Texas Massage Law

[Bilbo]

We often talk about protecting masseur's credentials as we talk here. Here's a little reason why, a direct quotation of part of the massage law here in Texas:

Sec. 455.251. b. The department shall revoke the certificate of registration of a person registered as a massage therapist or massage therapy instructor if:

1. the person is convited of, enters a plea of non contendere or guilty to, or receives deferred adjucication for an offense involving prostitution or another sexual offense; or

2. the department determines the person has practiced or administered massage therapy at or for a sexually oriented business.

 

Try getting around that one. And you may note that unless you are proven innocent any sexually related offense could do it. And remember Texas still has a sodomy law. Or in some smaller jurisdictions, one might be tempted (entrapped) in a public place where you feel you have a reasonable expectation of privacy, like the woods, a bathroom, or a massage cubicle.

And, if you are wondering, I do have a personal axe to grind here as I just found out day before yesterday that my license has been revoked for my prostitution arrest, even though it was not directly involved with a massage appointment. I had thought that there would be a hearing and was hoping that it would only be rescinded for a while. There is similar wording making sure that I cannot successfully reapply for a new license, either.

Oh, well, it's on to the wilds of Reiki, which is not yet regulated by law here in TX.

[Guest MrB]

Sorry to hear that, Bilbo. I've never been to Texas--do you think a majority of its people would agree, or is it a matter of awareness?

[Guest Croix]

Bummer!! In this philosophically upside down world, few people realise that, in this scenario, the only criminals are the framers and enforcers of those laws. They are the ones guilty of the crimes of coersion, force, and threat of force. These laws are objectively immoral; and, in an enlightened society, ought to be repealed.

[Bilbo]

By far the majority of the people I know and like would tend to disagree with this law. However, that is a skewed population, isn't it? We did elect Ann Richards as governor at one time! However, look at who our governor is now. Hope we don't infect the rest of the country with him. And we were always famous as the state with the educational system where if you could get a text book OKed to sell here, you could sell it anywhere. I've talked to high school English teachers who were afraid to mention to their classes that Oscar Wilde and Walt Whitman were gay.

We have been called the buckle on the Bible belt. But I would recommend to you an old book called The Seven Nations of North America (or of the United States or some such). It's a wonderful old book and I'm sorry I can't remember the name of it, and I don't think that it has ever been updated. It took a look at several polls, etc, and ran the demographics and looked where the groups of people who thought alike lived, and they did live in roughly defined geographic areas. I think that there were four of them which had long narrow arms stretching out like scarves across Texas, and coming to a points here, with all of them represented in Houston, where I live. So perhaps, more than many other places, it is more difficult to give a generalized group picture of our populace than it would be in many other parts of the USA.

Thank you for your concern, and, of course, I agree with the second poster (forgot your name temporarily). One has to remember that for a long time, hairdressers were the only ones licensed to do massage in Texas. Everybody else basically got away with it. Then the massage industry itself got together and went to the state government and got them to police the industry. As a consequence, massage schools have an undue influence on the law and the image of masseurs which it forces the rest of us to project.

But don't go thinking just because your favorite local masseur hasn't shown you your state's law that it is necessarily any less draconian. Let's try to look like we're living within them as much as we can, change them when we can and in the meantime, as Super Chicken always said to his sidekick lion Fred, "You knew the job was dangerous when you took it."

[Bilbo]

Well, I mailed the certificate back to them today.

I would really appreciate it if anyone else who has a copy of his state's law would type in here the relevant portion just to let me compare them.

Now I will concentrate on my Reiki, as a practitioner and a teacher. Namaste!

[+ honcho]

Without meaning to be flip; is it also against the law to practice non-sexual massage without a license?

 

Never having lived in texas, I don't know the answer.

[Bilbo]

First, the state doesn't issue licenses to do sexual massage. They call that prostitution.;-)

 

Second, yes, it is illegal to do professional nonsexual massage in Texas without one of two licenses. One, duh, is a massage license. The other is that since people with hairdressing licenses were allowed to do massages for many, many years before 1984 when the state started issuing massage licenses, that piece of paper was sorta grandfathered in and people with that license are allowed to do massage. Hey! Maybe I just found my loophole. Now all I gotta do is go to cosmetology school. (Somehow, I don't think so, but I guess I gotta be openminded ...)

 

There is also a list of other words that people without the proper license cannot use in their advertising. (I need to double check that, too, I guess.) That tries to include all of the words that anyone would think to look for, like "backrub", etc.

 

Another thing I think I remember, but may be wrong is that the last time I checked it seems to me there were roughly ten states that didn't have massage licenses. Of course, I don't feel ready to move, but I would like to know and to see if they know some of the laws other masseurs are operating under. Anyone?