Portland area clubs take sex show ruling, run with it

Some welcome court decision; others fear effect on prostitution

By Jim Redden

The Portland Tribune, Oct 4, 2005, Updated Oct 30, 2009

Workers at Mr. Peep’s spent much of Thursday afternoon cleaning out several small rooms in the back of the one-story adult book and movie store in Southeast Portland. By Saturday, the rooms were being used by young women to take off their clothes and touch themselves in a suggestive manner in front of paying customers.

Such so-called private shows have been banned in the state for much of the past three years because of an Oregon Court of Appeals ruling that declared them illegal. But the state Supreme Court reversed significant portions of the ruling Thursday, arguing that the Oregon Constitution protects such performances as free speech.

Mr. Peep’s owner Paul Dionne expects demand for the private shows to be high. Before the appeals court ruling, he offered them for years at his Portland and Aloha stores, both called Mr. Peep’s. Customers chose acts for the women to perform from a menu that included performances with various sex toys. Charges begin with a $15 fee and an additional $5 for every five minutes of the show.

“We don’t even need to advertise the shows are back. The news is spreading by word of mouth,” said Dionne, who calls the rooms “fantasy booths” and the women “showgirls.”

Zoe, a performer who manages the booths at both of Dionne’s stores, agrees.

“We have loyal customers who have been waiting years for us to resume the shows,” said Zoe, who describes herself as a second-generation stripper who appreciates the safety of performing behind the glass dividers in the rooms.

In Beaverton, Randy Kaiser, owner of the Stars Cabaret nude dance club, does not think the new ruling will affect his business much. After the appeals court ruling came out, Kaiser directed his dancers not to touch their private parts for fear of violating the law. Now Kaiser plans to ease the restrictions slightly.

“I think we can stop going into a tizzy if they touch their breasts,” he said.

Portland police Capt. Mike Reese takes a dimmer view of the ruling. Reese, the head of the bureau’s Drugs and Vice Division, thinks the ruling makes it harder to enforce anti-prostitution laws.

“There have always been adult businesses that work every loophole in the law to promote prostitution, and this will just make it harder to catch them,” Reese said.

Patricia Barrera, community education director of the Portland prostitution recovery organization Lola Green Baldwin Foundation, denounced the ruling.

“It’s shocking that the Supreme Court failed to take a leadership role and regulate the sex industry. This is not free expression Ñ it’s access to the bodies of women and children,” Barrera said.

The different reactions reveal the uncertainty about how the ruling will affect the adult-entertainment businesses in the Portland area, which reportedly has, per capita, more nude dance clubs, lingerie modeling studios, and X-rated book and movie stores than most, if not all other, U.S. cities.

If Dionne is right, the ruling could spark an increase is such businesses across the region. If Kaiser is right, the changes could be relatively minor and limited to the smaller businesses. At any rate, law enforcement agencies must determine whether any sexual activities now are illegal in the region’s adult industry.

Rulings strike down two laws

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