ST. PAUL, Minn. --
 
A state lawmaker from Saint Cloud has joined the effort to pressure hotels to take violent pornography off their pay-per-view menu's.
 
Sen. Tarryl Clark, D - St. Cloud, has introduced a bill that would require state workers to steer clear of hotels and resorts that continue to officer explicit movies depicting sexual violence against women.

"We're talking about pay per view sexually explicit violent movies," Sen. Clark told KARE Monday, "Not anything that would be on Showtime or HBO or any other cable channels. The industry has figured out what the line is."

The "clean hotel" movement has drawn support from groups working to reduce violence against women and sexual assault. In a survey of 374 hotels in the state, the Minnesota Department of Health found that 22% offer pay per view movies. In that group 20% offer adult content on that menu.

"Since we know there's a link between sexually violent behavior with watching sexually violent material, the idea would be where possible to have a preference for environment that's clean," Clark explained.

Clark stressed the bill is not an attempt to ban any movie content, but to put market forces to use. The idea is to have potential customers ask hotels, before they book rooms or conventions, whether the in-room viewing options are free of such sexually violent material.

"We'd like to encourage a market where employees, families with kids, seniors and others who want to go to a hotel that offers a clean environment can do that."

Clark said a group planning a convention at a resort in Brainerd asked if it was a clean resort, and the owner immediately began to try to remove the sexually violent options from his cable system. She said the owner saw it as a marketing opportunity, so that families would been safer there.

The bill gets a hearing in a Senate committee Wednesday.

If the measure becomes law, the Minnesota Department of Administration will keep a directory of approved hotels and resorts for state employees to use while on trips sponsored by the taxpayers.

The clean hotels initiative is a collaboration between the Minnesota Men's Action Network and the Minnesota Department of Health's Sexual Violence Prevention Program. A background brief on the effort defines pornography as "sexually explicit material that objectifies and exploits the subjects while eroticizing domination, degradation and/or violence."

Click here for a link to the fact sheet on the clean hotels initiative on the Men's Action Network site.
(http://www.menaspeacemakers.org/programs/mnman/hotels)

The bill offers an exception for employees who can't reasonably find or afford a porn-free hotel.

(Copyright 2010 by The Associated Press. All Rights Reserved.)