Based on the evidence and reports cited in § 111.02, Council finds:
(A) Adult entertainment establishments lend themselves to ancillary unlawful and unhealthy activities that are presently uncontrolled by the operators of the establishments;
(B) Certain employees of adult entertainment establishments, as defined in this chapter as adult theaters and cabarets, engage in a higher incidence of certain types of illicit sexual behavior than employees of other establishments;
(C) Sexual acts, including masturbation and oral and anal sex, occur at adult entertainment establishments, especially those that provide private or semiprivate booths or cubicles for viewing films, videos, or live sex shows. The “couch dances” or “lap dances” that frequently occur in adult entertainment establishments featuring live nude or seminude dancers constitute or may constitute the offense of “engaging in prostitution” under R.C. § 2907.25;
(D) Offering and providing private or semiprivate booths or cubicles encourages those activities, which creates unhealthy conditions;
(E) Persons frequent certain adult theaters, adult arcades, and other adult entertainment establishments for the purpose of engaging in sexual activity within the premises of those adult entertainment establishments;
(F) Numerous communicable diseases may be spread by activities occurring in sexually oriented businesses, including but not limited to syphilis, gonorrhea, human immunodeficiency virus infection (HIV-AIDS), genital herpes, hepatitis salmonella, campylobacter and shigella infections, chlamydial, myoplasmal and ureoplasmal infections, trichomoniasis, and chancroid;
(G) Since 1981 and to the present, there has been an increasing cumulative number of reported cases of AIDS caused by the human immunodeficiency virus (HIV) in the United States: 600 in 1982, 2,200 in 1983, 4,600 in 1984, 8,555 in 1985, and 253,448 through December 31, 1992;
(H) A total of 10,255 AIDS cases had been reported in this state as of January 1999. Ohio has required HIV case reporting since 1990, and the reported information shows 7,969 people living with (HIV) (4,213) and (AIDS) (3,756) in the state;
(I) Since 1981 and to the present, there have been an increasing cumulative number of persons testing positive for the HIV antibody test in this state;
(J) The number of cases of early (less than one year) syphilis in the Unites States reported annually has risen. 33,613 cases were reported in 1982, and 45,200 cases were reported through November 1990;
(K) The number of cases of gonorrhea in the United States reported annually remains at a high level, with over one-half million cases being reported in 1990;
(L) The Surgeon General of the United States in his report of October 22, 1986, has advised the American public that AIDS and HIV infection may be transmitted through sexual contact, intravenous drug abuse, and exposure to infected blood and blood components, and from an infected mother to her newborn;
(M) According to the best scientific evidence, AIDS and HIV infection, as well as syphilis and gonorrhea, are principally transmitted by sexual acts;
(N) Sanitary conditions in some adult entertainment establishments are unhealthy, in part, because the activities conducted there are unhealthy, and, in part, because of the unregulated nature of the activities and the failure of the owners and the operators of the facilities to self-regulate those activities and maintain those facilities;
(O) The findings noted in divisions (A) to (N) of this section raise substantial governmental concerns;
(P) Adult entertainment establishments have operational characteristics that require or mandate subjecting them to reasonable government regulation in order to protect those substantial governmental concerns; and
(Q) The enactment of this chapter will promote the general welfare, health, morals, and safety of the citizens of this village.
(Ord. 61-2010, passed 3-15-2010)
Cross-reference:
Case law background for this section, see § 111.02