Louisiana to regulate nude modeling studios...

Title 51 of the Louisiana Revised Statues of 1950 may get a new chapter if Senate Bill 712 is enacted. They seem to be going after strippers and lap dancers, but they've thrown in nude models too.

Here is the link: http://www.legis.state​.la.us …amdocument.asp?​did=479475

Here are the salient points which apply to Glamour/Nude photography. The text below is my summary. Go to the page and heading areas to get the exact text. I'll do what I can to stay within the intent of each section.

This is rather interesting stuff and it is all laid out in terms which need attention by anyone shooting nudes in their Louisiana studios. I wonder how many other states have similar laws which include "semi-nude model studios".

Yes, this is thick, but I'm trying to follow the reasoning and implications.

Page 1, beginning on line 11:
§3121. Legislative intent, purpose and findings
A. Sexually oriented businesses need to be regulated to "promote the health, safety, and general welfare of the citizens of the state, and to establish reasonable and uniform regulations to prevent the deleterious secondary effects of sexually oriented businesses within the state." This is not an attack on First Amendment issues with respect to protected publications.

Page 2, line 9:
B. The legislature hereby finds the following:
"(1) Sexually oriented businesses ... are associated with a wide variety of adverse secondary effects" to society including a laundry list of crimes and corrupt morals.
(2) Sexually oriented businesses need to be controlled to minimize the effect on neighborhoods and businesses.

The bill then goes on to define a variety of terms which are used throughout the bill.

Page 5, line 9
( 8 ) "Nudity or a state of nudity" which uses some rather descriptive terms to state which areas of the body, when displayed, constitute nudity

Page 5, line 29
(13) "Semi-nude or state of semi-nudity" which uses some interesting geometry of the breast to draw a line, yes, a horizontal line, on where semi-nude crosses over into nude.

Page 6, line 7
(14) "Semi-nude model studio" which does not include modeling classes for certain schools (no you cannot make one up) and as such cannot advertise that semi-nude modeling is taking place inside.

Page 7, line 12
(18 ) "Sexually oriented business" lists the usual suspects PLUS "semi-nude model studios"

Now that the intent of the bill and definitions are laid out, we can define regulations:

Pages 8 and 9 beginning at line 22:
§3123. Regulations
A. No person shall establish a sexually oriented business which meets the location and land parcel/use qualifications pertaining to schools, churches, daycares...
B. No convicted criminals allowed to operate said businesses.
C. No person shall knowingly or intentionally, in a sexually oriented business, appear in a state of nudity.
D. No semi-nudity unless on a 18-inch stage and 6 feet from patrons.

The bill then goes on to list the penalties for operating said businesses. Each day of operation counts as a separate offense.

I'm not sure if private nude studios count so long as you don't take a fee for someone to learn while you shoot. Just the same. I thought I should pass this one along.

I'm no lawyer, but I would think this would be very hard to enforce or prosecute as written. Doesn't mean they wouldn't try.

I'm sure glad I no longer live in the South, and especially not in the States of Alabama, Louisiana and Texas.

Sort of puts a pretty heavy restriction on any and all nude modeling.

B. Sexually oriented businesses hereby find the following:

"(1) The legislature ... is associated with a wide variety of adverse secondary effects" to society including a laundry list of crimes and corrupt morals.
(2) The legislature needs to be controlled to minimize the effect on neighborhoods and businesses.


I did a little rewrite of the bill, seems more truthful now. It is Louisiana after all.

Hard to get the full gist of it with only snippets...but it appears that they're doing what other states have done with regard to strip clubs (even including states in the liberal northeast). They're not being outlawed, just having more restrictions placed on them. Primarily, they're trying to keep strip clubs out of neighborhoods, away from schools and churches, etc. From what I can tell from the snippets, topless is okay (provided the "entertainer" is at least 6 feet away from the customers...no copping a cheap feel when tipping the girl), total nudity is not. Most of the "massage parlors" and "modeling studios", at least in Texas, were generally just fronts for prostitution rings anyway (and anyone who denies this has his or her head in the sand), and usually "employed" Asian girls that were forced into it as payment to their smuggler...looks like Louisiana is trying to control those as well.

Not sure what to make about Mark's comment regarding the south, but maybe he'd like a strip club or "massage parlor" or "modeling studio" next door to his house in Portland, or next to his kid's school? Don't get me wrong...I enjoy a few beers with the guys at a strip club every now and then (God knows we have plenty of them in the Dallas area), I just don't want one opening up in my neighborhood. I guess we're just not as "enlightened" as folks in Portland or Seattle.

argyle wrote in post #5483810
Not sure what to make about Mark's comment regarding the south, but maybe he'd like a strip club or "massage parlor" or "modeling studio" next door to his house in Portland, or next to his kid's school? Don't get me wrong...I enjoy a few beers with the guys at a strip club every now and then (God knows we have plenty of them in the Dallas area), I just don't want one opening up in my neighborhood. I guess we're just not as "enlightened" as folks in Portland or Seattle.

I was born and raised in the South (rural Georgia) and have lived in South Carolina, Florida and traveled extensively throughout the Southeast and Southwest. It's been my experience that the state governments in that area of the country do their utmost to legislate public morality (which has never seemed to work to me) and to concentrate power in the hands of the state and municipalities rather than in the individual.

Oregon has a strong free speech provision in its state constitution which very broadly protects artists and artistic endeavors (even strippers) in their freedom of expression. At the same time, the state has very strong land-use regulations that do a fine job keeping adult business out of neighborhoods. To relate this to photography, this means that in most places in Oregon (short of heavily regulated municipalities), I can shoot nude or semi-nude models just about anywhere. That doesn't mean I do, but it's nice to not have to look over my shoulders for cops whenever I'm working with a model.

I'm just saying, I've lived in the South, still have family there, and I've lived in the Northwest. I'm staying put.