When the historical Plaza Live theater in Orlando hosted an match final December referred to as “A Drag Queen Christmas,” the show drew a complete space, noisy side road demonstrators — and a small squad of undercover state agents there to record whether or not kids have been being uncovered to attractions that ran afoul of Florida’s decency regulation.
The Dec. 28 efficiency featured campy skits like “Screwdolph the Red-Nippled Man Deer” and shimmying, bare-chested males who wouldn’t were misplaced at a Madonna live performance. Also a hip thrust or two, very similar to what’s every so often indulged in by NFL players after a landing. All of it was once dutifully recorded by the undercover agents on state-issued iPhones.
But whilst agents took footage of 3 minors — who seemed to be accompanied by adults — at the Orlando drag show, they said that not anything indecent had took place on degree, in line with an incident document bought solely by the Miami Herald.
“Besides some of the outfits being provocative [bikinis and short shorts], agents did not witness any lewd acts such as exposure of genital organs,” the temporary document mentioned. “The performers did not have any physical contact while performing to the rhythm of the music with any patrons.”
An incident document from undercover state agents presentations they seen not anything “lewd” at a drag show in Orlando final yr the place kids have been provide.
[ Department of Business and Professional Regulation ]
Still, the state’s Department of Business and Professional Regulation proceeded to document a grievance towards the nonprofit that runs Plaza Live, claiming the venue had illegally uncovered kids to sexual content material. The grievance, issued Feb. 3, seeks to strip the small, nonprofit theater of its liquor license — a significant blow that may most likely put it into chapter 11.
It’s all a part of Gov. Ron DeSantis’ statewide crackdown on drag presentations, which might escalate additional as legislators draft new regulations to tighten restrictions on venues that let minors into the ones performances. DeSantis has mentioned he believes “sexualized” drag presentations are unhealthy for children.
Ahead of the Orlando match, state officers warned the Plaza Live to not let in kids. Far-right figures — together with the social-media account Libs of TikTookay and Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene, a Georgia Republican — have been elevating the alarm for days concerning the show, which toured the country prior to coming to Florida.
The Department of Business and Professional Regulation, which regulates alcohol gross sales in Florida and has its personal sworn law enforcement officials, says it has the authority to strip liquor licenses from venues that violate state regulation. DeSantis himself has mentioned the function is to financially hurt venues that disclose kids to drag queens.
“Having kids involved in this is wrong,” the governor said final yr. “It is a disturbing trend in our society to try to sexualize these young people. That is not the way you look out for our children, you protect children, you do not expose them to things that are inappropriate.”
Based at the agents’ footage and movies, the Department of Business and Professional Regulation mentioned the Plaza Live had allowed kids to peer “acts of sexual conduct, simulated sexual activity, and lewd, vulgar and indecent displays” — in violation of state regulations that ban appearing “lewd or lascivious” fabrics to minors underneath the age of 16.
Although the grievance asserted that the Plaza Live broke decency regulations, prosecutors have now not filed prison fees.
In the adult-entertainment business, obscene acts normally come with touching, sexual manipulation, or exposing an erection — none of which took place at the Plaza Live or any of the opposite venues targeted by the state over equivalent allegations since final summer season.
DeSantis — who has mentioned that folks want extra rights in different spaces like faculties — does now not recommend for parental selection on the subject of drag presentations.
The Department of Business and Professional Regulation could also be in the hunt for to forestall two different Miami venues —the Hyatt Regency Miami resort and R House in Wynwood — from serving liquor. The Hyatt hosted the similar “Drag Queen Christmas” that performed in Orlando. R House hosted a drag queen weekend brunch. Venues in Fort Lauderdale and Clearwater additionally placed on “A Drag Queen Christmas,” even though the state hasn’t filed proceedings towards them.
In Tallahassee, Republican allies of DeSantis are pushing new expenses that may make it more uncomplicated for the state to head after venues that host drag presentations with kids provide. They’re becoming a member of a wave of legislation across the nation focused on drag presentations.
DeSantis is broadly anticipated to release a bid for president in the following couple of months. The drag crackdown has received him nationwide consideration in conservative circles— and sparked worry and anger in Florida’s LGBTQ neighborhood.
