Florida is suing a bar that hosted drag shows with children present after investigators discovered that the establishment was exposing minors to sexually explicit content.
During a speech on Wednesday in Tampa on environmental, social, and corporate governance, Republican Florida Governor Ron DeSantis mentioned the complaint and denounced sexualized content aimed at children.
“It used to be–people have different views about what they want to do as adults—but it used to be, you know, the kids are off-limits,” DeSantis said. “No one wanted to bring the kids into any of this stuff, and we’ve got to get back to that.”
Earlier this month, videos from the R House bar went viral, showing sexualized drag queens entertaining young children in one video posted by the popular TikTok account Libs. Through a complaint that details many incidents in which kids were reportedly exposed to graphic sexual content there with the full knowledge of the establishment, Florida is attempting to have the liquor license at R House, a pub in the Miami region, revoked.
“Wholesome, innocent, beautiful family-friendly entertainment” pic.twitter.com/feUaos0k2g
— Libs of TikTok (@libsoftiktok) July 3, 2022
The lawsuit claims that in one incident, a male dancer led a little child, between the ages of 3 and 5, across the restaurant while holding her hand while wearing G-string underwear filled with dollar notes and showing his fully exposed buttocks.
The complaint claims that on another occasion, a dancer who appeared to be male pole-danced while wearing women’s attire and flashing cash. R House featured a children’s meal for children aged 12 and under and was also aware that children might be present during such performances.
“There was a video out of Dallas where they had all these young kids putting money in the underwear of these drag queens at a bar, and that’s totally unacceptable,” DeSantis said. “A week or two later there was video from a place that had similar stuff and then that was identified as being in Florida.”
“Having kids involved in this is wrong. That is not consistent with our law and policy in the state of Florida and it is a disturbing trend in our society to try to sexualize these young people,” he said. “That is not the way you look out for our children. You protect children, you do not expose them to things that are inappropriate.”
Speaking on behalf of A LOT of moms across the state, we do not want our children exposed to inappropriate sexualized content. Full stop.
— Casey DeSantis (@CaseyDeSantis) July 27, 2022
Watch it here: Facebook/Video
Sources: Dailywire, Cbsnews, Tampabay