Debunking the "Brothel Law" Myth

[lawgal]

I could not resist joining in on this one, regarding the alleged "brothel law" in Detroit. I did a search of all the Detroit Municipal Code and the Zoning Ordinances and Wayne County Code and Ordinances. The result: no law prohibiting sororities having houses (or women's dorms). Sec. 38-5-5 does prohibit the following:

"Sec. 38-5-5. Disorderly house, house of ill fame, gaming house, etc.– Keeping of same prohibited. No person shall keep, within the city, any house of ill fame, house of assignation, or house for the resort of common prostitutes, or a disorderly saloon, barroom, tavern, beer hall, grocery, theater, room, ordinary house or building of any kind, or any house, room or building for gaming with cards, dice, billiards, nine- or ten-pin alleys, wheels of fortune, boxes, machines or other instruments or devices whatever, or shall in any manner contribute to the support, carrying on or keeping of any such house or place. "

Obviously does not apply to sororities. Also the only Zoning Ordinance refering to unrelated persons living under the same roof dealt with single family housing. Again not applicable to sororities.

I would love to see any citation that the poster can find on the/any Detroit brothel law applying to sororities. A newspaper, magazine, or Wiki article are not legitimate legal sources.

I actually find this thread pretty funny. What are they teaching in some colleges now that these supposed college students or grads can't get the point of this thread? (Thinking, research, checking sources, proof....?)

[SycamorePike]

I did my research and I found out that there was no law put into place in Terre Haute about the brothels. Although according to some older alumni, the local police were very watchful of the sorority houses at the time. Brothels were being started in old sorority houses on Farrington Grove and led to the relocation of all the sororities to Lincoln Quadrangles. Alumni of the sororities pushed for their respective chapters to move to the Quadrangles because they didn't want the name of their sorority tarnished by brothels and prostitutes. Only one sorority didn't push for the removal of sorority houses, Sigma Kappa, and they still have a house near campus today. Alpha Phi, Alpha Chi Omega, Alpha Sigma Alpha, Chi Omega, Delta Gamma, Alpha Omicron Pi, Gamma Phi Beta, and Zeta Tau Alpha all have stairwells that are four levels of rooms that hold four or five ladies per room.

That was where my research led me. No brothel law, but a recommendation that never got passed in legislation.

[MysticCat]

Originally Posted by SycamorePike

I did my research and I found out that there was no law put into place in Terre Haute about the brothels.

Glad you could come back and admit it.

Although according to some older alumni, the local police were very watchful of the sorority houses at the time. Brothels were being started in old sorority houses on Farrington Grove and led to the relocation of all the sororities to Lincoln Quadrangles. . . . No brothel law, but a recommendation that never got passed in legislation.

I'd take this with a big grain of salt -- still sounds like urban legend to explain the current circumstances to me.

[Tom Earp]

Originally Posted by MysticCat

Glad you could come back and admit it.

I'd take this with a big grain of salt -- still sounds like urban legend to explain the current circumstances to me.

Hm, then why bring it up?

It has been pointed out so many times that is is Called BS!

[5Knowledge1913]

WOW. I have never even thought of sorority houses as brothels. That doesn't even make sense!

Originally Posted by adpiucf

Claim: _ Sororities are outlawed on certain campuses because local "brothel laws" prohibit more than a specified number of females from living together.

Status: _ False.

Examples:

[Collected on the Internet, 2001]
Sorority houses are illegal in PA. Due to a 19th century law banning more the 5 unrelated women from living in the same house. This law supposedly was meant to prevent prostitution houses.
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[Collected on the Internet, 1998]
Well, my alma mater is Denison University. Dogs were part of the landscape when there were fraternities on campus. There are no fraternities there anymore. I was in a sorority, but we weren't allowed to live in the sorority houses (old town law about more than 8 women in a house constituting a brothel).
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[Collected on the Internet, 1997]
I have a friend who goes to Loyola New Orleans. They cannot have sorority houses because more than five girls in one house is a brothel.
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[Collected on the Internet, 1995]
I have heard from the ol' rumor mill that the reason that sororities don't have houses at the University of Chicago is that there's some sort of local/state law which defines four or more unmarried women living together as a brothel.

Variations:

* The number of sorority sisters that would supposedly trigger the "brothel" designation varies from telling to telling, with six being one of the more common figures kited.


* This legend is told as true on any number of U.S. campuses, always by way of explanation for each school's lack of sorority houses.

Origins: _ This mistaken belief has been recorded since the 1960s and is probably a great deal older than that. Its possible origin might lie in a mental confluence of half-remembered tidbits about old time "blue laws" mixed with a healthy dollop of badly-parsed newer input about zoning laws adopted by various communities in more contemporary times. Short and sweet, if any so-called "brothel laws" anywhere tie a building's classification as a bordello to the number of occupants, we've yet to find documentation that proves this.

Some municipalities do indeed have zoning laws prohibiting more than a specified number of non-family members (male or female) from living together, but not even in those cases would a household in violation of those codes be labeled a brothel.

Brothels earn such designations solely on the basis of what goes on in them, not upon how many women inhabit particular buildings.

Even in communities that carry such housing restrictions on their books, sororities and fraternities are exempted from them. The thrust of such laws is to set limits on how many people may reasonably inhabit what were meant to be single-family dwellings, not to enjoin those who are living in more communal settings in buildings meant for such purposes. Were such laws to apply to those latter forms of housing, local YWCAs would have been shut down and padlocked, as would a variety of nurses' residences.

