This week, a committee in the Oregon Legislature heard testimony on a bill to bar people younger than 21 from dancing nude at strip clubs. Social conservatives and women's rights advocates say minors are exploited by the nude bars. But free speech advocates say nude dancing is protected expression. Colin Fogarty reports. Right now, the Oregon Liquor Control Commission strictly regulates where alcohol can be served at dance halls.
Ballrooms have to keep their bars a fair distance from all-ages dance floors.
The aim, according to OLCC regulations, is to prevent inebriated men from dancing along side under-aged girls. And yet, under Oregon law, an 18 year old girl can dance nude in front of lots of drunk men at a strip club where she's not old enough to drink. Albany Republican Betsy Close sponsored a bill to change that. In her testimony before the House Judiciary Subcommittee on Civil Law, she read an e-mail she received from a former exotic dancer. Social conservatives, like Close, don't like the sexual content of nude dancing bars.