Yellowstone Art Museum - Letter to the Editor
Cultural Organizations Encourage Full Understanding
of Proposed Obscenity Ordinance
Members of the Board of Trustees and staff of the Yellowstone Art Museum urge all voters to acquaint themselves fully with the proposed Yellowstone County obscenity ordinance that will appears on the June ballot. The full text of the proposed ordinance may be viewed at
www.co.yellowstone.mt.gov/commissioners/ObscenityOrdinance.pdf
Several points are important to note up front. First, the ordinance is separate from the zoning ordinance affecting adult entertainment businesses. The community has an opportunity in a different ballot measure to determine where and if such businesses can operate. Second, it is a criminal ordinance…not civil. Third, it applies to adults and what adults may and may not do. Legislation already exists protecting minors from obscenity, which we strongly support.
YAM has joined with other concerned cultural organizations in opposition to this ordinance. If passed, the measure could have a chilling influence on businesses, cultural organizations, schools and individuals. With a definition of “obscenity” that is impossibly broad, the ordinance could instantly render cause for criminal action the presentation of every operatic love story, 30,000 years’ worth of artistic celebration of the human form, Nobel Prize-winning literature, and television crime dramas. The implications are sweeping. Cultural organizations and businesses could face crippling court costs, and some could be driven out of business for actions that are not illegal anywhere else in the country.
The Board of Trustees and staff of the Yellowstone Art Museum do not support genuine obscenity. However, we also do not support a stringent, subjective definition of the concept whose enforcement would be anti-culture, anti-business, and stunningly expensive for the taxpayers to enforce. We encourage voters to consider all of the implications of this proposed legislation.
Robyn G. Peterson
Executive Director
Yellowstone Art Museum
of Proposed Obscenity Ordinance
Members of the Board of Trustees and staff of the Yellowstone Art Museum urge all voters to acquaint themselves fully with the proposed Yellowstone County obscenity ordinance that will appears on the June ballot. The full text of the proposed ordinance may be viewed at
www.co.yellowstone.mt.gov/commissioners/ObscenityOrdinance.pdf
Several points are important to note up front. First, the ordinance is separate from the zoning ordinance affecting adult entertainment businesses. The community has an opportunity in a different ballot measure to determine where and if such businesses can operate. Second, it is a criminal ordinance…not civil. Third, it applies to adults and what adults may and may not do. Legislation already exists protecting minors from obscenity, which we strongly support.
YAM has joined with other concerned cultural organizations in opposition to this ordinance. If passed, the measure could have a chilling influence on businesses, cultural organizations, schools and individuals. With a definition of “obscenity” that is impossibly broad, the ordinance could instantly render cause for criminal action the presentation of every operatic love story, 30,000 years’ worth of artistic celebration of the human form, Nobel Prize-winning literature, and television crime dramas. The implications are sweeping. Cultural organizations and businesses could face crippling court costs, and some could be driven out of business for actions that are not illegal anywhere else in the country.
The Board of Trustees and staff of the Yellowstone Art Museum do not support genuine obscenity. However, we also do not support a stringent, subjective definition of the concept whose enforcement would be anti-culture, anti-business, and stunningly expensive for the taxpayers to enforce. We encourage voters to consider all of the implications of this proposed legislation.
Robyn G. Peterson
Executive Director
Yellowstone Art Museum
posted by Editors at 4:42 PM
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