Collegians have been explaining the lack of sorority houses on various campuses through this flawed factlet for many a year. Richard Roeper noted this legend in 1994, calling it "the most widespread piece of university folklore making the rounds" and estimating from entries on collegiate bulletin boards that it was being told on at least 100 campuses.

The belief that a "brothel law" bars live-in sororities from campuses is so deeply worked into the fabric of collegiate life that few now think to question it. In 1998 a group of eight students at Tulane University unsuccessfully searched city and state laws for the statute, finally concluding they'd been on a wild goose chase. "It was not found in either city or state codes," Adriana Belli, one of the student researchers, said. "We looked in every law book, every ordinance in New Orleans . . . dating back to the 1800s."

We routinely hear from students who are convinced their particular university lacks a sorority because of this non-existent law. Their vehemence aside, none have yet produce a copy of the statute they so firmly believe in, an act that would earn their city and institution of higher learning a measure of fame in the world of contemporary lore.

Men view the notion of large numbers of women living together as strangely erotic, mentally envisioning a veritable candy store of comely and available sex partners, each of them bedding down for the night virginally clutching her teddy bear close to her babydoll-clad, pulsating 38-24-36 nakedness (which they wouldn't if they'd ever been locked in a women's dorm overnight — nothing kills rampant sexual fantasy more quickly than a cold eyeful of reality.) Add to the mix the "college girl" element (young, nubile flesh) and throw in the "sorority girl" detail (presumed promiscuity), and it's easy to see why this tidbit about brothel zoning has been so stubbornly promulgated.

courtesy of www.snopes.com

[one800thekiller]

I am a Junior Political Science Major, and i promise you that even the presence of such a law on any states books, would break so many different national regulations

so please...just stop...arguing on behalf of this ridiculous rumor, unless you have a link to a state government site, with a copy of that law, word for word on the site.

[honeychile]

Penn State actually admits that there is no Brothel Law online! Found this here:

"Myth: There are no sorority houses at Penn State because of an old Pennsylvania law that defined a dwelling that housed a certain number of unrelated women as a brothel.
Fact: Sorority houses did exist on the University Park campus, and there is no such state law nor any University prohibition against sorority houses per se. The first sorority house on campus was Stone House (a former faculty residence), which in 1928 became home to a women’s social club, Nita-Nee, which became Kappa Alpha Theta in 1930 and occupied the house until 1949. Other sororities also had campus houses but, like KAT, moved out of these aging structures soon after World War II and into newly available suites in residence halls. The sororities rented the suites from the University—as they continue to do today. The advantages of residence hall suites and the high cost of private housing in the post-war era discouraged off-campus sorority houses, although the borough of State College, in its zoning laws, makes no distinction between sorority and fraternity houses."

[WaterFay13]

I go to Susquehanna University and all our frats and sororities have houses. But there is a Brothel Law in the town. I thought this was kind of funny 4 of my friends signed a lease to move off campus next year and one had to sign as a maid cause apparently in the town if 4 or more girls live in the same house/apartment its considered a brothel, made me laugh lol

[Senusret I]

I wish you would read this whole thread.

Originally Posted by honeychile

Penn State actually admits that there is no Brothel Law online! Found this here:

"Myth: There are no sorority houses at Penn State because of an old Pennsylvania law that defined a dwelling that housed a certain number of unrelated women as a brothel.
Fact: Sorority houses did exist on the University Park campus, and there is no such state law nor any University prohibition against sorority houses per se. The first sorority house on campus was Stone House (a former faculty residence), which in 1928 became home to a women’s social club, Nita-Nee, which became Kappa Alpha Theta in 1930 and occupied the house until 1949. Other sororities also had campus houses but, like KAT, moved out of these aging structures soon after World War II and into newly available suites in residence halls. The sororities rented the suites from the University—as they continue to do today. The advantages of residence hall suites and the high cost of private housing in the post-war era discouraged off-campus sorority houses, although the borough of State College, in its zoning laws, makes no distinction between sorority and fraternity houses."

Originally Posted by WaterFay13

I go to Susquehanna University and all our frats and sororities have houses. But there is a Brothel Law in the town. I thought this was kind of funny 4 of my friends signed a lease to move off campus next year and one had to sign as a maid cause apparently in the town if 4 or more girls live in the same house/apartment its considered a brothel, made me laugh lol

Your incorrect assumption about brothel laws made me laugh.

[33girl]

And there is no brothel law in any other town in PA, either. It's either zoning laws or landlords who have gotten screwed over too many times by things being under sorority names instead of individuals' names.

[DrPhil]

Originally Posted by Senusret I

I wish you would read this whole thread.

That kills the high of potentially being THE ONE with the answer to THE QUESTION.

[ASTalumna06]

Originally Posted by WaterFay13

I go to Susquehanna University and all our frats and sororities have houses. But there is a Brothel Law in the town. I thought this was kind of funny 4 of my friends signed a lease to move off campus next year and one had to sign as a maid cause apparently in the town if 4 or more girls live in the same house/apartment its considered a brothel, made me laugh lol

Originally Posted by Senusret I

I wish you would read this whole thread.

Forget reading the whole thread... you just have to read the title!

[ATinsyBitLazy]

If a sorority isn't recognized by the school, there's really nothing stopping them from getting a house, is there? I mean, even if the law was real. You could just have a few girls registered as living there but actually have more...

[honeychile]

Originally Posted by OTW

Some places don't allow an X number of unrelated people living together in the same house.

The suburb I live in doesn't allow more than four unrelated people to reside in one house - but that's not for brothel restrictions, it's to keep group homes for the handicapped to a minimum. I guess they don't care about prostitutes yet.