Slow news day?
AUSTIN, United States (AFP) - Legislators in Texas, famed for its Dallas Cowboy cheerleaders, considered legislation to ban 'sexually suggestive' performances in schools.
The law would ban dance routines by school cheerleaders at sports events that one politician said was like something out of a strip club.
Exposed midriffs and ever shorter shorts and skirts have particularly outraged some legislators.
"Some of them are just downright vulgar, something you would see at an adult club or something," said Joe Deshotel, a Democratic member of the Texas House of Representatives, which is considering the bill. "The problem is in the eye of the beholder, I guess."
More vulgarity after the break!
One of the co-authors of the bill, Republican Corbin Van Arsdale, said many parents want restrictions because they go to Friday night games to see young men clashing on the football field, not girls shaking their behinds on the sidelines.
"You've got children seeing things that their parents would rather them not see," said Van Arsdale.
But the proposed ban is not popular with the National Cheerleaders Association or the American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU). The bill would allow the Texas Education Agency to ban routines deemed vulgar or excessive.
"Without a specific definition of what these kids cannot perform, the sky is the limit," the ACLU warned. "Any complaintant can construe any dance step, cheer or movement of any sort as sexually suggestive."
I guess it's easier to ban short skirts than deal with real issues like illegal immigration, the thousands of uninsured children in Texas and Tom Delay.
Good thing Texas wasn't being attacked by the Moral Brigade back in Bush's party days... he wouldn't have had much fun.