City Council Updates Sex Ordinance, Nixes Robot Brothel

HOUSTON, TX — The Houston City Council gave a thumbs down to a proposed sex robot brothel planned for the Galleria area, and approved an update to the city’s ordinance regulating sexually oriented businesses.

The city council amended Chapter 28, Article II of its Sexually Oriented Business ordinance that deals with Adult Arcades and Mini-Theaters in an effort to address current and emergent technologies in the adult entertainment industry, and outlawed the “try it before you buy it” stipulation on the KinkySdolls webpage.

Yuval Graviel, who operates KinkySdolls.com in Toronto, hoped to build the first robot brothel in the U.S. in the City of Houston and sell both male and female sex dolls.

Graviel hit a roadblock last week when code enforcement officers discovered he was building a storefront on Richmond near Chimney Rock without the proper permit and ordered a stop.

Since the announcement of the proposed robot brothel last week, Mayor Sylvester Turner has said businesses like these are not what Houston needs or wants. During Wednesday’s city council meeting, Turner remarked that the media had done a remarkable job of getting Houstonians talking about this business.

“I guarantee you, you will have a hard time finding anyone in the city of Houston that is not aware of sex robots,” he said.

Turner said he attended several National Night Out events and was asked by several people about the brothel, and if the city council would take action.

If the council had not acted, customers would have been permitted to rent the “adult love dolls” by the hour for the purpose of sexual gratification at a cost of $120, and return the dolls or purchase them outright.

While the change to the ordinance outlaws “try it before you buy it,” and will halt the business from building near a church, school, park or residential area, it does not stop KinkySdolls from building in Houston, provided they follow the ordinance.

If KinkySdolls want’s to stay in Houston, they will also have to find another place to build their storefront, since the ordinance prohibits them from building near Anderson Park.

The City of Houston began regulating Sexually Oriented Businesses in the early 1980s, which forced many to relocate to areas of unincorporated Harris County, which enacted their own regulations in 2015.

READ ALSO: Robot Brothel Could Hinge On Houston City Council Vote

(For more news and information like this, subscribe to Patch for free. If you have an iPhone, click here to get the free Patch iPhone app; download the free Patch Android app here.)

Image: KinkySdolls

Send your news tips and story ideas to bryan.kirk@patch.com