"The main motivation to get this site started was what's going on here in Ohio with Senate bill 16," Matthew Riley, webmaster for StopTheHouse and StopTheSenate, told XBIZ. Riley is also IT manager for the Dayton-based In Your Face Agency, which operates adult cabarets and websites. "We own several adult businesses, and this obviously hits home. We thought this would be a great tool, which we had sitting in our back pocket, practically ready to go."
The StopTheHouse website was announced by a 60,000 mass emailing Thursday night. "We sent to every email address we had access to," Riley said. "We've already sent 450,000 emails to the state House, because every time somebody hits 'Send' it goes to all 100 members."
Plans call for StopTheWhiteHouse to be added to StopTheHouse and StopTheSenate. Advocacy sites are also planned for the future.
Ohio's Senate bill 16, The Community Values Act, would set strict midnight curfews for adult bookstores and other businesses. The bill passed the Ohio State senate by a 24-8 vote April 18, but if it is not passed in the state House by May 2, it will have to be re-submitted.
The bill was presented through Ohio's initiated-statute petition process. Citizens for Community Values, a conservative, Cincinnati-based group, led the petition drive.
For more information, visit StopTheHouse.com and StopTheSenate.com.