Governor Ron DeSantis and his administration says they will revoke the alcohol license of the Hyatt Regency Miami over a “‘sexually explicit’ show with children” held on the premises.
“A Drag Queen Christmas” performed Dec. 27 at the James L. Knight Center, which is reportedly connected to the Hyatt Regency Miami.
The administrative complaint said minors younger than 16 years of age were at the show where “performers appeared on stage wearing sexually suggestive clothing and prosthetic female genitalia.”
The show allowed minors if they were accompanied by an adult.
Here’s video from a similar show around the same time elsewhere in the state:
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
Apparently the state warned the hotel on the day of the event over hosting “a sexually explicit show with children present.” The show features “Screwdolph the Red-Nippled Reindeer.”
Governor DeSantis’s press secretary said,
Sexually explicit content is not appropriate to display to children and doing so violates Florida law. Governor DeSantis stands up for the innocence of children in the classroom and throughout Florida.
To me, the hotel lacks a club lounge and considers a large room without a wall between bedroom and living area to be a standard suite, so I’m not a fan on that level. However if I’m stuck at the Hyatts around Miami I probably do need a drink. More broadly, the loss of an alcohol license in Miami is… brutal.
As for Governor DeSantis, it’s politically shrewd because few voters who would ever support him will back children at the sort of shows he’s condemning. He’s likely getting more media savvy as well, having lost the framing of ‘Don’t Say Gay’ when he should have positioned it as “wait until eight.”
The State of Florida, though, only alleges that there were children “under 16” present – and children were required to be accompanied by adults. So it appears that the state here isn’t protecting families from sexualized content, they’re taking away freedom from parents to make choices for their families.
Update: Hyatt Regency Miami General Manager Amir Blattner shares,
The James L. Knight Center, including programming and ticketing, is managed by a third-party operator. The hotel is the food and beverage concessionaire at the James L. Knight Center.
We can confirm the hotel’s liquor license remains in effect and has not been revoked. We are reviewing this complaint and will address the situation directly with the state’s Department of Business and Professional Regulation as part of administrative review process.
The hotel’s position seems to be that their alcohol license hasn’t yet been pulled, and they’re not responsible for the event but they did serve the alcohol. I’d have rather seen a statement like, “come on, it’s a drag show kids could only come with their parents and what does alcohol have to do with it?”
DeSantis is a fascist pig. What actually is freedom to this turd.
Also the Hyatt has no control of the performances that take place at the Knight Center
So much for small government.
Are all the opponents of Ron DeSantis as thoughtful, eloquent, and open-minded as @rd?
Good.
Stop sexualizing and corrupting our children.
Whether there were or were not children present, he doesn’t care. It’s all for show and power and anything this guy does is questionable at best. He may or may not have been involved in the flat out torture at Guantanamo, but otherwise his public record speaks for itself. History is littered with such people. They get followers among those who want a little power by doing their bidding. “Snakes in suits” was the title of a book about psychopaths, and it fits them well.
But he has no problem allowing children to go to Hooters and interact with scantily clothed women. The hypocrisy
why doesn’t DeSantis ban preteen beauty pageants. There has been a lot of issues with these over the years.
Save our Children Please!
They will all become ax murderers and rapists watching this stuff next they will be thinking of bestiality 😉
Just another issue that will get tied up in the courts and cost taxpayers dollars that are needed elsewhere. Personally, I think that man is a closet drag queen in fear of revealing himself. Be real. It is legal for a parent to take a minor child to see a movie rated R (strong bloody violence and gore, strong sexual content, graphic nudity, drug use, and language), but he fears “sexually suggestive clothing and fake female genitalia).
I am not comfortable in principle with government having alcohol licenses in the first place as government shouldn’t be telling businesses what drinks they can and can’t serve. Freedom is freedom. I am not comfortable in principle with government using its power for political reasons.
