Committed to invading your hotel
Over the weekend I heard of our local legislators sponsoring a bill to check which Minnesota hotels are naughty or nice.
A bill sponsored by Democratic Sen. Tarryl Clark of St. Cloud could prohibit spending public dollars at in-state hotels or meeting facilities that provide their customers with pornographic materials that link sex with violence. Nonviolent adult movies would be OK.
The bill gets a hearing in a Senate committee Wednesday.
The Department of Administration would keep a directory of approved facilities to help employees plan travel.
As you might expect, local reaction was largely of the kind "why are we wasting money on keeping this directory? Who writes it? Who will invade the hotels to determine whether they show the good kind of adult movies or the bad kind?" Sure enough, the Minnesota Not So Independent comes through with the follow up story that it's all about "making a commitment."
Caroline Palmer, staff attorney for the Minnesota Coalition Against Sexual Assault (MNCASA), cautions that the bill is not a mandate, but a commitment by the State of Minnesota to reduce sexual assault.
“It simply directs the state to give preference to facilities that offer porn-free environments, and it gives the state the ability to make decisions based on reasonableness factors related to cost and geographic location,” Palmer told the Minnesota Independent. “Our focus is primarily on the relationship between how the state chooses to spend public dollars and the state’s commitment to preventing sexual violence.”
But they go on to say not all viewing of adult movies leads to violence, and writer Andy Birkey shows a bill summary that either version of the bill does not show, but it fits what else I had read -- namely, it does not go after the cable networks' distribution of adult entertainment. (Here's the bill itself. I cannot find the summary Birkey uses, nor does he provide a link.) It leaves wide open interpretation of the law as regards what is "degradation." Someone ought to have a camera on Sen. Clark and Rep. Haws when they try to offer their interpretations.
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