The workforce that runs the Plaza Live, the Orlando Philharmonic Plaza Foundation, declined to remark for this tale. The workforce says the Plaza Live had hosted drag performances with no issues for 8 instantly years.
Recently, regardless that, the political local weather for such occasions has modified.
Conservative activists are pushing to restrict kids’s attendance at drag occasions, even if they’re marketed as “family friendly,” like e book readings for children at libraries. The efforts have given start to teams equivalent to Gays towards Groomers that equate kids studying about LGBTQ problems with kid abuse.
Carlos Guillermo Smith, a former Democratic state legislator from Orlando, mentioned the document from state agents proves that the “moral panic” about drag presentations is in accordance with “nothing.”
“What you see here is the governor sending in investigators and then dismissing what the investigators have to say because it doesn’t fit into his narrative,” mentioned Guillermo Smith, who now works for Equality Florida, an LGBTQ rights workforce. “It’s more evidence that all of this … is contrived, it’s politically motivated. And it’s not about protecting children. It’s part of an ongoing effort to marginalize LGBT people and their allies because that’s the vehicle that will get him to … the GOP nomination.”
He identified that folks can make a choice what films to take their kids to with out the state interfering.
The governor’s administrative center didn’t reply to a request for remark. Neither did the Department of Business and Professional Regulation.
DeSantis’ administrative center has mentioned the state is solely responding to proceedings from involved electorate about drag presentations.
“We thank the public for continuing to bring attention to these incidents,” DeSantis spokesman Bryan Griffin said in a observation posted on Twitter final yr.
But when requested for copies of the ones proceedings, the Department of Business and Professional Regulation merely supplied hyperlinks to a number of Tweets.
One got here from Libs of TikTookay, a social media account that scornfully chronicles homosexual and transgender problems.
Another was once from Taylor Greene, the ultra-conservative Georgia congresswoman.
“This is intentional grooming of children by both the parents and the performers,” Taylor Greene wrote.
Last summer season, the state additionally mentioned it was once responding to “public outrage” in line with the R House drag brunch. In reality, the talk was once traced again to a well known conservative influencer, Lauren Chen.
“Hey, DeSantis, you need to be on top of this,” Chen mentioned in a viral TikTookay video. “I absolutely want to see these people thrown in jail.”
Ann Berendzen, an Orlando resident who attended the Plaza Live efficiency, mentioned the assaults on drag presentations have no foundation in truth.
“I’m almost 60 and it was my first drag show,” Berendzen mentioned. “I had a blast. I thought it was hilarious.”
She mentioned she was once surprised when she noticed the state’s grievance.
“Every one of the accusations is false. They’re not exaggerated. They are completely false. It’s gross,” Berendzen mentioned. “You’d see more sexuality in a Las Vegas show.”
DeSantis is charging headlong into the tradition wars on extra than simply drag presentations.
The governor’s insurance policies have targeted abortion rights, transgender well being care and the way public faculties, personal employers and universities deal with topics like racism, sexual orientation and gender id.
Despite the political hurricane, felony professionals have forged doubt on claims that presentations like “A Drag Queen Christmas” violate Florida’s decency regulations.
The incident document from the undercover agents handiest provides to the weak point of the state’s case, lawyers mentioned.
“This document would be exhibit A for the defense,” mentioned Fritz Wermuth, a Central Florida litigator who has treated First Amendment circumstances.
Daniel Aaronson, a prison protection attorney and freedom of speech skilled, agreed.
“To me, the document is a blank invoice of well being: They are announcing, ‘We did not observe a crime,’ ” Aaronson said.
While shows like a “Drag Queen Christmas” might not be to everyone’s taste, that’s how art and theater work — and the state shouldn’t censor them, said Adam Steinbaugh, an attorney with the Foundation for Individual Rights and Expression, a national free speech group.
“Drag is a form of speech, it is a form of expression,” Steinbaugh said. “Some people might find it offensive. The solution to that is: Don’t go. If it’s not your cup of tea, don’t drink it.”
Drag refers to performers dressing up as other genders and has been used in the theater from ancient Greece through Shakespeare and beyond.
Steinbaugh said the state was usurping the responsibilities of parents — and using alcohol licenses as a cudgel to censor venues that host drag.
