Hillsborough County Anti-Nudity Ordinance
Last year, morality crusader David Caton came, Joe McCarthy-style, waving a ¨study¨ in front of the Hillsborough County Commission that alleged strip clubs cause crime, the degeneration of morals and the heartbreak of psoriasis. Of course, the politicos bought it. They figured if they outlawed nudity in Hillsborough County, including inside the Tampa city limits, that nude dancers would no longer dance nude. This move is so dumb on so many counts it´s hard to know where to begin. We´ll set aside the notion, liberal though it may be, that consenting adults should be able to indulge in this form of entertainment if they choose to. The biggest trap door is the legal challenges, headed by titty bar impresario Joe Redner (who lives for these types of skirmishes and has the resources to do so), which will cost the county, and taxpayers, stacks and stacks of dollar bills, some of which would´ve ended up in G-strings. It´s probably a law that won´t withstand constitutional challenges, which would give Redner´s girls all the more reason to snicker and keep on shaking it. A final word to the commission: Tampa has a reputation as a good town for the sex trade. Deal with it.
