§ 38-225. Obscene performances.

(a)

It shall be unlawful for any person to present, sponsor, procure, direct, act or otherwise participate in or to assist in the presentation of an obscene performance in the city.

(b)

As used in this section:

(1)

The term "obscene performance" means a play, dance, show, act, rendition, lecture, reading or other live presentation performed before an audience or intended to be performed before an audience and which in whole or in part depicts or reveals nudity, sexual conduct, sexual excitement or sadomasochistic abuse or which includes obscenities or explicit verbal descriptions or narrative accounts of nudity, sexual conduct, sexual excitement or sadomasochistic abuse, depicted or described, provided that the average person, applying contemporary community standards in the city, would find that the performance taken as a whole appeals to the prurient interest in a patently offensive way and lacks serious artistic, political or scientific value.

(2)

The term "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 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.

(3)

The term "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.

(4)

The term "sadomasochistic abuse" means flagellation or torture by or upon a person who is nude or clad in undergarments or in revealing or bizarre costume, or the condition of being fettered, bound or otherwise physically restrained on the part of one so clothed.

(5)

The term "sexual conduct" means human masturbation, sexual intercourse or any touching of the genitals, pubic areas or buttocks of the human male or female or the breasts of the female, whether alone or between members of the same or opposite sex or between humans and animals in an act of apparent sexual stimulation or gratification.

(6)

The term "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 experiences of humans engaging in or witnessing sexual conduct or nudity.

State law reference

Obscene material, MCL 752.361 et seq., MSA 28.579(361) et seq.