Sex Paraphernalia

In a spacious, modern home in Upland, 30 women have gathered on a sunny Sunday afternoon to see the latest in home gadgets. With filled champagne flutes and plates piled high with finger sandwiches and petits fours, they gather in the living room to hear the sales pitch and inspect the Valentine's Day wares. "Is it dishwasher-safe?" asks one woman, before bursting into peals of laughter. The products they are passing around aren't for the kitchen -- they're for the bedroom.

YOU would never call this part of town chic. But Venice Boulevard in Mar Vista has the essentials: sex, death, food and great jeans. The stretch roughly between Grand View and Lincoln boulevards is classic commercial L.A.: drab and fascinating, its optimistic bursts of entrepreneurial energy alternating with its decrepit and dying ventures. By car, it all blows past in a blur. On foot, the neighborhood comes alive.

YOU would never call this part of town chic. But Venice Boulevard in Mar Vista has the essentials: sex, death, food and great jeans. The stretch roughly between Grand View and Lincoln boulevards is classic commercial L.A.: drab and fascinating, its optimistic bursts of entrepreneurial energy alternating with its decrepit and dying ventures. By car, it all blows past in a blur. On foot, the neighborhood comes alive.

Outside, the prairie lies dark and still. In the windowless gray building by the Interstate 70 offramp, a clerk with a tired face rings up sex toys. "Need batteries for that?" she asks politely, again and again. Two women in prim business suits gawk at a shelf of raunchy gag gifts, giggling. A truck driver searches thousands of DVDs for a pornographic movie.

Outside, the prairie lies dark and still. In the windowless gray building by the Interstate 70 offramp, a clerk with a tired face rings up sex toys. "Need batteries for that?" she asks politely, again and again. Two women in prim business suits gawk at a shelf of raunchy gag gifts, giggling. A truck driver searches thousands of DVDs for a pornographic movie.

Eyebrows were raised Friday as the paths of educational products salesmen Aaron Del Monte and Jeffrey Stembokas unexpectedly crossed in Los Angeles. Del Monte, of Petaluma, was packing boxloads of religious books as the four-day gathering of the National Catholic Educational Assn. came to an end at the downtown Convention Center. Stembokas, of Stony Brook, N.Y., was unloading boxes of books about lovemaking as the three-day Erotica L.A. convention got underway at the same place.

Walk into the Condom Revolution and you'll likely be greeted by owner Dean Charter, a frank, enthusiastic man who is more than happy to describe the various qualities of the condoms he sells. Ribbed or unribbed. Lubricated. Extra snug. Thick or thin. "There's something for every walk of life," Charter said. But his mission is more than about making money--it's about selling safe sex. "I provide a fun and creative way for people to protect themselves," Charter said.

A federal appeals court in Birmingham upheld a 1998 law banning the sale of sex toys in the state, ruling that the Constitution didn't include a right to sexual privacy. In a 2-1 decision overturning a lower court, a three-judge panel of the U.S. 11th Circuit Court of Appeals said the state had a right to police the sale of devices that could be sexually stimulating.

An obscenity charge has been dropped against a woman who received nationwide attention when she was arrested in November in Burleson and accused of selling two sex toys to undercover police officers. A judge dismissed the case against Joanne Webb, Johnson County Attorney Bill Moore said in a statement. He said he asked the judge for the dismissal to prevent wasting county resources, but didn't say when the dismissal occurred.

A state law banning the sale of vibrators and other sexual aids has been overturned by a federal judge. U.S. District Judge Lynwood Smith ruled in a Montgomery, Ala., court that the state's 1998 law is "overly broad" and said people who used the devices would be "denied therapy for, among other things, sexual dysfunction." Six women, who either sell sex toys or say the devices are necessary for sexual gratification, challenged the ban.

A federal appeals court in Birmingham upheld a 1998 law banning the sale of sex toys in the state, ruling that the Constitution didn't include a right to sexual privacy. In a 2-1 decision overturning a lower court, a three-judge panel of the U.S. 11th Circuit Court of Appeals said the state had a right to police the sale of devices that could be sexually stimulating.

An obscenity charge has been dropped against a woman who received nationwide attention when she was arrested in November in Burleson and accused of selling two sex toys to undercover police officers. A judge dismissed the case against Joanne Webb, Johnson County Attorney Bill Moore said in a statement. He said he asked the judge for the dismissal to prevent wasting county resources, but didn't say when the dismissal occurred.

In a spacious, modern home in Upland, 30 women have gathered on a sunny Sunday afternoon to see the latest in home gadgets. With filled champagne flutes and plates piled high with finger sandwiches and petits fours, they gather in the living room to hear the sales pitch and inspect the Valentine's Day wares. "Is it dishwasher-safe?" asks one woman, before bursting into peals of laughter. The products they are passing around aren't for the kitchen -- they're for the bedroom.

Joanne Webb, suburban mother and part-time saleswoman, never imagined herself crusading for the right to market sex toys. But lately she's done little else, extolling the virtues of erotica to reporters across the country, while her lawyer defends her on charges of promoting an obscene device, her hometown detractors sigh in disapproval and her teenage children wish the whole mess would go away.

A state law banning the sale of vibrators and other sexual aids has been overturned by a federal judge. U.S. District Judge Lynwood Smith ruled in a Montgomery, Ala., court that the state's 1998 law is "overly broad" and said people who used the devices would be "denied therapy for, among other things, sexual dysfunction." Six women, who either sell sex toys or say the devices are necessary for sexual gratification, challenged the ban.

A group of women took the state of Alabama to court Wednesday over a state law that bans the sale of vibrators and other sex toys. The American Civil Liberties Union took the suit to U.S. District Court on behalf of Sherri Williams and other women who say their privacy rights have been violated. "It's a $10,000 fine and a year of hard labor if you get caught selling vibrators," said Williams, who runs two "romance boutiques" in Alabama.

The lawyers sat before the black-robed judge with righteous solemnity. The plaintiff, a darkly handsome 31-year-old, fidgeted with his coffee cup, his evidence packed up in a cardboard box nearby. The man's lawsuit contended that his talent had been exploited. But this was no garden variety breach-of-contract case. Put in the language of polite society, Peyton vs. Health Devices Inc. et al concerned the so-called piracy of body parts of the plaintiff, Charles Peyton.

Joanne Webb, suburban mother and part-time saleswoman, never imagined herself crusading for the right to market sex toys. But lately she's done little else, extolling the virtues of erotica to reporters across the country, while her lawyer defends her on charges of promoting an obscene device, her hometown detractors sigh in disapproval and her teenage children wish the whole mess would go away.

Eyebrows were raised Friday as the paths of educational products salesmen Aaron Del Monte and Jeffrey Stembokas unexpectedly crossed in Los Angeles. Del Monte, of Petaluma, was packing boxloads of religious books as the four-day gathering of the National Catholic Educational Assn. came to an end at the downtown Convention Center. Stembokas, of Stony Brook, N.Y., was unloading boxes of books about lovemaking as the three-day Erotica L.A. convention got underway at the same place.

Walk into the Condom Revolution and you'll likely be greeted by owner Dean Charter, a frank, enthusiastic man who is more than happy to describe the various qualities of the condoms he sells. Ribbed or unribbed. Lubricated. Extra snug. Thick or thin. "There's something for every walk of life," Charter said. But his mission is more than about making money--it's about selling safe sex. "I provide a fun and creative way for people to protect themselves," Charter said.