reportedly had underage attendees<\/a>, leading state officials to warn the venue.<\/p>\nWhat the law does (and doesn\u2019t) say about drag<\/p>\n
The Protection of Children Act does not specifically mention drag shows. Instead, it creates a criminal penalty for admitting minors to an \u201cadult live performance,\u201d a term Florida law defines.<\/p>\n
According to the court, an \u201cadult live performance\u201d includes live performances depicting or simulating:<\/p>\n
Nudity<\/p>\n
Sexual conduct<\/p>\n
Sexual excitement<\/p>\n
Specific sexual activities\u00a0(as defined under Florida law)<\/p>\n
Lewd conduct<\/p>\n
Lewd exposure\u00a0of prosthetic or imitation genitals or breasts<\/p>\n
The court also noted the statute is limited to performances meeting additional criteria, including standards tied to whether the material is:<\/p>\n
Predominantly appealing to\u00a0prurient\u00a0interest<\/p>\n
Patently offensive\u00a0under statewide adult community standards as to what is suitable \u201cfor the age of the child present\u201d<\/p>\n
Lacking serious literary, artistic, political, or scientific value\u00a0for the age of the child present<\/p>\n
Why the appeals court disagreed with the lower court (for now)<\/p>\n
A federal judge had previously stopped Florida from enforcing the law against anyone in the state while the case moved forward.<\/p>\n
But in the new ruling, the appeals court said that decision was too broad \u2014 and that, at this early stage, Hamburger Mary\u2019s hasn\u2019t shown it\u2019s likely to win the case.<\/p>\n
In other words, the appeals court said the law can be enforced again while the lawsuit keeps going.<\/p>\n
What venues may do next<\/p>\n
For venues that host drag shows or other adult-themed performances, the ruling may mean:<\/p>\n
More age limits (18+)<\/p>\n
Clearer warning labels in advertising<\/p>\n
More ID checks at the door<\/p>\n
More caution about what minors are allowed to see<\/p>\n
A divided full bench of the 11th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals has cleared the way for Florida to enforce its Protection of Children Act \u2014 a law backed by Gov. Ron DeSantis that targets venues that \u201cknowingly admit a child to an adult live performance.\u201d Critics have argued the measure could be used to crack down on certain drag performances.<\/p>\n
\u201cThis shouldn\u2019t even be controversial,\u201d DeSantis said in a statement after the ruling. \u201cYet our law protecting kids required us to fend off lawsuits and win a case before a divided appellate court.\u201d<\/p>\n
What the ruling changes<\/p>\n
The decision vacates a preliminary injunction from a federal judge in the Middle District of Florida that had blocked statewide enforcement while the lawsuit played out.<\/p>\n
In practical terms, the ruling means Florida officials are no longer barred (by that injunction) from enforcing the law against venues beyond the plaintiff in the case.<\/p>\n
Copyright 2026 by WJXT News4JAX – All rights reserved.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"A divided federal appeals court has ruled Florida can enforce the state\u2019s Protection of Children Act\u2014 a law…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":363057,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[6],"tags":[48186,28,30,29],"class_list":["post-363056","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-florida","tag-drag-show","tag-florida","tag-florida-headlines","tag-florida-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/363056","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=363056"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/363056\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/363057"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=363056"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=363056"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=363056"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}