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Male stripping and lap-dancing are among Montreal's glorious institutions, but lately they've taken some policely knocks. Activists wonder why authorities are getting bent about overt homoeroticism in the city's gay village.

In consequence to a raid last spring, Quebec's Liquor Licensing Board in September ordered the gay strip bar Taboo closed for 75 days. City officials told another male strip bar, closed for repairs in the Sky complex, that it couldn't re-open. And the city has continued a moratorium on new erotic venues, both straight and gay.

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Sky owner Peter Sergakis defied the decision and opened "Blu" as a nude dancer bar in the same space. City councilors threatened to close the bar, but Sergakis sought a court injunction, pending review of his claim that his property was zoned for erotic dancing since 1981.

The charges against 35 dancers, customers, and staff at Taboo proceed slowly. All eight staff pled "not guilty" at a hearing September 26th, with a postponement until November. At least 20 of the 23 dancers have pled or will plead "not guilty" at an October 20th hearing.

"We have a strong case for the dancers charged with being 'found in' a bawdy house," says Noel St. Pierre, a gay activist attorney who represents 16 of the dancers. "I hope we go to trial so that part of the bawdy-house laws will be deemed unconstitutional." For any dancer charged with "acts of public indecency," St. Pierre says the police must show specific evidence, and the court must decide what counts as "public" and "indecent."

"These will be difficult cases for the police," St. Pierre predicts.

Taboo's legal troubles reflect Quebec's ambiguous status as a culturally distinct place legally ensconced in Anglo Canada. "There's a very high level of tolerance in Quebec for sexual freedom and personal privacy," St. Pierre says. "Yet the sex-offenses listed in Canadian criminal law-- which is paramount under our system-- are puritanical. Here in Montreal we have to negotiate locally a certain level of tolerance."

But with a recent rightward drift in Quebec's provincial politics, the roots of the sex crackdown are also partly local, leaving the legal status of Montreal stripping and lap-dancing for now murky. The commander of the gay village's community policing unit told strip-bar staff in September that cops wouldn't intrude on what went on in private booths. Several dancer bars installed such booths based on his advice. But Morality Squad police now insist the new rules mean no touching anywhere.

The touching ban is "impractical and may violate gay culture," says Diane Labelle, president the Montreal gay coalition La Table. "These rules seem to prohibit even the traditional Quebec gay double-kiss on the cheek."

"I want to follow the law, but how can I do that when I get different versions from the police?" complains Taboo's new owner, Claude Auger. "We are taking time off to make Taboo an even better bar." The club's reopening is set for the first week of December.

Activists vow to keep the pressure on the authorities. And Montreal's strip clubs-- Campus, Le Stock, Adonis, West Side, and Blu, among them-- are still open and working. Montreal gay stripping and lap-dancing may no longer be at its glorious, touchy, kissy peak. But the show goes on.