On Monday, less than a week after Gov. Ron DeSantis signed a bill that targets drag performances, a well-known Orlando restaurant that regularly hosts drag shows filed a federal lawsuit against the state of Florida and DeSantis.

The proprietor of Hamburger Mary’s Orlando filed a lawsuit in federal court claiming that the state is denying the company its First Amendment rights to free speech. The restaurant is requesting that the court temporarily halt the law’s implementation while the case progresses.

As he gets ready to run for the Republican presidential nomination, DeSantis has made anti-LGBTQ+ legislation a big part of his agenda. He marked the bill limiting drag exhibitions — alongside charges that boycott orientation certifying care for minors, confine conversation of individual pronouns in schools and power individuals to utilize specific washrooms — last Wednesday before a cheering group at the zealous Cambridge Christian School in Tampa.

The Orlando location of Hamburger Mary’s Bar & Grille opened in 2008, joining more than a dozen other locations across the United States. The lawsuit says that the restaurant used to host drag shows on Sundays that were “family-friendly,” but the new law in Florida makes it necessary for them to exclude children from all shows. This has prompted a 20% drop in Sunday appointments.

Advocates of the regulation have said the law is intended to hold kids back from survey physically unequivocal exhibitions. The company’s lawyers say that the new law is so vague and broad that it could apply to almost any performance in which a man dresses as a woman, even if the performance isn’t sexual. According to the lawsuit, allowing children to attend the shows puts the business owners at risk of losing their liquor or business licenses, as well as the possibility of being charged with a crime.
Source – WFLA