By Gudrun Schultz
CINCINNATI, Ohio, July 27, 2006 (LifeSiteNews.com) – A pro-family group in Cincinnati is attempting to bring in legislation restricting the activity of overtly sexual businesses, such as adult bookstores, video stores and strip clubs, reported the Columbus Dispatch yesterday.
Citizens for Community Values (CCV), a grass-roots organization that successfully backed Ohio’s 2004 constitutional amendment banning homosexual “marriage,” has presented Attorney General Jim Petro with language for a proposal called the Community Defense Act.
The measure would require all sexually oriented businesses to shut down between midnight and 6 a.m. Venues with alcohol permits would be permitted to stay open later, but “sexually oriented entertainment activity” would have to stop at midnight. As well, all nude or partially clad dancers in strip clubs or other establishments would have to remain at least six feet back from patrons.
“If we can change the constitution to protect marriage, why can’t we pass a law?” Phil Burress, president of CCV, told the Dispatch.
“The power’s in the hands of the people this way. If the legislators don’t do it the way it’s written, we’ll go to the ballot in ‘07.”
CCV initiated the proposal after legislators failed to include the restrictions in the state bill governing strip club regulations, passed in March.
The citizen-initiated statute must receive language approval from the Attorney General before backers can collect voter signatures in support of the measure. At least 96,870 valid signatures are required before the proposal can be submitted to the General Assembly in January 2007.
If the Legislature fails to pass the measure, the proposal will then go before voters, once supporters have collected an additional round of signatures petitioning for the measure’s placement on the fall 2007 ballot.
See related LifeSiteNews coverage:
Ohio Passes Strongest Same-Sex ‘Marriage’ Ban in U.S.
https://www.lifesitenews.com/ldn/2004/jan/04012306.html