G11-75 Ordinance No. G11-75
�r• AN ORDINANCE
t PROHIBITING OBSCENITY AND REGULATING MATERIALS HARMFUL TO MINORS
WHEREAS, the City of Elgin, Illinois, is a home rule unit as defined
by the Constitution of the State of Illinois, 1970; and
WHEREAS, the Constitution of the State of Illinois, 1970, empowers
a home rule unit to exercise any power and perform any function pertaining
to its government and affairs, including the power to regulate for the
protection of the public health, safety, morals and welfare; and
WHEREAS, the corporate authorities of the City of Elgin, after study
and investigation, are of the opinion and hereby find that obscene material,
as defined herein, impairs the public health, welfare and morals of the
community, and that such material may be a contributing cause of sexually
promiscuous behavior and may tend to incite sexually criminal behavior within
the City of Elgin; and
WHEREAS, the corporate authorities of the City of Elgin, after study
and investigation, are also of the opinion and find that harmful material,
as defined herein, impairs the public health, welfare and morals of the
City of Elgin in that the exposure of minors to such material may be harmful
to minors in impairing their ethical and moral development, and may prevent
minors from growing into free and independent well-developed persons and
citizens.
NOW, THEREFORE, BE IT ORDAINED BY THE CITY COUNCIL OF THE CITY OF ELGIN,
ILLINOIS:
Section 1. That there is hereby added to the City Code of the City of
Elgin, Illinois the following:
"16.5
Obscenity and Materials Harmful to Minors
16.5.1. Definitions. As used herein the following terms
shall have the following meanings:
a. 'Advertise' means propagandizing in connection
with the commercial offering of a service, or the commercial
exhibition of an entertainment.
' b. 'Harmful to minors' means that quality of any
depiction, description or representation, in whatever form,
of nudity, sexual conduct, sexual excitement, or sado-
masochistic abuse, when:
1. The average resident of the City of Elgin
applying contemporary standards of the City of Elgin,
would find that such depiction, description or
representation, taken as a whole, appeals to the
prurient interest of minors; and
t,
2. Such depiction, description or represen-
tation describes, in a patently offensive way for
minors, sexual conduct or nudity specifically as
defined herein; and
3. Such depiction, description or represen-
tation lacks serious literary, artistic, political
or scientific value for minors.
c. 'Knowingly' means having general knowledge of, or
reason to know, or a belief or ground for belief which warrants
further inspection or inquiry.
d. 'Minor' means an unmarried person under eighteen
years of age.
e. 'Nudity' means uncovered or less than opaquely
covered, post-pubertal human genitals, pubic areas, the post-
pubertal human female breast below a point immediately above
the top of the areola, or the covered human male genitals in
a discernibly turgid state. For purposes of this definition,
a female breast is considered uncovered if the nipple only or
the nipple and the areola only are covered.
f. 'Obscene' means the depiction, description or repre-
sentation of sexual conduct wich the average resident of the
City of Elgin, applying contemporary community standards of the
City of Elgin, would find that taken as a whole appeals to the
prurient interest; and which depicts or describes or represents
in a patently offensive way, sexual conduct as defined herein;
and which taken as a whole lacks serious literary, artistic,
political or scientific value.
g. 'Obscene performance' means, a play, motion picture,
dance, show or other presentation, whether pictured, animated
or live, performed before an audience and which in whole or in
part depicts or reveals nudity, sexual conduct, sexual excite-
ment or sado-masochistic abuse, or which includes obscenities
or explicit verbal descriptions or narrative accounts of sexual
conduct.
h. 'Obscenities' means those slang words currently
generally rejected for regular use in mixed society, that are
used to refer to genitals, female breasts, sexual conduct or
excretory functions or products, either that have no other
meaning or that in context are clearly used for their bodily,
sexual or excretory meaning.
i. 'Person' means any individual, partnership, firm,
association, corporation, or other legal entity.
j . 'Patently offensive' means beyond customary limits
of candor in description or representation.
k. 'Prurient interest' means a shameful or morbid
interest in sexual conduct, nudity or excretion.
1. 'Sado-masochistic abuse' means flagellation or
torture by or upon a person who is nude or clad in under-
garments or in revealing or bizarre costume, or the condi-
tion of being fettered, bound, or otherwise physically
restrained on the part of one so clothed.
m. 'Sexual conduct' means human masturbation, sexual
intercourse, normal or perverted, real or simulated, or any
touching of the genitals, pubic areas or buttocks of the
human male or female, or the breasts of the female, whether
along or between members of the same or opposite sex or
between humans and animals in an act of apparent sexual
stimulation or gratification.
n. 'Sexual excitement' means the condition of human
male or female genitals or the breasts of the female when in
a state of sexual stimulation, or the sensual experience of
humans engaging in or witnessing sexual conduct or nudity.
16.5.2. Obscenity Prohibited.
a. It shall be unlawful for any person to sell, deliver,
offer for sale, distribute, public, print, exhibit, or possess
with intent to distribute, with knowledge of the nature or
content thereof, or recklessly failing to exercise reasonable
inspection which would disclose the nature or content thereof,
any obscene writing, picture, moving picture, record or other
representation or embodiment of the obscene, or to present or
to direct an obscene performance, or to perform an obscene act,
or otherwise present an obscene exhibition or to otherwise
advertise or promote obscene material.
b. It shall be an affirmative defense in any prosecution
under this section that allegedly obscene material was desseminated
or presented for a bona fide scientific, medical, educational,
governmental or judicial purpose, or that such dessemination or
presentation was not for gain and was made to personal associates
other than children under eighteen years of age.
16.5.3. Materials Harmful to Minors.
a. It shall be unlawful for any person to sell, deliver,
offer for sale, distribute, publish, print, exhibit, or possess
with intent to distribute, with knowledge of the nature or con-
tent thereof, or recklessly failing to exercise reasonable
inspection which would disclose the nature or content thereof,
any harmful material to a minor.
. .�
b. It shall be an affirmative defense to any prosecution
under this section that the alleged prohibited act was made in
aid of a legitimate scientific or educational purpose or was
by a parent, guardian, or other person in loco parentis to the
minor. It shall be a further affirmative defense that the
defendant demanded, was shown and acted in reliance upon any
of the following documents as proof of the age of a child: a
document issued by the federal government or any state, county
or municipal government or subdivision or agency thereof, includ-
ing, but not limited to, a motor vehicle operator's license, a
registration certificate issued under the United States Selective
Service Act, an identification card issued to a member of the
Armed Forces, or a birth certificate.
16.5.6. Penalty. Any person violating the provisions of this
ordinance shall be punished by a fine of not less than One Hundred
Dollars ($100.00) nor more than Five Hundred Dollars ($500.00) . Each
day that an offense continues shall be deemed to constitute a separate
violation of this ordinance."
Section 2. That this ordinance shall be published in pamphlet form by
authority of the City Council.
8/ W. E. Rauschenberger
W. E. Rauschenberger, Mayor
All
Presented: April 9, 1975
Passed: April 9, 1975
Vote: Yeas 7 Nays 0
Recorded: April 9, 1975
Published: April 9, 1975
Attest:
s/ Margaret.A. Glink
Margaret A. Glink, City Clerk