to eliminate these sexually-oriented businesses," Caton says.
As it turned out, Commissioner Ronda Storms wanted the same thing. Her conservative stance is akin to Caton's. Also, it's widely believed that having a morality-driven item on the ballot will draw more religious right-wingers to the polls, enhancing Storms' chances for reelection.
Caton scoffs at the notion. "This has nothing to do with the county commission races," he says. "I'll put my hand on a stack of 25 Bibles. That was never our motivation."
County administrator Dan Kleman supported the referendum and the commission approved it in concept in early May. Two weeks later, though, they reversed field and decided not to put it on the ballot. And it's a good thing for strip club supporters. Political consultant Wayne Garcia cites one of those quirky ironies so often found in local politics: "I can't say I've heard this issue polling in the top 10 issues facing the community, but if it were to go to ballot it would pass easily — in the high 60s; it might crack 70."
"The referendum would've been everything," Caton says. "We would've developed a public opinion poll on this issue like none other."
In lieu of that, Caton seeks smaller victories. (He does not, however, rule out starting a petition drive to force it on the ballot.) Even without the straw vote, he's flipped the commission a political hot potato. Members Frank and Jan Platt are solidly against the proposed ordinance. Kathy Castor says she needs more information, but adds, "I think this issue just doesn't rate very high in our long list of priorities."
The remaining four have either expressed support or are expected to cast a yes vote.
Jim Norman was the only one of the quartet to return my phone calls on the matter. He has a specific goal. Closing down Tampa's roughly 30 strip clubs and other sex businesses "is not my dog in the hunt," he says.
There is exactly one adult business in unincorporated Hillsborough County. "However, there are 19 other approved sites," Norman adds. "I'm trying to prevent a proliferation of these places throughout Hillsborough County. I want the number to stay at one and not turn into 20."
That leaves the mum ones: Storms, Ken Hagan and Chairman Thomas Scott, all of whom are expected to say "yea." The thinking is this: Scott, a minister, "can't go back to his congregation and explain why he supported nudity," says Garcia. And Frank points out that Hagan is a member of conservative Idlewild Baptist Church.
"You're not going to find people [on the commission] to stand up for the right to see nude women," Garcia says. "Do you base it on personal freedoms and liberties? People don't care about that. The message against nudity is easy to communicate. It hurts the community. The message on the other side is more abstract. Standing up for the constitution is a tough sell."
There's a big, unresolved question swirling around this issue: Would a new county ordinance automatically include the city of Tampa?"The way the charter is set up, Hillsborough County ordinances apply countywide unless the city has an ordinance that conflicts with it," says assistant county attorney Rebecca Kert. "Does [the new ordinance] conflict with the city ordinance that contemplates some nudity? It's an area [where] someone could raise a legal challenge."
If the new law ultimately includes Tampa, most experts think the city will choose to "opt out" of the county ban. Mayor Iorio says she's not sure how the city would respond, but the county will almost certainly go it alone in terms of enforcement and court battles. "I think any ordinance would end up in litigation — costly litigation — that the city will not be participating in," Iorio says.
What if the county expressly exempted Tampa from its nudity ban? (It often does so with other ordinances.) That would allow taxpayers to save money and allow commissioners to save face. The county's other two municipalities, Plant City and Temple Terrace, have no adult businesses.
A county-only ban would make enforcement easier and reduce, perhaps even eliminate legal challenges. After all, there's only one existing nude club. And no matter how much someone like Redner wanted to fight the ordinance on principle, he'd have no standing unless he first sought to open up a club in the unincorporated county.
Even though this is not the kind of victory favored by Caton or Storms, such an ordinance would let the forces of morality declare that they had prevented the spread of gyrating nude women throughout the as-yet-uncorrupted environs of Hillsborough County.
Meanwhile, the ladies writhe on. On just another languid Tuesday afternoon at a nude club called the Ybor Strip, a skinny erotic dancer, naked except for high heels, has finished some flashy pole moves and clop-clops off the stage. A handful of patrons offer up half-hearted claps. Over at a corner table there's a buzz. Alison and Lisa and some of the other dancers have just learned that the county commission is considering putting them out of business. The veteran strippers have been through this type of attack before, of course, but that doesn't make the news any easier to swallow. They shake their heads, scowl, take angry drags off cigarettes. "No guy is beat up and forced to come in here," sneers Alison. "No dancer is forced to be a dancer."
Despite the women's concerns, the consensus is that their jobs are in no immediate jeopardy. Says Garcia, the political consultant, "I think it's a pretty safe bet that strip clubs will continue around here for the foreseeable future."
Senior Writer Eric Snider can be reached at snider@weeklyplanet.com or 813-248-8888 ext. 114.
This article appears in Jul 17-23, 2003.