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News & ArtsSaturday, November 6, 2010
Sex City Shuts Down Porn Festival
Posted by Dan Savage on Sat, Nov 6, 2010 at 4:34 PM
Not our city, not our festival.
In Seattle this weekend thousands of people are pouring into On the Boards for HUMP!, the Pacific Northwest's biggest, best, and only amateur porn festival. HUMP! is in its sixth year and we've never had a problem with the city. (Heck, we're thinkin' a couple of members of the city council might have submitted a film this year.) But in Albuquerque, New Mexico, the authorities managed to harass that city's porn festival—Pornotopia—out of existence earlier this week. Here's the story:
For the past 3 years, we have brought beautiful, raw, healthy expressions of adult sexuality to welcoming audiences. And, for the past 3 years the City of Albuquerque has attempted to limit, censor and persecute our constitutionally protected speech.This year, in an attempt to defuse this ongoing conflict and comply with the City’s onerous zoning requirements, we voluntarily elected to postpone our annual film festival. Instead, we have spent recent weeks putting together a non-pornographic celebration of sexuality and the 1st amendment under the title of Pornotopia CENSORED.... However, when it comes to Pornotopia, following the rules is not enough. Over the past few days, the City’s Planning and Zoning Department, apparently in coordination with other City agencies and departments, has conducted a campaign of bullying and intimidation against all those associated with Pornotopia CENSORED. Veiled threats have been made against the Sunshine Theater (the planned location of Pornotopia CENSORED) and against our performers. The City made it clear that both Zoning Enforcement officers and Special Investigations Divisions officers would attend the performance in number, and that these officers would find a way to shut down and silence an event focused on the importance and power of free speech. The Sunshine Theater was threatened with citations for permitting “adult entertainment” under an obscure provision of the zoning code which the City has never before enforced. [Even] if these various citations ultimately proved to be groundless, the costs of fighting the foreseeable legal battles would bring financial ruin to the individuals and small businesses targeted by the City.
Under these circumstances, Pornotopia CENSORED simply cannot go forward. We cannot ask our supporters and our performers to risk legal and financial dangers of this magnitude. Pornotopia and Self Serve Sexuality Resource Center have always focused on promoting the beauty of adult sexuality in a safe, protected environment.
Here's a local TV news report about the cancelation of Pornotopia CENSORED.
Pornotopia CENSORED was supposed to go down today. The sponsors of the event are asking people to send letters to Albuquerque's mayor Richard Berry. "Mayor Berry is listening and wants to hear from you," says Mayor Berry's website. Let the mayor hear from you here. And while we're sending emails to Mayor Berry, I'm thinking the folks at Pornotopia might wanna be sending an email to the ACLU of New Mexico.
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That's their mistake. They should be bringing raw expressions of adults murdering each other with guns to audiences. That's wholesome all-American entertainment, not porn.
In an effort to open a dialog with the City Council and the zoning committee, we have organized under the name abqCUFFS, Albuquerque Citizens United For Free Speech. We're getting that together in the next few weeks, and we've got some support from the local arts community at large. I like to remind myself that our hearts are full of love, and we will be the positive change we wish to see in Albuquerque. It just might take a while.
~Elisa
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Then some dumb church got worked up and got a member elected to the council. They started all sorts of pray-a-thons, customer harassment, and other nonsense, and used city government to shut all of them down, except for one.
Youu would think this was some sort of moral victory, but the guy who owned them built a porn superstore/theatre/arcade out on the edge of the county, just across the river from the Air Force base. He's raking it in, and the parking lot is full, 24 hours a day, with mostly Nebraska and western Iowa cars. Most of them are in the theatre or arcade having gay sex, so what the Bible thumpers did was just make it more convienent and discreete for married and military closet cases to step out.
Oh, and the other thing they accomplished was emptying out a good chunk of the commercial real estate in what's left of downtown. Goodbye sales tax. But not to worry - a few years after the porn went away, the casinos came in, and they funded a new library. Right-wing victimhood all over again, but the people love their slots, and the money keeps the town going, as all the smart young people flee as soon as they can.
Red wave indeed.....
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Then some dumb church got worked up and got a member elected to the council. They started all sorts of pray-a-thons, customer harassment, and other nonsense, and used city government to shut all of them down, except for one.
Youu would think this was some sort of moral victory, but the guy who owned them built a porn superstore/theatre/arcade out on the edge of the county, just across the river from the Air Force base. He's raking it in, and the parking lot is full, 24 hours a day, with mostly Nebraska and western Iowa cars. Most of them are in the theatre or arcade having gay sex, so what the Bible thumpers did was just make it more convienent and discreete for married and military closet cases to step out.
Oh, and the other thing they accomplished was emptying out a good chunk of the commercial real estate in what's left of downtown. Goodbye sales tax. But not to worry - a few years after the porn went away, the casinos came in, and they funded a new library. Right-wing victimhood all over again, but the people love their slots, and the money keeps the town going, as all the smart young people flee as soon as they can.
Red wave indeed.....
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And YOU compare OBAMA to Hitler...
are you kidding?
Jews are running the whole show.
who do you think is financing the revolution?....
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Do you have anything to say based on reality?
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You should read the book. It's really good, and it's clear you haven't.
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And if it's not about the kids, then what? Do you REALLY think Yahweh is gonna rain destruction on your city because it has a pornfest? You people believe in a fucked-up god: if it's all-powerful, why can't it use precision strikes to kill only the sinners and leave the righteous? Why does it feel the need to coerce not only your behavior, but to use the faithful (not its own power) to coerce the behavior of the heathens? It doesn't make any sense, even if I DO grant the premise that Yahweh is real.
"Yay Freedom!!! Boo Government Intrusion... unless it's exactly the intrusion that I want, then it's not only okay, it's NECESSARY." No drugs, no porn, no kinky sex, no fucking swearing on TV, etc., and you claim to want a return to fundamental Constitutional government and claim to be Libertarian Tea Party activists (I'm assuming the cross-over here, but I'm fairly confident in my assumption)? Fuck you all. I would gladly sacrifice a couple limbs if it meant never again having to deal with hateful ignorant hypocritical religious zombies.
And hey haters: Albuquerque and New Mexico are not shitholes. Yes, we're a swing state - and on the local level pretty conservative - that doesn't reflect every person who lives here, and it doesn't mean that no one progressive votes (what an absurd assumption). The founders of this festival are a volunteer group of radical queers who are very involved in local, state, and national politics. I live in Santa Fe and am involved with these folks - the strong, intelligent, sex-positive Self Serve and Pornotopia do great things for this area's queer, straight, kink, and outsider communities. So please don't randomly attack our city, state, and citizens or take this superior attitude toward us. We think HUMP is great, and don't try to tear it down. Thanks!
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