However, Conservatives have lost freedom for 100 years by not fighting and not weaponizing our governments we control against our enemies. We are at a point where kids in preschool are taught there are 47 genders, they are taught to hate being White or Christian, parents are arrested for speaking at school board meetings, and nuns were threatened by government to provide birth control to employees of a religious institution. Cops and FBI agents are the bad guys
In practice we should not oppose any action which hurts our enemies. I do recognize the issue with drag shows is not evil parents taking their kids to drag shows. The kids have evil parents and likely will be evil. It’s that we don’t have school choice and are not able to have our own neighborhoods, businesses, and communities so we have to pursue what’s best for ourselves so our own decent kids are less exposed to the depravity. It doesn’t help us for our kids to go to school with minors who went to and talk about a drag show. It doesn’t help us for our kids to see these deviants in a hotel setting. It normalizes sin. The issue is not the kids of leftists. They are beyond saving and beyond hope. We shouldn’t care if they get gender reassignment surgery or hormones. We shouldn’t care what they do with their bodies. We just don’t want teachers in public schools pushing that ideology on our own good kids since we don’t have school choice. We don’t want our kids corrupted. We recognize these policies don’t solve the problem as leftists still exist and they still vote. We will always be slaves until we stop supporting cops enforcing laws made by leftists. Democracy is a noose. All these drag show kids will be harmful to us. Whether they go or don’t go to a drag show doesn’t change their parents and their genes. It just makes things a little better for our own kids and gives them a chance not to be exposed to this depravity.
It’s a god thing if policies in red states irritate leftists. We should pursue whatever discourages leftists from moving to red states.
All I can say is that I’m stunned at most of these comments. Exposing children to this stuff is wrong. It seems like most of the commenters are fine with it. Pathetic.
It’s easier to come out with a solution for a non-issue you invent than actually come out with a solution to a real issue that exists.
Number one killer of kids: GUNS
No problem with that
Beauty pageants with children in them (toddlers in tiaras) sexualize children way more than drag shows (which don’t FEATURE children). All of this hand wringing over drag is such crap. The only time I’ve been been close to being sexually abused or groomed was in a church. Christians and conservatives are obsessed with thinking about genitals and sex and frankly I’m starting to think it’s extreme projection
In the prior Century all shows were drag.
Women were banned from performing on stage.
I’m sorry but what? How come then it isn’t a problem that parents are taking teens and kids into rated R movies? I’m uncomfortable sometimes with the gore and sex yet little Johnny is allowed to be there because he is accompanied by an adult who says it’s okay
Is Mr. DeSantis going to revoke the liquor license of movie theaters in Florida that show R-rated movies that feature sexual content, and rape, torture and other forms of violence? Or just target the drag queens because it suits his performative agenda?
There is a difference between what one does not like and what is illegal. The hotel license should not be pulled unless a law was broken. The same goes for the Marriott in the Irvin case. The female may not like the conversation but unless he broke a law, they had no business calling an outside company (NFL) and showing them the video in regards to his stay. After seeing the video (available online), she had ample opportunities to walk away. She stayed and decided to converse for over two minutes.
@Jim you’re exactly the type of useful sap that DeSantis is pandering to
“What about the children!” What about the children in East Palestine that will have cancer in a few years? If you think our elected officials care about children, I have several bridges to sell you. All they care about is themselves, profit and money in that order.
DeSantis is my favourite, and arguably the most popular AND effective Governor in the U.S.
With that said: I’m against this. Sure, I wouldn’t expose my children to a sexualized drag show that was made for adults. However, that’s my decision as a parent. I don’t need a right-wing nanny deciding that for me, any more than I need a left-wing nanny deciding on my kitchen appliances. This is not the job of government. Were this a school? Sure. I’d feel differently. However, this is a private event, that one has to choose to attend. Just stupid virtue signaling really.
Additionally: One of the reasons why DeSantis is a great governor, is that he doesn’t fuck around. Like his policies or not. If he gave them a warning beforehand, and the Hyatt still went through with show. The management are complete morons. He follows through with his rhetoric. He’s not your average politician, that is all bark and no bite. By now, people should know this.
@jim Warren I assume you are also all for banning the internet because every 12 year old with a smart phone can access what you consider objectionable content. Freedom is not just freedom you agree with.
@manger I assume you are also a fan of Vladimir putin and Kim Jung Un. They are all bite no bark too. Personally I do jot want to live in DeSantistan where some fascist pig determines what books I can read and who doesn’t understand the constitution.
The place is a dump and local residents recently voted yes in a referendum to redevelop the entire property. It’s a prime location on the river. Smells like a good excuse to close for the redevelopment to begin.
Good.
There are lots of laws which “take away freedoms” of adults to expose children to sexualized content or conduct. As well there should be. People should – and do – have a right to put on nearly whatever sort of production they want, but that doesn’t imply a right to expose children to it. One would hope that children would not be allowed to be brought into a strip club performance, no matter how messed up the parents (or other adult the child happens to be with) may be, for example. It is quite common for ordinances to require patrons of sexually-oriented businesses to be 18 or over and the Supreme Court has upheld such requirements.
