Florida Pulls Another Liquor License for Allowing Kids Into an Alcohol-Fueled Drag Show

Florida’s Department of Business and Professional Regulation is moving to revoke the liquor license of the prestigious Hyatt Regency Miami. The cause of the complaint is a drag queen show held by the hotel just after Christmas — and I ask you, what invokes thoughts of the Word Incarnate more than an obscene performance of sexually confused men dressed as women — where children were present, when Florida law prohibits sexually explicit performances where there are minors in the audience.

This event occurred at the height of the “drag queen Christmas show” craze that seemed designed to give the big middle finger to Governor Ron DeSantis. In Ron DeSantis Moves to Revoke Licenses of ‘Drag Queen Christmas’ Venues, Groomers Hardest Hit, I reported on the state taking action against the Orlando Philharmonic Plaza Foundation for putting on the obscene show despite being warned by the Department of Business and Professional Regulation of the consequences.

One has to assume that the Hyatt Regency Miami received the same warning and decided they were too big and too important to mess with.

Oh, well…

Like the Orlando Philharmonic Foundation, the Hyatt Regency Miami has 90 days to appeal and can continue serving liquor. I expect both will either pay hefty fines and/or have a suspension period before resuming operations. But the point has been made. The behavior is unacceptable, and you can’t flip off a governor who has the will and means to hurt you.

This measured campaign of using existing state regulations to enforce some semblance of decency is having an effect. For example, the “Miss Rose Dynasty” drag pageant — it is run by, I swear I’m not making this up, Jason DeShazo, a “former pastor of an LGBTQ church” who calls his organization the “Disney Channel of drag” — has decided to move after the venue it was scheduled to use, the Dr. Phillips Center for the Performing Arts in Orlando, imposed age restrictions on the event.

Here is DeShazo whining about having to move.

Because the organization mentors students, they often come to the fundraisers, DeShazo said. At the pageant, some perform a dance number — although not in drag, which is reserved for the adult contestants.

The arts center’s age restriction would have barred them from the event.

I found his constant invocation of “the kids” in conjunction with a sexually themed show to have a distinct “groomer” vibe to it, but I could be mistaken.

Some are portraying this as “censorship,” but it isn’t. It is the state applying the same law to which everyone else is subject to groups that don’t seem to have much of a focus beyond genitalia and what goes where.

For too long, politicians who have styled themselves as “conservative” have allowed this kind of cultural rot to fester. You can’t claim the high ground on abortion or the sexualization of children if you don’t use the authority you already have to fight those evils. As I explored in Satan Clubs, Drag Queens, and the Limits of Modern Conservative Principles, drag queen story hours are not, as David French would put it, a “blessing of liberty.” On the contrary, they are a failure of liberty. Liberty without a strong fence of morality around it is just licentiousness and anarchy. There is no reason any sane parent would bring a minor to a “drag queen” event, and there is no licit reason that an adult biological male would want to put on a sexualized performance in front of children. Allowing it to happen is not a measure of our “tolerance.” It is an indictment of our moral corruption.