During the last week of August and the first week of September, the annual Gentlemen’s Club Exposition was held at the Mandalay Day Hotel in Las Vegas, Nevada. At the show are exhibitors from talent agencies, alcohol distributors, clothing manufacturers, lighting and sound engineer companies, booking agencies, along with club owners from across the country and more beautiful women in one place than one can imagine. Also, there are a number of lawyers and other presenters who speak on various topics during the panel discussions.
This year Daniel Aaronson was asked to speak on the “Call to Arms Panel”. The purpose of this panel was to get the attendees to get out and vote, to get them to get their friends and associates to get out and vote. And although the various organizations involved do not endorse any one candidate, there certainly was the tenor that getting out the vote meant getting out the vote for John Kerry.
Daniel Aaronson flew out to Las Vegas on Monday, August 30th in order to attend the ACE Board Meeting. He wasn’t scheduled to speak until Thursday, three days later. During his time in Las Vegas, Hurricane Frances decided that it was going to pay a visit to South Florida and the east coast of Florida. Sitting in his Las Vegas hotel room, Daniel Aaronson watched the storm approach making alternative reservations to get back to South Florida to be with his family when the hurricane hit. In fact, he decided that he was going to forego his talk and take a plane out on Wednesday night in order to get home prior to the hurricane’s arrival.
Daniel Aaronson decided to stay and give his speech with plans that upon it being over he would immediately leave for the airport to catch a flight back that would get him in Fort Lauderdale prior to the airport closing on Friday morning.
He gave his speech on Thursday, apologized to the audience that he had to leave in the middle of the panel discussion, and left the conference room. On his way out, a gentleman approached. He explained to that gentleman that he had no time to talk as he was late for a flight and he needed it to get back in order to be with his family. The gentleman asked for just two seconds of his time and explained that he was a George W. Bush supporter up until five minutes ago. He expressed that Mr. Aaronson’s speech hit home and for the first time he now realizes that he needs to vote for John Kerry and so does everybody else in the adult entertainment industry. With that one comment, Daniel Aaronson knew that he had made the right decision, as we now know that every vote counts.
Well, what did Mr. Aaronson speak on? And what was said that caused a Bush supporter to become a Kerry supporter? Simply, what he did was speak the truth. He expressed the fact that there are nine Justices on the Supreme Court. Four of those Justices are either in their 80’s or are acknowledged to be of ill health. He pointed out that there are two Justices who have no plans on retiring, Justices Scalia and Thomas, who have already written that adult dancing deserves no First Amendment protections. He pointed out that if George W. Bush gets reelected that there would be the potentiality of his appointing four new Justices. George W. Bush has already held out Justice Scalia as the type of Justice that he would be searching for if he was allowed to pick new Justices to the Supreme Court. Therefore, should George W. Bush be reelected, within the next four years we could be sitting with six Justices on the Supreme Court who fundamentally believe that adult dancing deserves no First Amendment protections. In essence, if George W. Bush is reelected, not just for the next four years, but for the next decade or two the Court will be stacked with those who believe that adult entertainment, adult dancing and adult rights do not belong in this country.
In addition, Daniel Aaronson also pointed out that George W. Bush’s choice for Attorney General, John Ashcroft, is not only a religious zealot but also refused to speak in front of Lady Justice at the Justice Department because Lady Justice bares a breast. He is also supposed to be the person whose job other than prosecuting crimes is to make sure that people’s civil rights and civil liberties are protected. Yet, if this is the man that is supposed to protect civil rights and civil liberties and yet he is unable to speak in front a nude statute and work of art, how can we ever expect him to be willing to protect our rights and our freedom when they involve nudity and adult entertainment.
The answer is, we cannot. In fact, John Ashcroft has already hired back many of the religious zealots of the Reagan and Bush one’s administrations to the Justice Department for the purpose of coming after adult entertainment.
We wrongfully assume, that those of you who read this article and Xcitement magazine will be voting for John Kerry. To us, it is a natural relation. Except that Daniel Aaronson’s speech out in Las Vega showed that that is not the case. With that in mind, we make this statement “if you are a fan of adult entertainment or if adult entertainment is important to you, regardless of the other issues, regardless of your other concerns, if you want these activities to continue and if you want these freedoms to be preserved, you must vote for John Kerry and do everything in your power to make sure that George W. Bush is not reelected.