Judge Dismisses "Naked Boys Singing" Lawsuit
Milwaukee - Fifteen months after Milwaukee police shut down its production of "Naked Boys Singing" a federal judge has thrown out a civil rights lawsuit filed by the Milwaukee Gay Arts Center (MGAC). U.S. District Judge Charles N. Clevert Jr. dismissed the suit, saying that to proceed, the center "must establish that the violations were part of a custom or policy by the municipality."
  Acting in response to a complaint filed by a local street preacher, the city's police department vice squad had shut down the nude musical revue in August 2005, allegedly because the show's producers didn't have a license. City officials later determined that the center didn't need the license because the venue is a non-profit organization. "Naked Boys" was recast and the production ran uneventfully from October to December 2005.
  The MGAC had alleged violations of free speech and due process. The lawsuit also claimed the group had been targeted because its members are gay.
  That wasn't the case Clevert ruled, because members of the Milwaukee police vice squad do not have decision-making authority. "Allegations regarding a high-ranking official are insufficient when there are no allegations that the individual had any policy-making authority," Clevert wrote in his opinion.
  No appeal of the ruling is planned at this time, according to MGAC officials. The court ruling brings the troubled "Naked Boys Singing" saga to a close. It had begun with prolific, and some might say, prurient promotion. For six weeks prior to the show’s original August 2005 debut, ads focusing primarily on the nudity of the cast spread through the state’s gay media. However, an sun-retouched cover photo of the cast on the August issue of Outbound triggered limp advance sales and an attempt by at least one out-of-town night club to cancel a planned bus trip to the revue.
  The ads also brought out the naked fury of Milwaukee street preacher Drew Heiss who filed an open records request on August 2 to see if all the appropriate licenses for the production were in place. The MGAC applied for a small theater a license request just a day later, city records indicated. However, since the license had to be approved  by the common council, it was not in effect when the revue opened on August 11.
  A week later “Naked Boys Singing” was caught with its licenses down as the city’s vice squad shuttered the production. Director Mark Hooker claimed the shuttering was an unprecedented in the history of the show and that the police action was “mean spirited and homophobic” selective enforcement of a technicality. Within days, however, it was learned the revue had been shut down on at least four previous occasions in cities ranging from the gay mecca Provincetown to Atlanta.
  The Milwaukee Gay Arts Center subsequently filed its $630,000 claim against the city, most of which is for an alleged violation of the not-for-profits’ civil rights. The City of Milwaukee later backed down on the small theater license requirement for the MGAC after reviewing documents relating to the center’s not-for-profit status. The documents had been submitted with the earlier license request for a temporary Class B liquor license.
  On August 30 Mayor Tom Barrett called for both a review of the city’s licensing division and the police department’s handling of the shutdown. Barrett later met with about fifty interested gay community members at a town hall meeting at the Milwaukee LGBT Center.
  On October 29, a partially recast version of “Naked Boys Singing” re-opened for an eight week run. In November the international touring act “Puppetry of the Penis,” another show noted for its frontal male nudity, put on benefit show in support of the beleaguered Milwaukee revue.
  Much of the controversy had been fueled by self-promoter extraordinaire Hoffman. Until his sudden departure for Massachusetts shortly after this year's PrideFest Hoffman had served as editor of the Milwaukee gay lifestyle monthly Queer Life, co-director of the Milwaukee Gay Arts Center and owner of the now-shuttered InterMezzo Wine Bar. Hoffman had coordinated the MGAC’s post-shutdown placement of full page advertisements in the Milwaukee Journal-Sentinel on August 31 and September 2 demanding a “public apology” for the shutdown and devoted two subsequent issues of front page coverage about the imbroglio in Queer Life.