# Amazingly bizarre lap dancing law **URL:** \ **Category:** In My Humble Opinion\ **Created:** [August 2, 2002, 10:50pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/amazingly-bizarre-lap-dancing-law/122093 "2002-08-02T22:50:41Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 16\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![sleestak](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/919ad9/32.png) [@sleestak](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/sleestak)\ **Post date:** [August 2, 2002, 10:50pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/amazingly-bizarre-lap-dancing-law/122093/1 "2002-08-02T22:50:41Z")
The Clark County Commision out here in Las Vegas enacted a new ordinance regarding lap dancing in strip clubs. The ordinance, brought by Commissioner Yvonne Atkisson Gates, is meant to stop prostitution. (Hey, Ms. Gates, this _is_ Vegas. Lap dances are not the root cause of prositution in town) Anyway, the ordinance originally brought by Ms. Gates was going to require that dancers and customers remain at least 6 feet apart. The ordinance that passed allows dancers to “…grind their anus, genitals, and pubic areas against a customers leg, _so long as they do not come in contact with his foot_”(Las Vegas Review Journal, page 10b, August 2nd) among other things. WTF? Am I missing something here? Is grinding booty on someones foot somehow an ad for prostitution? (Hey baby, I’ll sit on your foot for $50. No, thats per foot baby) Does anyone else think this is an extremely bizarre? Slee ---
**Author:** ![Revtim](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/revtim/32/1042_2.png) [@Revtim](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Revtim)\ **Post date:** [August 3, 2002, 12:18am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/amazingly-bizarre-lap-dancing-law/122093/2 "2002-08-03T00:18:38Z")
Very weird. ---
**Author:** ![Larry\_Mudd](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/l/f14d63/32.png) [@Larry\_Mudd](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Larry_Mudd)\ **Post date:** [August 3, 2002, 12:44am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/amazingly-bizarre-lap-dancing-law/122093/3 "2002-08-03T00:44:09Z")
Maybe “foot” is a euphemism? ---
**Author:** ![sleestak](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/919ad9/32.png) [@sleestak](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/sleestak)\ **Post date:** [August 3, 2002, 1:12am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/amazingly-bizarre-lap-dancing-law/122093/4 "2002-08-03T01:12:46Z")
**Larry,** That is possible but I find it hard to believe that they would use a euphemism for the male member while using terms like anus, genitals and pubic area when describing the dancers legal actions. At the same time, the woman who brought up the ordinance appears to be slightly wacko. Ms. Gates screamed “Shut up!” at a man who was commenting on the proposed oridnance during a public hearing. Ms. Gates outburst was widely reported and, IMHO, is just wrong. A goverment employee telling a person during a public debate to shut up is just wrong. The person she told to shut up wasn’t out of order, she just didn’t like his view point. Slee ---
**Author:** ![Scarlett67](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/scarlett67/32/7387_2.png) [@Scarlett67](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Scarlett67)\ **Post date:** [August 3, 2002, 1:42am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/amazingly-bizarre-lap-dancing-law/122093/5 "2002-08-03T01:42:12Z")
I didn’t hear about the foot thing, but the CNN article has this: > [@](#): > > As of September 1, lap dances will be legal, but dancers won’t be able to touch or sit on the customer’s genital area. They are allowed to touch and dance on a customer’s legs. Stuffing dollar bills in G-strings will be prohibited. Mind, I am not a devotee of strip clubs, but isn’t all of that newly prohibited stuff basically what a lap dance IS?? “Bicycle riding is legal as long as you don’t touch the seat, pedals, or handlebars.” 😕 In the same article, Gates is quoted as saying that she’s doing what she thinks is “right.” Then why isn’t she trying to outlaw lap dances (and for that matter, strip clubs) if she’s so uptight about it? You know, What Would Jesus Do? and all that. I’m quite sure that He wouldn’t have gone into the dens of iniquity and started telling the harlots which parts of their bodies it was OK to offer to their customers and which were off-limits, and in what manner it was acceptable to collect their fees. :rolleyes: That woman just, I say, she just ain’t right. ---
**Author:** ![Guinastasia](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/guinastasia/32/5751_2.png) [@Guinastasia](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Guinastasia)\ **Post date:** [August 3, 2002, 2:16am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/amazingly-bizarre-lap-dancing-law/122093/6 "2002-08-03T02:16:24Z")
And isn’t prostitution legal in Vegas? ---
**Author:** ![voguevixen](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/v/b5ac83/32.png) [@voguevixen](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/voguevixen)\ **Post date:** [August 3, 2002, 2:23am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/amazingly-bizarre-lap-dancing-law/122093/7 "2002-08-03T02:23:11Z")
> [@](#): > > \*Originally posted by Guinastasia \* > \*\*And isn’t prostitution legal in Vegas? \*\* No, not in Clark County. There are parts of Nevada where it is legal though. ---
**Author:** ![tiny\_ham](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/a183cd/32.png) [@tiny\_ham](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/tiny_ham)\ **Post date:** [August 3, 2002, 2:28am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/amazingly-bizarre-lap-dancing-law/122093/8 "2002-08-03T02:28:29Z")
What you’re missing is that lap dances and g-string stuffing is still legal WITHIN LAS VEGAS CITY LIMITS. There are six strip clubs within the city and they are untouched by the law. It’s the strip clubs outside of Vegas in other parts of Nevada that are affected. J ---
