Gay male strip club Swinging Richards sues North Miami Beach to allow its dancers to perform nude

BY STEVE ROTHAUS, srothaus@MiamiHerald.com

Swinging Richards, the all-nude gay male strip club that opened last fall in North Miami Beach, has sued the city for demanding its dancers cover up.

"Female dancers have been allowed to dance nude and serve alcohol for years but as soon as a gay club is introduced the city has wanted to enforce old ordinances," writes Swinging Richards owner C.B. Jones in a news release announcing the lawsuit.

North Miami Beach City Attorney Darcee S. Siegel declined to comment on the lawsuit specifics.

"We got served late yesterday afternoon. I have not had time to sit down and digest it," she told The Miami Herald. Siegel said she will respond to the suit within the required 20 days.

Since 1994, North Miami Beach has banned total nudity in clubs where liquor is sold, but the city never enforced the ordinance until after Swinging Richards opened last October at 17450 Biscayne Blvd.

That location has featured nude female dancers for more than 20 years. Two other clubs in North Miami Beach -- Dean's Gold and G5ive Lounge -- also feature total female nudity.

For years, NMB allowed those clubs to operate without penalty. Now the city has threatened to enforce the '94 ordinance against all three clubs.

Jones says his Atlanta-based club is being discriminated against because its male nudity caters to gay men.

"Does everyone want to see nude male dancers onstage? Unequivocally no," Jones said. "But do they have as much right to view male performers as heterosexual patrons have to view female performers. Is the City’s reaction to nude male performances fair? Is this Equal protection or is this discrimination against gender or sexual preference? What's good for the goose is good for the gander."

Comments

[stanJames]

As suual Florida is infested with the poison of the southern bible belt repubs.

BTw how many know the following? this is just fyi for our gay friends

George Reker,founder of hate group NARTH #1 on the foloiwng list & was head of Narth which claims to fix gays

as usual all it did was make him a pathological liar.

http://www.ranker.com/list/top-10-anti-gay-activists-caught-being-gay/joanne

Tony Perkisn - pres of FRC is a racist. He just hates everyone.

http://www.rightwingwatch.org/content/picture-worth-thousand-memories

[oldwoman]

Let the richards swing free in the privacy of their own adult establishment. It's sad that there are people out there who make it their mission in life to destroy harmless things, like a private adults only establishment that features live nude men, that many people enjoy. It's worse that they hijack our government to do their dirty work. Liberty shouldn't only apply to adherents to the tenets of the Abrahamic faiths.

[joe]

all 3 establishments if they were doing nude before 1994 city law they should all be grandfathered and allowed to continue, doesn't matter if it's naked women or men, the use is the same.

[Marco Luxe]

I thought there was an agreement to continue with mediation without a filing a lawsuit. What changed?

[Tube Salvation]

Turn from your sinful ways to Jesus and be saved from the near wrath of God on the wicked ;(

http://youtu.be/ysNd4QGOgeY

[Gnosis]

Jesus Loves the wicked

that's the point of Christianity.

[jayson]

Dont understand why anybody cares. Nude men or nude women or even live sex shows- what is it hurting you

[Inis Magrath]

Somewhere in NMB, right this very minute, some person is naked. And somewhere in NMB, right this very minute, there is a "conservative" person who just can't stand the fact that there is nothing he can do to stop it.

[Michael Wind]

good for you steve its about time we have a kosher male nude club,we will call it -the swinging putz= .

[Steve]

the city didn't just "let" the clubs operate with nudity and alcohol, they accepted money to issue them permits to do so for more than 20 years, and then accepted their tax payments. Issuing them permits based on receipt of fees is hardly the passive "turning a blind eye" some people would like to think.