VENTURA : Club Owner Attacks City’s Anti-Gay Policy

A 26-year-old policy on live entertainment that discriminates against gays and lesbians should be stricken from city regulations, a Ventura club owner contends.

City Resolution No. 6593, adopted June 3, 1968, states that owners of clubs “shall not permit any person to dance with another person of the same sex” or hire entertainers “whose conduct encourages, promotes or condones the congregating of homosexuals, lesbians or persons pretending to be such.”

Moreover, the eight-page resolution also forbids shows featuring female impersonators, unless a special permit is obtained from the city manager.

Dan Gaffaney, who recently opened the bar Lipstix, catering to lesbians, said he discovered the wording Friday after requesting an entertainment permit. Along with the permit application, the city routinely sent him a copy of the resolution.

“It’s probably never come out of the closet,” he said. “But it should be stricken nonetheless. It’s discriminatory in its language and in its intent.”

After being asked about the resolution, City Clerk Barbara Kam said the city attorney will review it and recommend changes. It would be up to the City Council to adopt a revised resolution.

Kam said the policy has not been changed previously because no one has challenged it.

“It’s an old, old regulation,” she said. “Social standards have changed significantly.”

In addition to the wording on same-sex couples, the resolution also forbids performers from singing obscene words or from performing skits that would discredit religious groups or law enforcement agencies.

Kam said the resolution would not stop the city from issuing an entertainment permit to Lipstix, at 577 E. Main St., in the space of the old Bermuda Triangle bar. A resolution is a city policy, rather than an ordinance, which carries the power of a law.

“It’s not our goal to inhibit people’s ability to do those things they’re constitutionally allowed to do,” she said.