A restaurant in Orlando, Florida, is suing the state’s rightwing governor, the Republican presidential candidate Ron DeSantis, over a law that bans drag performances.
On Monday, Hamburger Mary’s filed suit in the US district court of the middle district of Florida, alleging a violation of first amendment rights by the state, DeSantis and Melanie Griffin, secretary of the state’s business department.
Since 2008, the suit says, the restaurant has showcased drag performances, including family friendly occasions on Sundays in which children are invited to attend. According to the suit, “there is no lewd activity, sexually explicit shows, disorderly conduct, public exposure, obscene exhibition, or anything inappropriate for a child to see.
“The Sunday Brunch drag show at Hamburger Mary’s has traditionally hosted gay, straight, couples, married couples, children, and grandchildren, as it is a wholesome form of art and entertainment. It is a form of family entertainment, enjoyed by all.”
Hamburger Mary’s shows have included renditions of popular musical numbers such as Mary Poppins’s Supercalifragilisticexpialidocious and Grease’s You’re the One That I Want, the Washington Post reported.
The shows proved popular, the restaurant says, until, earlier this month, DeSantis signed HB 1438, a law that imposes fines and license suspensions for hotels and restaurants that “admit a child into an adult performance”.
The law claims to protect children from “sexually explicit adult performances in all venues – including drag shows and strip clubs”.
Signing the bill, DeSantis said: “Florida is proud to lead the way in standing up for our children. As the world goes mad, Florida represents a refuge of sanity and a citadel of normalcy.”
Civil rights groups have condemned the drag ban as a deliberate targeting of LGBTQ+ communities, as part of DeSantis’s broader war against “woke” culture.
DeSantis has signed a slew of other bills into law including one that bans gender-affirming care for minors and one that prohibits discussions of gender identity and sexual orientation in public school classrooms.
Hamburger Mary’s told the Washington Post that as a result of the new law, it lost a fifth of its bookings.
According to the restaurant’s lawsuit, the new law “is broad enough to encompass even the most innocent drag performances, to reach into the private homes of Florida citizens, and to determine on behalf of parents what is and is not appropriate entertainment for their children”.
In a Facebook post, the restaurant owners said the bill “has nothing to do with children, and everything to do with the continued oppression of the LGBTQ+ community.
“Anytime our legislators want to demonize a group, they say they are coming for your children. In this case, creating a false narrative that drag queens are grooming and recruiting your children with no factual basis or history to back up these accusations at all!
“Our transgender friends are being vilified because our legislators will not take the time to understand the importance of gender-affirming care for these people. With depression and suicide, it can mean the difference between life and death.”
