COLUMBUS - Two dozen exotic dancers from across the state gathered near the Ohio Statehouse yesterday to protest a bill that would restrict strip club operations.

The bill would force sexually oriented businesses - including adult bookstores and strip clubs - to close from midnight to 6 a.m. Strip clubs with permits to sell alcohol could remain open, but the entertainment would have to stop at midnight.

The bill would also require strip clubs to maintain a distance of at least six feet between entertainers and patrons, even after the dancers have put their clothes back on.

Charity Fickisen, a dancer at the Doll House in Columbus, said at a news conference that the six-foot buffer zone would prevent patrons from tipping dancers and put them out of jobs.

She said the bill would prevent her from talking with a patron after her shift, even if it was her husband, and the space requirements would mean dancers in the tight quarters of most strip clubs would be breaking the law when they went to their dressing room or to the restroom.

A House committee has postponed a vote on the bill amid vocal criticism and arguments that it violates dancers' constitutional rights.

The proposal was brought to the Republican-controlled legislature by petition through the work of Citizens for Community Values, a Cincinnati-based group that spearheaded the 2004 amendment that bans gay marriages in Ohio. If the legislature does not act on the measure, the group could take it to the ballot.

David Miller, a vice president with the group, said the proposed restrictions would reduce crimes such as prostitution and illegal drug use and decrease blight in neighborhoods where strip clubs operate. He also dismissed claims by dancers that they would lose money.

"These kinds of laws exist in other states, and the clubs in those states aren't being shut down," Mr. Miller said.

The dancers, who call themselves Dancers for Democracy, planned to march outside the Statehouse. Some wore business suits, others wore pink

T-shirts. The group also displayed a giant hoop, covered in police tape, to demonstrate the distance each single dancer would have to be from all others under the bill.

"This is America, where consenting adults should be able to do what they want, as long as no one is getting hurt," Ms. Fickisen said. "If this bill passes, all of us up here - as well as 10,000 others - will be getting hurt."

She said most dancers are young women with children who use their wages to pay for college. At least two women in the crowd at the news conference had toddlers with them.

Angelina Spencer, executive director of the Association of Club Executives, said Ohio already has laws to address the crimes supporters argue the bill would address.

First Published May 2, 2007, 2:16 p.m.