I’ve written about a little adult bookstore in the Oak Lawn section of Dallas. It was a couple of doors down from the men’s clothing store I used to work at. I had to go over there quite often because my boss was a partner with the bookstore guy. The boss had me drop off the occasional box of smutty greeting cards or signature form to his partner. My visits there were my introduction to adult toy stores. I had seen pornographic films. I had read pornographic magazines. I had been to strip bars. But until I worked in a clothing store, I’d never been to a smut shop.

"That nasty place in the most uptight of neighborhoods illustrated that even Baptist conservatives liked a little smut."

Where I came from, adult bookstores were located on the edge of town or in the seedier sections of a community. It was pretty much that way in Dallas in the eighties as well. Oak Lawn was the exception to the rule. The corner of Oak Lawn and Cedar Springs (in those days) was an extraordinary collection of real estate.

In one intersection there was a gay bar, a leather bar, a disco, an Italian restaurant, a hamburger shop, a men’s clothing store, an upscale antiques shop, and an adult bookstore. What made that corner so extraordinary was that it attracted visitors from all walks of life. From drag queens to housewives with kids, everyone came to explore and spend money at Oak Lawn and Cedar Springs. In Dallas, on that corner, at that time, it worked.

Dallas is big. It’s not New York City big but Dallas is one of the ten largest cities in the United States. Even so, they have their problems with defining and enforcing obscenity laws. Recently, Dallas vice cops have been trying to prosecute sales clerks who sell/rent “obscene” materials to undercover agents. This goes to show that even in our largest cities, there’s still an active interest in the enforcement of pornography laws. Anyone from New York can tell you Times Square ain’t what it used to be.

I liked that bookstore guy. He was cool to talk to. He was a former history teacher and extremely proud that his place was one of the only ones in town not under the thumb of organized criminals. His shop was discretely tucked away via a back entrance and did not harm the neighborhood. He didn’t have peep show booths. He strictly sold tangible goods. He closed before midnight and kept his place meticulously clean.

Now here it is many years later and I live in a teeny town where they not only forbid porn shops, they don’t even sell liquor. Modern materialism is encroaching upon us; they’re building a Wal-Mart SuperCenter and are about to open a new location for a large bookstore chain. You know the kind, with the fancy coffee bar and other silly stuff. If our citizens want any kind of adult entertainment, they have to drive twenty miles to the big town.

The big town isn’t that big. It’s not New York City or Dallas big. The big town has around 250,000 residents. It’s big enough. The town has always had its share of strip clubs, peep shows and adult bookstores. Those places have always been forced to position in remote parts of the city. All such places have been located in commercial districts, never residential. But there’s this one strip club…

I don’t know how the guy does it. I don’t know whom he has to bribe but this fellow runs a strip club from right in the middle of one the big town’s most affluent neighborhoods. He’s been there for at least ten years in the same general area as grocery stores, a city park and a high school. For a long while the situation gave me a giggle. Each time I passed his place I would laugh to myself, thinking about little kids asking their moms “What’s a Gentlemen’s Club, mommy?”

I laughed because that strip bar was a testament to hypocrisy. The very type people who condemn adult entertainment live in that neighborhood. The husbands probably stop there on the way home to their manicured lawns and manicured families. That nasty place in the most uptight of neighborhoods illustrated that even Baptist conservatives liked a little smut.

The thing is, I’m not so amused anymore. About six months ago a community Girl Scouts chapter moved in three doors down from the yuppie strip club. What once seemed ironically comic now seems wrong. I know the block is zoned for commercial use. I know that in a perfect world, adult businesses could set up shop anywhere without fear of prosecution. I know that adult people should have access to adult entertainment and products. But a Girl Scout headquarters three doors down from a stripper bar? That can’t be right.

This is my prologue to a multi-part piece on the US Supreme Court. They’re about to consider the case of Ashcroft v. The American Civil Liberties Union. The case concerns the Child Online Protection Act, better known as COPA.

Opponents say the law is unconstitutional. The Justice Department wants the ACLU to stop challenging their authority to enforce COPA laws. The importance of the pending court decision might greatly impact the relevance of community standards laws. Community standards worked fine when applied to smut shops in Dallas or strip bars next door to Girl Scout chapters. However, the Internet encompasses all the communities of the entire world.

** Click Here For: Court In Session! - Part #2