40.8 Who are the "Erotic Eleven" and what does it have to do with Nina Hartley's ban from Canada?
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This article is from the Sex Movies FAQ, by director@gti.net (The Director) with numerous contributions by others.
40.8 Who are the "Erotic Eleven" and what does it have to do with Nina Hartley's ban from Canada?
Bobby Lilly, president Of CalACT (Californians Against Censorship
Together) and a SO of Nina Hartley, wrote this piece. I thank her
for allowing me to use it here.
On January 8th, 1993 (or thereabouts) Nina Hartley, Sharon
Mitchell, Patricia Kennedy, Ari, Danielle Cheeks, Naughty Angel,
Lacey Rose, Shalene, Nina Suave, Trixi Tyler and Beatrice Valle
were arrested along with Bill Margold, Seymore Butts and the owner
of Pure Pleasure (an adult video store in Las Vegas) at the end of
a four hour benefit performance for the Free Speech Coalition.
Bill had produced similar events for several years before without
incident. Unfortunately, the performers were told to "do whatever
you want to do" when asked about _limits_ and these women of porn
felt very comfortable with each other (if you know what I mean).
At first the women were all charged with prostitution and the men
with pandering. While several of the women may have "woman-handled
a couple members of the audience, no one was involved in any
prostitution. So, because the DA didn't think he could get the
original charges to stick, he turned around and indicted all the
women, but Nina. with felony "lesbianism". Nina had only given a
talk on how to make love to a woman while two of her friends
demonstrated on each other.
The DA decided to single Nina out from the other women and indicted
her as well as the men with pandering (even though he had dropped
all prostitution charges). None of the charges made sense. It was
all about local politics. The whole case was designed to send a
strong message to Las Vegas hometown pornographers to tone down
their business since Vegas was going family all the way. It took
almost a year of fighting and a trip to the Nevada Supreme Court
and over $100,000 before the women were allowed to plead guilty to
a misdemeanor for their performances that night. they paid a
$20,000 "contribution" to local Vegas charities instead of a
"Fine". It took exactly one year from the time it started. Much
of the money was raised outside the industry from fans, the swing
community and the general public. Many people in the adult video
industry were telling the women it was all their fault and that
whatever they got they deserved.
Most of the women desperately wanted it to be over and were glad to
accept a guilty plea to a relatively minor misdemeanor. The strain
on all of them and their families was incredible. From the first
phone call about the arrest to daily events unfolding, none of us
knew what would come next. At first there were rumors of Feds
behind everything and none of knew whether the next knock on the
door would be the F.B.I. We'd wait weeks with nothing coming from
the lawyers or DA's office, then suddenly a flurry of action and
the women would have to jump, leaving work around the world to
return to Vegas for another hearing. Several of them were mothers
and worried about the possibility that social services might decide
to take away their kids if there was too much publicity.
Two weeks later when Nina attempted to go to Canada for a series of
personal appearances, Canada refused to let her in to work. She
was told that the misdemeanor lewd performance charge that she pled
guilty to would have been a felony in Canada and they didn't want
*HER KIND* in that country. Well to make a long story short, she
went anyway because she didn't want to stand-up her fans (lawyers
advised her that as long as she didn't accept any $ for the
appearances it would be OK).
A week later immigration caught up with her and she was held in the
Winnipeg jail from Monday night until Thursday night before she was
again sent home. She was firmly told that, although the women can
request an exception in writing from Canadian officials, they are
banned from entering that country for five years from the date they
pled guilty.
Trying to sum up a year-long battle in a few short paragraphs means
that there is much that I didn't cover here. I wrote about the
case several times in Gauntlet, if you want to know more you might
check out an old issue of the magazine. I know its hard to find
but very interesting when you do.
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