Gov. Ron DeSantis’s (R) administration is making good on its promise to target facilities allowing children to attend sexually explicit drag shows and is seeking to revoke the alcohol license of the Hyatt Regency in Miami over a drag show that took place in December which allowed children to be in attendance.
According to the administrative complaint, the event in question is “A Drag Queen Christmas,” which occurred at the James L. Knight Center, connected to the hotel giant, December 27.
Per the complaint:
Respondent promoted the Show using targeted, Christmas-themed promotional materials that did not provide notice as to the sexually explicit nature of the Show’s performances or other content. Rather than call attention to the Show’s sexually explicit content or acknowledge that it might not be appropriate for children, Respondent’s promotional materials unequivocally stated ‘[a]ll ages welcome.”
The letter notes that the Florida Department of Business and Professional Regulation (DBPR) warned the Hyatt Regency Miami against allowing children to attend the sexually explicit event and that the venue responded by updating its advertising to “recommended for audiences 18+.” However, it still allowed children to attend if they were accompanied by an adult. Therefore, minors were “knowingly admitted into the Show.”
“During the Show and in the presence of person less than 16 years of age, performers appeared on stage wearing sexually suggestive clothing and prosthetic female genitalia,” the complaint reads, noting that the performance also featured “numerous segments where performers engaged in acts of sexual conduct, sexual activity, and lewd, vulgar, and indecent displays.” That includes “performers forcibly penetrating or rubbing their exposed prosthetic female crests against the faces or oral cavities of audience members” as well as “simulating masturbation through performers’ digitally penetrating prosthetic female [sic] genital.” It also noted the sexually explicit nature of the show’s Christmas songs, which included “Screwdolph the Red-Nippled Reindeer.”
Breitbart News detailed the explicit nature of this nationwide drag show in December.
Notably, Florida’s Department of Business and Professional Regulation sent a warning to more than one host, including the Orlando Philharmonic Plaza Foundation Inc. The DeSantis administration later filed a complaint against that venue as well.
“DPBR will, like in other cases, take action,” read a statement from the DeSantis administration in December following news of these sexually explicit events, noting that “exposing children to sexually explicit activity is a crime in Florida, and such action violates the Department’s licensing standards for operating a business and holding a liquor license.”
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