Florida state officials are pulling the liquor license of an Orlando venue after they hosted a Christmas-themed drag queen show containing sexually explicit content aimed at children on Dec. 28.
The Florida Department of Business and Professional Regulation filed a complaint on Friday against the Orlando Philharmonic Plaza Foundation Inc., owners of the Plaza Live venue.
TRUMP AND DESANTIS STILL LEADING GOP AMONG LIKELY CANDIDATES
The DeSantis administration had warned the venue that exposing children to sexually explicit activities is a crime in Florida, which would lead to a revocation of the venue’s liquor license.
“If you allow children to attend the Drag Fans drag show at your facility, you are putting your license in jeopardy,” the department wrote in an email to the venue in advance of the event.
The complaint said that the “Respondent failed to ensure that minors were prohibited from attending such performances, its license would be subject to penalties up to and including revocation.”
Event staff had posted a sign to advise that some of the content may not be suitable for those under the age of 18, but the complaint noted that the “notice was barely visible as it was printed in small font on a piece of paper taped to a door.”
Despite the warnings, the Orlando venue went ahead with the the “Drag Queen Christmas” event, allowing minors to attend the performance. The complaint showed numerous photos of children attending the event, in addition to the explicit content that the children had witnessed.
The live performance included a drag queen pretending to give birth on stage and then hitting two shirtless men with the red round objects that they birthed out of their costume.
A drag queen “gives birth” in a bizarre explicit performance during a “family-friendly” Drag Queen Christmas event in Orlando, Florida. Children are in the audience. pic.twitter.com/LpJy6oVwWr
— The Post Millennial (@TPostMillennial) December 29, 2022
The complaint gave examples of the lewd conduct: “The show featured numerous segments where performers engaged in acts of sexual conduct, simulated sexual activity … including, intentional exposing performers’ prosthetic female breasts and genitilia to the audience.”
It went on to note they were “simulating masturbation through performers’ digitally penetrating prosthetic female genitals and graphic depictions of childbirth and/or abortion.”
The drag queen show run by Drag Fans presented the content through “sexualized adaptations of popular children’s Christmas songs.”
The performance of the adaption of the children song “All I Want for Christmas is my two front teeth” included portrayals of oral fellatio. Another performance was of “Screwdolph the Red-Nippled Reindeer.”
A drag queen with illuminated breasts dances provocatively in front of children at a “family friendly” Drag Queen Christmas event in Orlando, Florida. pic.twitter.com/TmWwUW2HNM
— The Post Millennial (@TPostMillennial) December 29, 2022
“Governor DeSantis stands to protect the innocence of children, and the governor always follows through when he says he will do something,” press secretary Bryan Griffin said in a statement.
CLICK HERE TO READ MORE FROM THE WASHINGTON EXAMINER
The venue has 21 days to request a hearing, where they can be represented by counsel and present evidence and arguments.
In addition to the Orlando performance, “A Drag Queen Christmas” toured several other Florida cities including Clearwater, Fort Lauderdale, and Miami.
