Erotic Music Law HB 2554
Date: 1992
Region: North America
Subject: Explicit Sexuality
Medium: Music , Legislation
Confronting Bodies: Washington State Legislature and Governor Booth Gardner
Dates of Action: 1992
Location: Washington state
Description of Artwork: Recordings deemed "erotic" by a judge in one locality.
The Incident: The law, which extended the state's already existing "harmful to minors" law to cover sound recordings, forced record stores around the state to place "adults only" labels on recordings which were deemed "erotic." Anyone who sold a labeled recording to a minor could have been fined or jailed.
Results of Incident: Four months after it took effect, Washington state's law repealed in October, 1992 by a Superior Court Judge in Seattle.
Source: ACLU Arts Censorship Project Newsletter, Fall 1992 and More Information