Is Florida The New Porn Valley?

The only place on Earth that has a similar climate, in-ground swimming pool distribution, and permissive community standards on girls in bikinis as Southern California, are the coastal areas of Florida. So you'd think that if there was any place that could compete with the San Fernando Valley as the porn capital of the world, it would be the Sunshine State—and you might be correct. Except for the geographical oddity of being on both the bottom edge of the Bible Belt's buckle and on the leading edge of Key West's and South Beach's middle fingers, which puts the state in the middle of a somewhat conflicted relationship with adult entertainment.

From a legal point of view, said Walters, Florida is an interesting set of regional microcosms, with the majority of production going on in the southern part of the state, and the majority of cases against pornographers going on in the north.

So says the Jacksonville Times-Union, which like many local newspapers these days, is examining the local porn climate—although Jacksonville being closer to that belt we mentioned—they take a pretty moralizing stance. Their three part series contains one re-hashed story on the dangers of podn addiction and one "where are they now?" followup on former Jacksonville Hooters girl Crissy Moran, who quit the business a year ago after finding religion. (Although judging by her still constant presence on the babelog circuit, it's like she never left.) All the stories seem to come to one conclusion—porn is here to stay, whether Floridians like it or not. (And they seems to like it quite a bit.)

So how can the same state play host to growing porn empires like the Bang Bros., yet still crack down on hardcore outfits like Ray Guhn Productions? And don't even get us started on Girls Gone Wild, which has probably done more to benefit state tourism than anything since "Where The Boys Are." (The first one!) We don't have the answers yet, but if our request to transfer to our Panama City bureau comes through, we'll let you know what we find.

· "Porn nearby", "Their addictions hurt themselves, loved ones" + "She quit porn industry and turned to Christ" (jacksonville.com)

Previously: Crissy Moran Finds Jesus