**Author:** ![Larry\_Mudd](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/l/f14d63/32.png) [@Larry\_Mudd](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Larry_Mudd)\ **Post date:** [August 3, 2002, 2:54am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/amazingly-bizarre-lap-dancing-law/122093/9 "2002-08-03T02:54:51Z")
**sleestak** , I was just kidding about the euphemism angle… again, the power of the smilie is demonstrated. 😃 I poked around for a few links– [Via Boston.com](http://www.boston.com/dailynews/213/nation/Dancers_strip_club_supporters_:.shtml) > [@](#): > > Most people attending the commission’s meeting were displeased with the new rules. > > ‘‘You’re confusing sex with titillation,’’ Dr. Jeffrey Arenswald told the commission. ‘‘You have some repressed sexual ideas.’’ > > At that, Gates banged her gavel. > > ‘‘I’m not doing this because of my sexual anything,’’ Gates said. ‘‘I’m doing this because I think it’s right.’’ I dare you to read that and not think of Monty Python: “Objection here, objection there! … well after a bit all I could do was bang my little gavel.” “You what, love?” “I banged me gavel. I did me ‘silence in court’ bit.” Heh heh. [More detail here](http://www.lasvegassun.com/sunbin/stories/sun/2002/aug/01/513794782.html). ---
**Author:** ![Miss\_Purl\_McKnittington](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/e9a140/32.png) [@Miss\_Purl\_McKnittington](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Miss_Purl_McKnittington)\ **Post date:** [August 3, 2002, 6:59am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/amazingly-bizarre-lap-dancing-law/122093/10 "2002-08-03T06:59:00Z")
How exactly are they going to enforce this? Plainsclothes police officers??? 😛 ---
**Author:** ![AskNott](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/asknott/32/5790_2.png) [@AskNott](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/AskNott)\ **Post date:** [August 3, 2002, 10:50am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/amazingly-bizarre-lap-dancing-law/122093/11 "2002-08-03T10:50:00Z")
“…As long as the dancer does not come in contact with the foot.” Am I the only one whose mind flashed on the word “TOFU?” –Nott ---
**Author:** ![loupdebois](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/l/e495f1/32.png) [@loupdebois](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/loupdebois)\ **Post date:** [August 4, 2002, 12:20am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/amazingly-bizarre-lap-dancing-law/122093/12 "2002-08-04T00:20:27Z")
GAAAH. Evil scuzzy politicians representing the Bible Belt by passing laws in the real world!!! Agh! The foot thing makes a tiny amount of sense: the foot is much more sensitive than the leg, the concentration of nerves there is almost as high as the hand. Not only that, it’s prehensile: dancers could end up with toes in their orifices. (sorry, graphic…) The 6-foot thing is what the Good Lord would tell us about women of loose morals and the Hoor of Babylon, if we all listened to the voice of the Good Lord through Baptist preachers, we’d barely have any fun at all and the Internet would’ve been torn down when the first ASCII porn-email got sent around… I think I should stop there before I get restricted to the Pit… ---
**Author:** ![ShibbOleth](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/848f3c/32.png) [@ShibbOleth](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/ShibbOleth)\ **Post date:** [August 4, 2002, 9:21pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/amazingly-bizarre-lap-dancing-law/122093/13 "2002-08-04T21:21:57Z")
> [@](#): > > \*Originally posted by Larry Mudd \* > \*\*Maybe “foot” is a euphemism? \*\* Maybe for you, but half foot would be closer to the mark in my case 😉 ---
**Author:** ![El\_Kabong](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/el_kabong/32/496_2.png) [@El\_Kabong](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/El_Kabong)\ **Post date:** [August 5, 2002, 12:50am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/amazingly-bizarre-lap-dancing-law/122093/14 "2002-08-05T00:50:38Z")
The new ordinance mentioned by the OP sounds similar to an existing law in Houston (which, IIRC, likewise was put forward by a female city council member who strongly disapproves of strip clubs on moral grounds). From my personal experience, and discussions with numerous dancers, the Houston “six foot rule” is routinely and almost universally ignored (except on those rare occasions when Vice is suspected to be in the house). Generally, club managers will intervene only if the dancer requests it or if the manager observes dancer-customer contact where, er, certain body parts are at risk of being inserted into other body parts; otherwise the dancer controls how far things go. In Houston, prosecutions based on the ordinance apparently are not very common. Vice tends to concentrate more on sting operations in which officers pose as customers and attempt to trap dancers into offering sexual acts for money. More common are Prohibition-style raids (which occur maybe once or twice a year in each club); all the dancers I’ve spoken to agree that these take place primarily to carry out drug and weapons searches and to roust dancers or customers with outstanding warrants. Of course, if the cops happen to catch one or two dancers and customers _in flagrante_ during a raid, they’ll be hauled in. It of course remains to be seen as to just how zealously the authorities will enforce the Vegas ordinance. ---
**Author:** ![RTA](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/b4bc9f/32.png) [@RTA](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/RTA)\ **Post date:** [August 5, 2002, 12:32pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/amazingly-bizarre-lap-dancing-law/122093/15 "2002-08-05T12:32:39Z")
The 6 foot law sounds like a copy of the one they passed in Tampa. The Tampa effort truly was the result of tightly wrapped Christians who felt that lap dancing made the city less livable and respectable nationally. (Beware the vocal, organized minority!) Their major argument, as I recall, was how lap dancing = prostitution, and all prostitutes use drugs, and all drug use causes crime, therefore lap dancing is a direct cause of crime. Many arrests of dancers and patrons were made during a campaign of terror ordered by the mayor of Tampa. The arrests seemed to die down after the Super Bowl came and left, strangely. Nowadays I understand you can still go get a full service lap dance anywhere in Tampa, though the 6 foot law remains on the books. ---
**Author:** ![DeadlyAccurate](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/ac91a4/32.png) [@DeadlyAccurate](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/DeadlyAccurate)\ **Post date:** [August 5, 2002, 3:12pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/amazingly-bizarre-lap-dancing-law/122093/16 "2002-08-05T15:12:23Z")
How does one remain six feet away from someone and still “grind their anus, genitals, and pubic areas against a customers leg?”