Jeffrey Handy, the guy promoting Exxxotica porn conventions under the name J Handy, says in a new court filing that Dallas knew exactly what it was getting into when it allowed the porn convention to come to the city’s convention center last summer. Nevertheless, the City Council banned Handy and the porn convention from using the convention center in 2016 because, the city says in its own court filings, they thought the porn convention would feature more clothing and less lewdness than the porn convention actually did.

The Observer is just trying to be clear here in case readers, like city officials apparently did in 2015, miss the fact that Exxxotica (note the three “X’s”) is, in fact, a porn convention. For those unfamiliar with the genre, pornography is known for being light on the clothing, heavy on the lewd. Some might argue that’s the whole point.

Exxxotica’s parent company, Three Expo events, has sued the city, claiming that the ban amounts to a prior restraint on Handy’s and Exxxotica’s First Amendment right to free speech.

According to Handy, he discussed what the porn stars at the show would be wearing with convention center officials before the conference and fixed the city’s issues as they arose during — something that’s at least somewhat documented in a series of text messages between Handy and Kay Bailey Hutchison Convention Center compliance director John Johnson during Exxxotica 2015.

Johnson declined a chance to comment for this story, but he was at a meeting on August 5, 2015, recorded by Handy, during which, Handy says, the city neglected tell him that G-strings and pasties were not acceptable attire. Johnson, Handy says, even asked what would happen if a “Super Bowl incident” took place — referring to Janet Jackson’s infamous “wardrobe malfunction” nipple-slip in 2004. Police said that any pasty that fell off would simply have to be replaced immediately.

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