“Parents have the right to make choices about what their children see,” he said. “You can criticize that choice, but you can’t censor it.”
As a result of the state’s crackdown, venues may simply choose not to take the risk of hosting drag shows — a clear “chilling” effect on speech, Steinbaugh said.
The Foundation for Individual Rights and Expression obtained the documents, photographs and videos referenced in this story through a public records request and shared them with the Herald.
In cracking down on drag shows, state regulators have had to cite existing laws against “public nuisances,” as well as a precedent set by the Florida Supreme Court in 1947 that defines “men impersonating women in the context of ‘suggestive and indecent’ performances” as such a nuisance.
Hours before doors opened for “A Drag Queen Christmas” on Dec. 28, the Department of Business and Professional Regulation delivered a letter to the Plaza Live warning it not to allow children into the show that evening.
The theater quickly posted a small, typed sign on its doors stating: “While we are not restricting access to anyone under 18, please be advised some may think the context is not appropriate for under 18.”
That may have been a fair assessment.
One of the videos taken by agents appears to show a performer named Jimbo the Clown giving birth to a log of bologna and throwing slices to the crowd. (The state complaint referred to the scene as a “graphic depiction … of childbirth and/or abortion.”) At one point, a video screen behind the performers displayed an image of a finger penetrating a wreath. The Screwdolph skit contained the lyrics: “You know Dasher and Dancer and Prancer and Vixen / Vomit and Stupid and Dildo and Dicks-in / But do you recall the most famous reindeer of all? / Screwdolph the Red-Nippled Reindeer had a very shiny bust.”
Audience participants whooped and applauded all over.
Undercover law enforcement officers with Florida’s Department of Business and Professional Regulation took this photo during a “Drag Queen Christmas” event at Orlando’s historic Plaza Live theater on Dec. 28. The photo shows a skit called “Screwdolph the Red-Nippled Man Deer.” Agents said they saw nothing “lewd” about the performance.
[ Department of Business and Professional Regulation ]
Among other claims made in the complaint, the Department of Business and Professional Regulation alleged that performers illegally exposed “prosthetic female breasts and genitalia.”
But state law does not say it is illegal to expose prosthetic body parts.
That may change during the current legislative session.
Republican lawmakers have introduced legislation that, if approved, will make it unlawful for children to witness “lewd exposure of prosthetic or imitation genitals or breasts.” The restriction will apply in cases when the shows are “without serious literary, artistic, political, or scientific value for the age of the child present,” or are considered “patently offensive,” or appeal to “a prurient, shameful, or morbid interest.”
Under the proposals, a person who knowingly admits a child into one of these performances would face a first-degree misdemeanor, punishable by up to a year in prison.
House Speaker Paul Renner on Friday did not say whether he supported the penalties attached to the proposal. But he did assert that drag shows should be considered entertainment for adults, not children.
When asked whether parents should have the choice to bring their kids, Renner, a Republican, spoke only for himself: “This parent would not want my little kids having to answer questions about what is happening with the guy with the beard who is dressed like a woman.”
The Florida Legislature has consistently passed new laws expanding the powers of the state after DeSantis’ previous actions ran into trouble in court, including the governor’s migrant flight program and his prosecutions of felons who voted.
Before the state can revoke a liquor license, businesses are allowed to request a hearing in front of an administrative law judge. Cases can take as long as two years to resolve. Losing a liquor license is the most severe penalty that could result from a violation.
Patty Sheehan, an Orlando city commissioner who attended the show, said the claim that children are being harmed is “absurd.”
Sheehan said that the Plaza Live’s director of security told her that minors were in the audience — three teenagers accompanied by their parents. (In their report, the state agents pegged two of the kids they saw as between the ages of six and eight and an older child at 14.)
Sheehan said she did see younger children waiting in line to enter the venue. But she said she had seen anti-drag protesters bringing them there.
“They were putting these young children in line to make it look like they were going into the theater,” she said.
Although protesters called audience members “groomers” and yelled obscenities at them, the commissioner said she thoroughly enjoyed “A Drag Queen Christmas.” The show was so full that she had to watch from a folding chair in back.
“Some of it was weird, but that’s art,” Sheehan said. “Art is weird sometimes.”