Group photo by Layne Winklebleck.
All other photos by Taliesin the Bard.
Text and photos copyright © 2003
Taliesin the Bard. All Rights Reserved.

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Celebrate Free Speech Lobbying Days 2002 is the fifth annual trip to Sacramento, the California state capitol, made by the Free Speech Coalition under the auspices of Legislative Director Kat Sunlove. Two earlier excursions were organized by lobbyist Mike Ross. The general purpose of these trips is to discuss issues of free speech and expression with legislators. This year there was an added bonus.

The FSC was flying high off a Supreme Court victory in Ashcroft Vs. Free Speech Coalition, the "virtual" child porn case. This gave those of us who participated a great deal to talk about with the legislators.

But that was just the final leg of the journey. Training for the event began a couple of weeks earlier on April 4. About forty individuals attended the training in Van Nuys, California. More than two dozen went on to Sacramento on April 22 and 23.

To mention just a few of the fine folks involved in this year's lobbying effort, there was the aforementioned Kat Sunlove ;

Danni Ashe of Danni's Hard Drive;

LaSara Firefox of the Church of All Worlds;

Dara Lynne Dahl of Spectator magazine;

Heth Mares and Dan Metcalf of Wicked Pictures;

Scott Tucker, President of the FSC;

Bill Lyon, Executive Director of the FSC;

Stripper / attorney Margo Rothman;

Mark Kernes of AVN magazine;

Mara Epstein of Private North America;

Larry Kaplan of the Association of Club Executives (ACE);

First Amendment lawyers Jeffrey Douglas and Al Gelbard ;

Activist James Weiser;

And porn personalities Nina Hartley, Julie Meadows , Mike Horner, Devinn Lane, Ted - The Male One , Syndee Steele and Dave Cummings .

We did two days of training, one day in Van Nuys, one in Sacramento. During the evening of the first day of training we attended a General Meeting of the Free Speech Coalition. Our training resumed on the 22nd in Sacramento, and on the 23rd we held a press conference on the lawn in front of the Capitol building. After that it was time to divide into groups of three and four and go off to our scheduled meetings with the legislators.

My group consisted of Jeffrey Douglas (team captain), Nina Hartley and Ted - The Male One. As Jeffrey was fully acquainted with the Ashcroft Vs. FSC case, he did a good deal of the speaking.

This was a most important issue as much of what was reported in mainstream media was not as clear as it could have been. Basically FSC challenged only two clauses of the CPPA (Child Pornography Prevention Act). Specifically challenged were the terms "appears to be" and "gives the appearance of"; these terms, applied to depictions of adults in movies, art, advertising, television and other media, criminalized the portrayal of children by adults if the characters portrayed by the adults "appeared to be" or "gave the impression of" being under the age of eighteen years and were engaged in actual or simulated sexual activity. This meant that movies such as Midnight Cowboy , Fast Times At Ridgemont High and Y Tu Mama Tambien were child pornography under the law though no children were engaged in sexual activity in them. Fortunately and surprisingly, the Free Speech Coalition prevailed in their argument and the Supreme Court voted 6 to 3 in favor of free speech.

All of our meetings went well, with many of the legislators and/or their aides showing interest and support for our position. In the late afternoon we regrouped at our hotel. Then it was time to say our farewells.

I headed to the airport and arrived in time to catch an earlier flight back to Los Angeles. Then, my new flight was delayed, so I managed to save only a few minutes on my flying time. Oh well that's the way it goes sometime.

On a personal note (And when in the past twenty years or so has anything I've written not been personal?) one of the joys for me of this annual excursion is getting to spend time with friends. There isn't much free time but there's enough. It's nice to catch up on what's been happening in the lives of people I care about even if I don't see those people very often. Not just those who are far away, but even those who live locally who, because of our busy schedules, never seem to have as much time as we'd like to spend a few quiet moments together. So this is a time for me to spend a little time with people I care bout. That's always a good thing.

I like politics. It's a wonderful expression of how people can learn to peacefully, is somewhat tenuously, co-exist. It's the second best field of endeavor for changing the world, for making it a better place for all to live. FSC did that with the Ashcroft Vs. Free Speech Coalition case. Hey, guess what? Our system of law and government actually worked!

But there's another arena, one I think that's a bit more suited to my temperaments and tastes, for changing the world. And that's the realm of the creative. The ideas and philosophies that permeate society and infuse the minds and spirits of those who write the laws by which we live come from there. This realm of imagination and ideas is the field in which all others play. Shaping thought is more my style than shaping practice. But politics certainly is fun every once in a while.

The annual lobbying event is wonderful. I truly enjoy participating in it, and that's the same feeling I get from others who do. I don't know if we'll have as important a free speech issue as the CPPA next year, but whatever happens, I'm sure it will be as exciting and rewarding as the previous years' experiences have been.

Text and photos copyright © 2002
Taliesin the Bard. All Rights Reserved.

Special Reports

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