After delaying a decision for months, the Soldotna City Council, on a vote of 4-2, decided last week to not to ban lewd and lascivious performances for children at the city’s public parks.
Changes to city ordinances had been offered by concerned parents to prevent another incident like the one last summer in a park, where Anchorage-based drag queen performers pranced, twerked, and gyrated in front of children in what many considered a highly sexualized event.
The public expressed outrage that the group had been able to get a city permit for the show at Soldotna Creek Park. It was part of a Pride Day event that included other participatory activities “to advance the central Kenai Peninsula’s Queer Community.”
Last Wednesday, with a room packed with Soldotna residents, the council decided it’s not its role to say what is acceptable to do in front of children in a public park. There are already laws on the books that prohibit sex or sexual simulation, but the City Council was not willing to take the next step and ban burlesque dancing or strip teasing in front of children or in areas where children are expected to be, such as in parks.
Voting no were Councilmembers Jordan Chilson, Linda Farnsworth-Hutchings, Dan Nelson, and Chera Wackler. Councilmembers Lisa Parker and Dave Carey voted in favor. They appeared to worry about the message that a restriction on lewd behavior would send to the LGBTQ community, and perhaps make LGBTQ people feel unwelcome in the city.
Farnsworth-Hutchings was joined by Chilson, Dan Nelson and Chera Wackler in voting no; Lisa Parker and Dave Carey voted in favor.
For now, drag performances of nearly any level of debauchery targeting children are legal and protected in Soldotna, as is just about any form of “lewdness or lascivious behavior.”
In Tennessee, a state law has passed prohibiting these “adult cabaret performances” targeting minors. The ban includes topless dancers, go-go dancers, exotic dancers, strippers and sexualized performances by male or female impersonators.
