It’s been a rough few months for the West’s spas.
Last week, a federal judge in California struck down the state’s ban on using public pools to host adult entertainment events, saying it violated the constitution and a law barring private gambling.
This week, the state legislature took aim at the entertainment industry by passing a bill that would prohibit the sale of adult entertainment, including live shows, through private parties and bars.
It’s all but a foregone conclusion that this law will pass, because the entertainment industries are too powerful to lose.
Yet while the industry has been able to fend off a number of attempts to pass such laws, it is also facing backlash from the general public.
It is a very public industry, and we know that public perception and the ability of an industry to be portrayed in a favorable light can change over time, said John A. Lippman, executive director of the California Association of Private Spas and Spa Owners.
Lipsman, who has worked with the industry for decades, said he expects the industry to remain strong as long as people accept the idea that spas can be a safe place to meet and socialize with friends and family.
Liversedge, Virginia, is a city in Northern Virginia that has been the center of the adult entertainment industry for nearly 40 years.
It has hosted numerous adult entertainment conventions, including the Spas on the Hill, a three-day gathering of the world’s top adult entertainment professionals, as well as events hosted by the adult industry’s most prominent brands, including Playboy, Penthouse, Playboy Enterprises, Erotic Beauties, Playboy Playmates and Playboy Mansion.
A recent investigation by the local paper, The Washington Post, revealed that more than 60 percent of the people who went to the Spases on the Hills were from the West, with the largest concentration coming from Los Angeles, according to the investigation.
Lizzie Latham, a spokeswoman for the Las Vegas-based Adult Entertainment Industry Association, said the association’s goal is to promote the health and safety of the industry, not to penalize it.
Latham also noted that the state has taken several actions in recent years to protect the industry from harmful or illegal activity, such as banning the sale and possession of marijuana in public and imposing new restrictions on people and businesses that allow the sale or consumption of marijuana.
“We have no evidence that the adult entertainers have ever been directly harmed by these new regulations,” Latham said.
Llamas attorney, Mike Siegel, said in an interview that his firm represents about 20 adult entertainer groups.
He said the industry had an average of four members in the House and a total of nine in the Senate at the time of the 2016 election.
The association’s annual convention, held annually in Washington, D.C., drew about 10,000 people.
“I think the public’s perception of the entertainment world is that it’s a very safe place for people to meet, socialize and socialise with their friends,” Siegel said.
“So we think the current regulation is overbroad, and it’s creating a bad impression.”
