Last weekend’s “Sex and So Much More Show” at the Colorado Convention Center generated protest from a group of Republican lawmakers who called it a “blatant affront to the people of Colorado” and not what voters had in mind when they approved a bond measure in 1999 to expand the facility.
But the Denver Metro Convention & Visitors Bureau and center manager SMG, the two entities responsible for booking meetings into the space, say the only regulation guiding them is that all events must be lawful.
“We have a long-standing policy not to discriminate on the content of shows, as long as it is legal,” said Jack Finlaw, director of Denver’s Division of Theatres and Arenas, which oversees the facility.
Last Friday, the day the sex show opened, Rep. Jim Welker, R-Loveland, sent letters signed by himself and seven other GOP state lawmakers to convention-center general manager John Adams and to Philadelphia-based SMG, encouraging them not to host that type of event in the future because it “undermines the family values from which the United States was founded.”
“It’s hard to legislate morality, but as a public servant, I’m just saying the convention center should be making money in a different way,” Welker said.
The show, which featured lingerie fashion shows, sex aids and porn stars, drew more than 15,000 people over three days.
The last convention to evoke an outcry in Denver was a National Rifle Association gathering just days after the Columbine High School shootings in 1999. The group canceled its public exhibition but still held its annual meeting at the Adam’s Mark Hotel.
“That certainly stirred up a lot of political rhetoric because the timing was terrible,” said Eugene Dilbeck, head of the convention bureau at the time.
Dilbeck was ousted in 2003 by the convention board. A controversy at the time followed a TV report that showed bureau staff – though not Dilbeck – attending an event at a Denver strip club, the Diamond Cabaret.
Staff writer Julie Dunn can be reached at 303-820-1592 or jdunn@denverpost.com.
