THE VIRGINIAN-PILOT
Copyright (c) 1996, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: Monday, June 3, 1996 TAG: 9606030042
SECTION: LOCAL PAGE: B1 EDITION: FINAL
SOURCE: BY DAVE ADDIS, STAFF WRITER
DATELINE: VIRGINIA BEACH LENGTH: 63 lines
In late April, the City Council tried to send a message to Oceanfront shops by passing a law against the open display of vulgar T-shirts and other sexually explicit souvenirs. The council gave the shopkeepers 30 days to comply.
If a survey last week of 15 blocks of Atlantic Avenue shops is accurate, the merchants have a message of their own for the city government: ``Surely you were joking.''
While little, if any, overtly obscene material is displayed along the resort strip, a visit to more than a dozen stores showed that T-shirts offensive enough to trouble the city's elected officials are still being prominently displayed.
Two shirts with slogans that ridicule gays and lesbians seemed particularly popular: Those shirts, or variations, appeared in roughly a third of the shops visited. Other shirts that violate the city's new rules include cartoon characters trying out as many as two dozen sexual positions on the front of a single shirt.
City Council's intent was not to ban such goods, but to get the shopkeepers to keep them from the view of juveniles, or adults who don't care to see them. Not a single store visited last week had a separate, covered area for its ``adult'' merchandise, as recommended by the new ordinance, which took effect the week before Memorial Day.
``I haven't been out much to see what's out there,'' said Councilman Linwood O. Branch III, who was the driving force behind the new rules. Branch, an Oceanfront hotelier, said preparing his business for the holiday weekend had kept him from checking the stores for himself.
But he expressed dismay that offending merchandise was still openly displayed, some within a block of his hotel. ``I'm going to have to make some calls and see what's going on,'' he said.
From the outset, the city attorney's office said enforcement would be based on complaints, not an organized citywide crackdown.
Randall Blow, a deputy city attorney, said Thursday that the merchants should be familiar with the new rules by now, but he said he was not aware of any enforcement action as yet.
``Essentially, we're handling it on a complaint basis,'' Blow said. ``But we have police officers walking the beats out there. If a police officer sees a violation of the ordinance he can confront the manager and try to get him to comply.''
Both Branch and Blow made particular reference to T-shirts that ridicule ``faggots'' and ``dykes'' and include vivid descriptions of sexual acts. Two shopkeepers whose stores displayed the shirts said last week they did not want to discuss the matter.
A violation of the display ordinance is a misdemeanor that carries a fine of up to $250. The city cannot stop the sale of vulgar materials, and, paradoxically, cannot keep anyone from wearing a shirt on the street that would be barred from open display in a store.
A manager at another shop, who declined to give her name, said when asked of the new display rules: ``I've never even heard of that. The owner has never mentioned it, at least to me.
``We don't sell any really dirty stuff here,'' she said, ``just some of the stuff that's kinda cutesy-naughty, if you know what I mean. We've never gotten any complaints, at least not that I know of.''
KEYWORDS: OBSCENE MATERIAL VIRGINIA BEACH by CNB