@D. Westin
Violent criminals kill kids and all people. They do it with fists, knives, cars, or by pushing people onto subway tracks. Countries like Britain with strict gun control still have high homicide rates because criminals use knives instead. What kills kids and all decent people is all normal citizens not arming themselves so they have a means of self defense and cops who arrest people for self defense to the point that criminals are emboldened and people are afraid to defend themselves or their property. One group commits the highest level of violent crime without them crime rates would be the lowest in the world.
@Dan and ymx
There is a big difference between seeing an R rated movie, listening to music and video games and kids seeing up close and in person a drag stripper thrust his whatever 6 inches from the kids face. Conservatives foolishly think they can stop kids from turning out bad. They can’t. Government doesn’t help. This issue shouldn’t be about protecting kids of sick parents but about protecting our own kids from this depravity. We want school choice and our own businesses. Leftists since the 1960s with the support of rinos believe in forcing us together against our will. If we can’t have freedom then why should we make it easy for sick deviants when we can stop it. Long term pushing for school choice and bans on enforcement of the civil rights act of 1964 that forces Christians and normal people to let deviants into their communities. We are much happier separate.
Yup – par for the course. Parental choice until it’s a choice he doesn’t want.
And boy – some of the comments above are scary. People drowning in their own ignorance.
If everybody just said “my opinion on this issue is fully related to whether my political party gains or loses from this situation” it would eliminate 75% of the comments and arguments here.
“That bad thing over here that isn’t being addressed proves that this thing doesn’t matter” is a poor means of supporting a position.
If Biden were to hypocritically gather 10 years’ worth of fossil fuels in the state of Idaho and burn through them in 5 days would his “hypocrisy” magically prove to you that all of his other positions on Global Warming were wrong? It’s childish to think you can prove an argument by pointing at 50 other things you think are wrong.
Speaking of which, weren’t all these political comments supposed to get weeded out from this blog? 90% of the comments here have nothing to do with travel and only serve to create unnecessary anger and division. What is the point of all this arguing about how much we hate everyone and everything that threatens our political opinions?
Not worth the effort. But going for the popcorn. Be right back…
Even though we are forced to choose between pedofiles and morons, the choice is still obvious for anybody who’s a parent.
The Great Adrogyny depopulation project must continue though, despite minor hiccups. All hail the Great Transition or else
@rd
The constitution has been amended and interpreted into allowing the government to put people in prison for deciding what they consume from alcohol to drugs or what foods or plants they grow. The constitution allows people to be arrested for defending themselves from violent attack or pulled over for not wearing a seat belt and shot if they don’t comply with pigs. Christian nuns were ordered to provide birth control to employees they were forced to hire in religious institutions.
Is this the constitution that you think protects freedom? There is no different between a dictator and racist democracy coming to the same conclusions and laws. Speech is criminalized in Europe and books banned. Aren’t those democracies?
What’s concerning about DeSantis is not this. It’s any speech control laws. He seems to be Israel first. He seems to support cops arresting people for criticizing Israel and their influence. That makes him not only a rino but one of the WEF puppets. Everything about him aside from the speech control stuff has been ok. He unfortunately touts cops when cops are the enforcers of leftists.
In regards to the Marriott situation, why was the employee bothering a guest. She should say hi/hello and get back to work. Who knows what she may have said during those two minutes. This phrase “your making me uncomfortable” is used by the younger generation to get their way. How about all the times I felt uncomfortable during checkin trying to get benefits for status or places trying to upsell or push to increase your bill for charity or a college scholarship.
Parents aren’t also allowed to take 12 year olds to strip clubs. Parents can’t walk into a bar and buy an alcoholic drink for their 12 year old and hand it to them. Are we taking away parents freedom here as well Gary? smh
@Joe – I don’t see any reason to get into the ethics of protecting 12 year olds, since here the issue is “under 16”
And you thought tRump was bad? DEathSantis is another tRump but with an Ivy League Education.
1. 12 year-olds are under 16. So the policy applies to them. It’s in bounds. For that matter, it applies to 5 year-olds. Gary’s argument might make sense if under-16 were banned outright, 16-18 if accompanied by a parent.
