Zion Curtain bill quickly runs into controversy, industry concerns

A long-awaited bill to reform Utah's liquor laws and possibly do away with the 7-foot-tall "Zion Curtain" to keep children from seeing drinks mixed in restaurants was greeted Monday with an immediate surge of controversy and industry opposition.

House Majority Leader Brad Wilson, R-Kaysville, abruptly canceled a news conference that he had called to explain his 144-page HB442, saying it "ran into some whitewater."

One big cause for concern is that rather than eliminating the Zion Curtain, it retains it as one option for restaurants, which would be faced with the choice of erecting the barrier or creating a minor-free buffer around bar areas.

Wilson acknowledged that concerns about how to change the Zion Curtain rules are still a major sticking point, and said he's still trying to resolve worries among more than a dozen competing interest groups, including The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints.

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