Washington Blade - October 29, 2004
Phil Lapadula

In August, the Key West City Commission passed an ordinance that limits the number of adult businesses on the island and spells out that public sex is strictly off limits.

Many gay business owners and residents watched the contentious debate warily, concerned that the island's wild and wacky Fantasy Fest celebration would also be toned down.

Not to worry. Conservative forces may have won a small skirmish in the island's ongoing culture war, but efforts to tame Fantasy Fest have been as futile as dragging the bottle from Papa Hemingway.

In fact, some islanders now see the ordinance as a positive development, saying it has legitimized the island's existing adult entertainment businesses, many of which had previously been operating on the shaky edge of legality.

The ordinance limits the number of strip clubs, clothing-optional bars and X-rated video stores on the island. It also makes it clear that sex in public is prohibited.

But a clause that would have required body painters to put up curtains shielding their naked patrons from public view was stricken from the final version. Body painting is a popular staple of Fantasy Fest. Painted patrons will now only be required to cover their genitals.

New strip clubs unlikely to get permits

Steve Smith, marketing director of the Key West Business Guild, conceded the ordinance will make it more difficult for a new strip club or clothing-optional bar to open on the island.

But he says existing clubs that want to offer nude dancing have basically been given the green light to bare it all. He said 14 establishments have already been licensed as adult entertainment businesses.

"In effect, Key West is going to have more bars with full nudity than any other city in the U.S.," Smith said. "You're going to be able to go in the clubs and see go-go boys without a stitch of clothes on."

Anyone for naked lunch?

Smith said the conservative assault on Fantasy Fest began about five years ago, when the city banned body painting.

"That only lasted one year; it was a disaster," he said. Smith says it is unfair to accuse Key West of drifting toward prudishness when there's a place on the corner of Duval and Caroline streets called the Naked Lunch, where patrons can dine in the nude.

"Fantasy Fest is as wild as it's ever been," said Jim Gilleran, manager of Bourbon Street Pub and 801 Bourbon Street.

"In the last couple of years, there have been more gay-sponsored events in Fantasy Fest," he said. He agreed that while there was an attempted crackdown on the wilder side of Fantasy Fest a few years ago, "things are loosening up again."

But Vincent Zito, who conducts a pops orchestra in Key West, says Fantasy Fest has changed, and some of those changes reflect the island's increasing popularity as a straight tourist destination.

"Fantasy Fest is the time when we have the most gay people in town. However, now there's a much greater proportion of straight people taking part in it," Zito said.

Zito noted that Fantasy Fest was started by gay groups as a way to bring business to the island during the slow season and raise money for people with AIDS. People still run for king and queen of the festival, and the winners are those who raise the most money for the Key West group, AIDS Help.

Despite attempts to tame the event, the Business Guild's Smith thinks the pendulum always bounces back toward the wild side.

"The nut of Fantasy Fest has been tinkered with a few times, but it always comes back to what it used to be - an adult party."

041029
WB041032

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