A controversial bill targeting drag performances and passed by the Florida Senate on Tuesday has the potential to impact gay pride events, according to the organizer of Miami Beach Pride. NBC6’s Ari Odzer reports
A controversial bill targeting drag performances that passed by the Florida Senate on Tuesday has the potential to impact gay pride events, according to the organizer of Miami Beach Pride.
The “Protection of Children” bill includes language vague enough to create a chilling effect on drag queens participating in parades.
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“We do believe that this might be the last Pride as you know it,” said Patrick Gevas, one of the organizers of Miami Beach Pride, explaining the potential future impact of the bill.
It provides stiff penalties for anyone who lets a child into a private or public venue to see a “lewd” drag performance, regardless of parental permission to attend.
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“We are protecting children who again, cannot unsee, unhear, or unexperience things to which they are exposed, this legislation sends a strong message that Florida is a safe place to raise children because we are setting a standard in this state that protects children from being exposed to live performances that depict nudity and sexual activities,” said the bill’s sponsor, State Sen. Clay Yarborough, a Republican of Jacksonville.
Miami Beach Mayor Dan Gelber said the legislature is bullying the LGBTQ community. NBC6 asked him what was wrong with protecting children from seeing things that are inappropriate.
“Well first of all,” Gelber replied, “The definition of inappropriate is a pretty subjective definition, and last I heard, we let parents make those decisions. I have never seen something that is objectionable at a Pride parade, it tends to be just a lot of families and people celebrating who they are, which is as American as anything.”
The bill bans kids from anything that “depicts or simulates nudity” or “engages in the lewd exposure of prosthetic or imitation genitals or breasts.” The bill doesn’t specify who decides what’s lewd and what isn’t, and Gevas thinks that’s intentional. He’s worried it will scare drag performers away from the parade, even though he says they don’t do anything that would be considered lewd.
“Oh, absolutely not, I mean the parade is free to the public so they know there shouldn’t be any lewd acts, things that are inappropriate, the music is vetted, all of it, I mean we take that really seriously, the care of children is of the utmost importance to our community as well, so absolutely it could change that even though for 15 years, we’ve never had a complaint,” Gevas said, referring to the 15 years the Miami Beach Pride event has been held.
Critics of the bill also point out that it’s already illegal in Florida for kids to go to strip clubs and establishments like that, so they say the bill is a solution for a non-existent problem.
