Florida’s attorney general has vowed to protect children against trans activists who he says want to expose kids to “weird sexual fetishes” in defense of the state’s law that bans minors from adult entertainment, including drag shows.
Florida officials are looking at ways to keep drag queens away from performing in front of kids after losing two court rulings on the topic this week.
The clash in the courts — and the court of public opinion — has been brewing as LGBTQ activists aim to celebrate June’s Pride month in ways to include families and children.
Florida Attorney General James Uthmeier took to X to defend the Protection of Children Act, which bans venues from admitting children to an “adult live performance” after the 11th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals ruled the statute is vague and couldn’t pass First Amendment scrutiny.
“I stand by our law that protects kids from drag shows and other sexually explicit adult performances,” Mr. Uthmeier, a Republican, posted Tuesday. “The decisions out of Fort Myers and the Eleventh Circuit panel are both radical and wrong. My office will fight aggressively and swiftly to get these bad decisions overturned. Trans activists don’t have the First Amendment right to expose kids to their weird sexual fetishes.”
One day before the 11th Circuit issued its decision on Tuesday to uphold an injunction against the enforcement of the Protection of Children Act, a federal judge in Fort Myers ruled that a Pride event with a drag show near a public playground could take place on June 7.
The city of Naples tried to move the drag show indoors and put in place an age requirement. But the judge, a Clinton appointee, said those moves appear to run afoul of the First Amendment.
“For purposes of this preliminary injunction motion, the Court finds that Naples Pride’s drag performance is symbolic conduct that is inherently expressive and constitutes ’speech’ within the meaning of the First Amendment,” U.S. District Judge John Steele wrote Monday in an order.
The dispute out of the 11th Circuit, meanwhile, involved Hamburger Mary’s, which held what it called family friendly drag shows on Sundays.
After the state passed its law, which makes it a misdemeanor to admit a child to any live adult entertainment show, Hamburger Mary’s bookings went down 20%, prompting the establishment to challenge the statute under the First Amendment.
A district court judge issued an injunction against the state’s law, and the U.S. Supreme Court previously refused to step in on an emergency request from the state.
The dispute was pending before the 11th Circuit until Tuesday, when a three-judge panel ruled 2-1 to leave the injunction in place, reasoning the law likely runs afoul of the First Amendment.
In the majority ruling written by Judge Robin Stacie Rosenbaum, an Obama appointee, the court said the law refers to “lewd conduct,” which is too vague.
“The Constitution demands specificity when the state restricts speech. Requiring clarity in speech regulations shields us from the whims of government censors,” the opinion reads.
“The Act prohibits children’s admission to ’live performances’ that Florida considers obscene for minors. But by providing only vague guidance as to which performances it prohibits, the Act wields a shotgun when the First Amendment allows a scalpel at most,” wrote Judge Rosenbaum.
Judge Gerald Bard Tjoflat, a Ford appointee, dissented, saying the panel could have sent the dispute back to the Florida Supreme Court to clarify the statute, respecting federalism. He said the majority took an “unwarranted path.”
“It reads the statute in the broadest possible way, maximizes constitutional conflict, and strikes the law down wholesale,” Judge Tjoflat wrote.
The other judge on the panel was Judge Nancy Gbana Abudu, a Biden appointee.