2. The rule is not that parents must accompany, it’s an adult must accompany. So your older brother, the creepy guy who picked you up on the internet, someone you just met in the parking lot are all valid, off duty drag show performers, not just parents
3. Florida has a habit of shutting down strip clubs (sexually oriented businesses) for violations all the time, including pulling their alcohol licenses. They shut them down for Covid violations routinely during 2020. DeSantis was in charge then too, but didn’t see the usually suspects complaining or supporting such moves – in fact they were probably on opposite sides once he reopened them.
This is getting scary in FL and I really hope he’s not the next dictator in 2024. The hypocrisy knows no bounds when he touts all for parental choice out of one side of his mouth, then spews this kind of stuff out of the other. While politicians are known for this on a regular basis, it speaks more about those constituents that would trust such a demagogue.
It’s pretty obvious by these comments that we know who the groomers are. If I’m a “fascist” for punishing a business for running a groomer show advertised as a Christmas party for all ages, then you can call me Mussolini for all I care.
It’s funny how the folks that scream “fascist” in this situation are the same ones who have no issue electing those who really are the fascists..
It’s societal rot. Everything libs touch turns to crap: marriage, raising children, education, welfare, military. Yep. You won the sexual revolution and the reward is abortion and of those they make it out alive a full 70% of some demos being raised in single parent homes. Everything the libs touch turns to crap.
All for striping the license. Take the crap the ca or ny. Where they do the same against conservatives. Just don’t get murdered (joking, just like Jane Fonda) or step in human crap or on needles.
Groom dogs, not children!
#gaysagainstgroomers
A coalition of gays against
the sexualization, indoctrination and medicalization of children.
@Chase — Your comment is why most people consider Wokesters to be fools. It’s perfectly reasonable for people to disagree about admitting children to drag shows. I think children SHOULD be excluded, but whatever floats your boat, and if you want to be a bad parent, I suppose some would say that’s your right.. But when you start saying “DeSantis is a dictator” because he’ll revoke the liquor licences of businesses that admit children to their drag shows, you’re just being a fool. It’s like arguing that a governor who revokes the liquor license of a bar that freely admits minors “is a dictator.” Nobody buys that bs, and people understand that gov’t has the right to adopt laws to protect children if that’s what the people want.
THUMBS UP!
Drag queens are performing clowns. They tell jokes and make people laugh.
The bottom line is that the right wing is deathly afraid of clowns.
I’ve even heard that child face painting at public festivals and school fairs constitutes “grooming” to be future drag queens. People, get a grip!
Parents, please don’t dress you kids in animal Halloween costumes this year or you could be accused of grooming them for beastiality.
Does the rethuglican party have anything other than their unprincipled culture war clown show to offer at this point?
I’m impressed – the Groomer Defense League is out in force.
@ John Arton
Frankly, it would be far more concerning if any under 16 year old was exposed to the deranged drivel and brainwashed propaganda that spews from your mouth rather than attending a drag show.
You might want to consider the laws of 30 US states that enable children to legally own a rifle or shotgun as a worthy target of any genuine concern for kids.
You might want to pause thought for the mass shootings of innocent children in their school grounds. Repugnant stuff to any civilised human being.
You might want to consider the widespread child abuse that is promulgated within religious institutions as being of more immediate concern, if you have any genuine concern for kids.
You might want to ponder how your narrow world view marginalises and enables use of kids not compliant with your limited world view and foul creed.
You might to consider the impact of misdirected punishments that affect 100s of customers, 100s jobs and stymie the enjoyment of the great majority.
Small minded folk trying to impose their small minded world view = dictatorship.
sexualizing minors or exposing yourself to minors is a life in jail , or death penalty crime in most other countries but here in this country, the democrat media and democrat politicians and their donor groups are promoting sexualization of kids. Immoral, unlawful and very wrong!
@ jim
The great child abuse scandals originate from the conservative / religious institutions that you no doubt would uphold as being “moral”. Ironically, it’s religious-based delusions that lead to your evident hang ups about anything to do with sex of gender diversity.
We’re talking kiddy fiddling, dude, by conservative god-deluded pedos. We’re talking then protecting pedophiles from the law. We’re talking moving priests around the country and overseas to escape prosecution.
It’s the right wing that has stood against holding those individuals and institutions to account. So save us your sanctimonious DRWA crapola.
Now go and buy a kid a gun to support your hypocritical notions of freedoms …(!!!)
Statistically, your child is safer with a drag queen then they are with a priest, a school teacher or a scout master.