Will the 'stripper mobile' run afoul of local laws?
PORTLAND, Ore. - Sin City banned the “stripper mobile” so its promoter is taking his show on a nationwide tour.
One stop: Portland.
Because of Oregon’s lax public indecency laws, promoter Larry Beard of Déjà Vu Showgirls is targeting the city of Portland for full-nude exposure, but he may have to rethink that.
“When I (“stripper mobile”) went through Oregon, I was going to have the girls nude or topless,” Beard said by phone Tuesday about his plans to bring his “stripper mobile” to the Rose City.
In Las Vegas, the “stripper mobile” featured dancing women in bikinis in a clear plastic enclosure on the back of a truck. Its intention was to promote several strip clubs. But county commissioners banned it because, they said, it was a distraction to other drivers.
Beard said he doesn’t think he’ll get in trouble in Portland if his women are naked.
“I’m still researching that,” he said. “I don’t think so. I understand they have naked bike rides up in Oregon.”
He’s right. When the World Naked Bike Ride rolls through town, many Portlanders ride their bikes naked through the streets to protest dependency on cars and foreign oil.
Oregon’s public indecency law says that public nudity is not illegal unless the person engages in “sexual intercourse”, or public attempts of “arousing sexual desire” with themselves or “another person.”
That’s why the late Jimmie MacKenzie wasn’t arrested when he walked around naked outside his house in Columbia County in front school buses that carried children.
Also, a coffee table book featuring naked children could be sold at Barnes and Noble because it didn’t depict sexual acts.
But naked bike riders and others who spurn clothes can get in trouble within Portland City limits. City code says it is unlawful for anyone to “expose … genitalia while in a public place.”
“If it’s just exposure of the breasts, under the two statutes I’ve cited, criminal prosecution couldn’t be possible,” said Fred Lenzser of the Multnomah County district attorney’s office.
The bottom line is that strippers on the “stripper mobile” will have to cover their bottom half if they want to stay above Portland law when they arrive in mid-January.
The state police said the strippers would not be violating the seat belt law if all the other seats in the cab of the truck are taken, and Portland police said they can crack down on the “stripper mobile” if it blocks traffic or becomes a traffic hazard.
