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HUNTSVILLE, AL -- Pleasures, a "one-stop romance shop" that challenged Alabama's ban on sex toys, has a new, unique claim to fame: It will feature three sex toy drive-thru lanes at its new University Drive location.
Pleasures owner Sherri Williams said the store will be the first such store in the country to sell adult toys through a drive-thru window. Items such as toys, lubes and stimulants will be delivered through the drive-thru drawer in a brown paper bag, according to the store's news release.
Williams and her store drew national attention during a long legal fight that sought to overturn Alabama's ban on sex toys on the grounds of a constitutional right to privacy.
The case file went to the U.S. Supreme Court in 2007, but the court chose not to hear it, effectively leaving the ban intact. The Alabama Supreme Court last year upheld the ban - part of an anti-obscenity law passed in 1998 - after hearing a case brought by an adult store in Hoover.
Williams said Alabama is the last state in the U.S. to have a sex toy ban. The anti-obscenity law had been sponsored by state Sen. Tom Butler in 1998, but Alabama officials said the sex toy ban was not intentional but the result of borrowing language from other states with similar laws.
But Alabama law also makes an exception to the ban on the sale of items designed for the "stimulation of human genital organs" if the sale was for "a bona fide medical, scientific, educational, legislative, judicial or law enforcement purpose."
![Sherri Green of Pleasures]()
View full sizePleasures owner Sherri Williams talks about her Supreme Court case in this 2007 file photo.Williams said customers cannot purchase a sex toy unless they fill out a medical questionnaire describing the health-related reasons for their purchase.
The new store, located at 4008 University Drive, was a former bank and most recently a jewelry store and will offer a number of new features, Williams said.
The store plans to give away condoms as a public service and will feature an "intimacy clinic" offering weekly seminars and workshops, marriage counseling and a sexual health library, which will feature well-known authors in the field, and an upscale clothing boutique.
Williams said the store will not sell adult videos.
"The real essence of what I'm trying to get across is adult stores don't have to be hidden in back alleys," she said. "Obviously we wouldn't be doing as well as we are if no one enjoyed shopping here."
Williams said neither her previous Huntsville location nor the Decatur store have ever been shut down on issues related to the state law. She said she follows the law, which bans the sale for "immoral purposes." Pleasures, she said, sells the products strictly for medical reasons.
Madison County District Attorney Rob Broussard said if a case is investigated by a law enforcement agency and brought to his office showing something against the law, they'd act on it, but he said they already have plenty to keep them busy.
"Priority-wise, for the safety of the citizens of Madison County, with violent crime and drugs on our streets, we've got our hands full on a lot more pressing issues," Broussard said.
Since "educational use" is also legal, she could offer workshops on "Safe Tension Relief" -- the cost of the workshop would include the price of a vibrator. The class could include instruction on "how not to electrocute yourself with a vibrator", how to eliminate tense neck, shoulder and "other tensions" to relieve headache and maximize bodily satisfaction, and even couples training to show guys how to use a vibrator correctly to "release tension" in your spouse/girlfriend.
I applaud Sherri and her efforts to try to bring the ban to a higher court. But unfortunately all it did "again" is show what backwards assed people live in Alabama and that they think that sex toys are bad. Guess it is still ok though for the hookers that the legislators are using in Montgomery.
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Pleasures owner Sherri Williams said the store will be the first such store in the country to sell adult toys through a drive-thru window. Items such as toys, lubes and stimulants will be delivered through the drive-thru drawer in a brown paper bag, according to the store's news release.
Williams and her store drew national attention during a long legal fight that sought to overturn Alabama's ban on sex toys on the grounds of a constitutional right to privacy.
The case file went to the U.S. Supreme Court in 2007, but the court chose not to hear it, effectively leaving the ban intact. The Alabama Supreme Court last year upheld the ban - part of an anti-obscenity law passed in 1998 - after hearing a case brought by an adult store in Hoover.
Williams said Alabama is the last state in the U.S. to have a sex toy ban. The anti-obscenity law had been sponsored by state Sen. Tom Butler in 1998, but Alabama officials said the sex toy ban was not intentional but the result of borrowing language from other states with similar laws.
But Alabama law also makes an exception to the ban on the sale of items designed for the "stimulation of human genital organs" if the sale was for "a bona fide medical, scientific, educational, legislative, judicial or law enforcement purpose."
The new store, located at 4008 University Drive, was a former bank and most recently a jewelry store and will offer a number of new features, Williams said.
The store plans to give away condoms as a public service and will feature an "intimacy clinic" offering weekly seminars and workshops, marriage counseling and a sexual health library, which will feature well-known authors in the field, and an upscale clothing boutique.
Williams said the store will not sell adult videos.
"The real essence of what I'm trying to get across is adult stores don't have to be hidden in back alleys," she said. "Obviously we wouldn't be doing as well as we are if no one enjoyed shopping here."
Williams said neither her previous Huntsville location nor the Decatur store have ever been shut down on issues related to the state law. She said she follows the law, which bans the sale for "immoral purposes." Pleasures, she said, sells the products strictly for medical reasons.
Madison County District Attorney Rob Broussard said if a case is investigated by a law enforcement agency and brought to his office showing something against the law, they'd act on it, but he said they already have plenty to keep them busy.
"Priority-wise, for the safety of the citizens of Madison County, with violent crime and drugs on our streets, we've got our hands full on a lot more pressing issues," Broussard said.
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Since "educational use" is also legal, she could offer workshops on "Safe Tension Relief" -- the cost of the workshop would include the price of a vibrator. The class could include instruction on "how not to electrocute yourself with a vibrator", how to eliminate tense neck, shoulder and "other tensions" to relieve headache and maximize bodily satisfaction, and even couples training to show guys how to use a vibrator correctly to "release tension" in your spouse/girlfriend.
I applaud Sherri and her efforts to try to bring the ban to a higher court. But unfortunately all it did "again" is show what backwards assed people live in Alabama and that they think that sex toys are bad. Guess it is still ok though for the hookers that the legislators are using in Montgomery.
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