U.S. District Judge Sidney Fitzwater heard arguments on Monday (April 18) from eXXXotica, the largest expo dedicated to love and sex, and the city of Dallas, state of Texas and Dallas Citizens Council. The city voted to refuse to allow the expo, which drew 15,000 people last year, to return to the Kay Bailey Hutchison Convention Center this year (even though the expo organizers had already reserved the center).
EXXXotica claims the city violated its First Amendment rights. Although Dallas has a sexually-oriented business ordinance that regulates where those businesses operate, it doesn’t apply to temporary businesses like an expo.
The city argued illegal activity took place at last year’s expo, but city officials were unable to give any evidence of such activity. Police reported no illegal activity at last year’s expo, but maybe some lurking city officials saw something and are just afraid to go public with the information in fear that anyone will know they attended.
Other issues discussed included whether the Kay is a private or public venue. EXXXotica claims the city convention center is a public facility and therefore can’t pick and choose who rents it. The city had some weird argument that its facility has some sort of status other than that.
And a note to Dallas Morning News writers: You called eXXXotica “the porn convention.” They really hate it when you call it that. Just like the way the Dallas Convention Center really hates being called the Kay when I’m referring to the porn convention, I mean the love and sex expo.
Finally, sorry I’m a few days late getting this blog post up. There’s really nothing LGBT about eXXXotica other than our taxes have been paying attorneys $4,000 a day to defend the lawsuit and will pay eXXXotica maybe millions more in punitive damages when we lose.