Florida’s move toward further restricting drag performances prompted one city to cancel an LGBTQ gathering, but the annual Polk Pride series of events is still scheduled to occur next month in Lakeland.
“We intend to continue to move forward,” said Scott Guira, founder and president of Polk Pride. “We’re slated for Pride in the Park on June 17, just like we’ve done now since 2015, and we have no intention of changing our plan from having Pride right in the middle of downtown. But obviously, we’re continuing to keep an eye on the goings on in our Legislature and the poor choices being made.”
Florida politicians, including Gov. Ron DeSantis, have pushed legislation in the past three sessions focused on LGBTQ issues, particularly those involving drag shows and the transgender population. The Florida Legislature has promoted bills the past two years limiting the discussion of sexuality and gender in schools and forbidding teachers from addressing transgender students by their preferred pronouns.
The Republican-dominated Legislature recently passed a bill titled “Protection of Children,” which prohibits the admission of children to “adult live performances.” The bill (SB 1438), sponsored by Sen. Clay Yarborough, R-Jacksonville, is largely seen as targeting drag shows.
All of Polk County’s six legislators voted in favor of the bill, which passed by votes of 28-12 in the Senate and 82-32 in the House.
DeSantis, now preparing to launch a campaign for president, is expected to sign the bill into law.
Even before it takes effect, the measure has prompted the cancellation of a parade that was part of Pridefest, an LGBTQ-oriented event in Port St. Lucie, a city larger than Lakeland on Florida’s East Coast. City officials canceled the parade, scheduled for last month, and restricted access to other Pridefest events to those 21 and older, TCPalm reported.
City officials cited the impending adoption of SB 1438 in explaining the actions.
Long tradition in Polk
LGBTQ-themed events have been held each June in Polk County since at least 2011. The Polk County Gay Pride Celebration included a drag performance, the Miss Polk County Gay Pride Pageant, at the Polk Theatre.
That tradition yielded to Polk Pride, a weeklong series of events organized by a nonprofit of the same name. This year’s schedule opens June 10 with Pride on Tap at Swan Brewing.
The lineup includes Pride for Youth, an event sponsored by Lakeland Youth Alliance on June 14 at Skate World. At least two scheduled gatherings feature drag elements — Pride Kickoff, a party at the Parrot, one of Florida’s oldest gay bars; and Pride After Dark, the closing party held at Lkld Live @ Rec Room.
As usual, the centerpiece of the series is Pride in the Park, scheduled for June 17 in Munn Park. Billed as a family event, the gathering features entertainment, food trucks and more than 100 vendor booths. The celebration has included drag elements in the past.
Guira said Polk Pride has received approval of its application to hold the gathering in Munn Park. He said the permit usually isn’t issued until closer to the event.
Lakeland Mayor Bill Mutz said he had not heard any citizen complaints or suggestions that the event not be held this year.
Kerri McCoy is president of Lakeland Youth Alliance, a mutual support group for LGBTQ youth and straight allies in Polk County. The group has about 10 youngsters ranging in age from 11 to 17 who regularly attend meetings, McCoy said.
One annual highlight for LYA is Pride for Youth, a party held at Skate World in Lakeland during Polk Pride week. McCoy said about 100 attended last year’s party, including some straight allies.
Traditionally, a few drag queens have joined to skate with the youngsters, and McCoy said the LYA members enthusiastically welcome their presence. She worries that the passage of SB 1438 could make it impossible to continue that custom.
McCoy said she thought the law wouldn’t take effect until July 1, as some newly passed laws do, and that drag queens could still skate in this year’s event on June 14.
“We talked about it at our last group meeting, and the kids were very disappointed that this could possibly be the last year,” McCoy said. “One of them did ask me, ‘Is somebody going to fight this?’ And I said, ‘I’m pretty sure somebody will.’”
But the bill text says it would become law as soon as DeSantis signs the legislation. After learning of the bill’s implementation schedule, McCoy, who is vice president of Polk Pride, said that she expects the group’s board of directors to discuss the issue at its next meeting.
Conservative legislators promoting SB 1438 often warn that attendance at drag shows “sexualizes” children. McCoy disputed that description.
“First of all, on our part, we always make sure that our kids are not exposed to anything that would be inappropriate for their age,” McCoy said. “I also think that drag queens understand that when they’re around children, they are conscientious of that. So, the songs that are played are appropriate for kids. The way that they dress is appropriate for kids. We have never had a problem with any of that.”
She added: “I just don’t see where somebody dressing up can be misconstrued into sexualizing children.”
McCoy joined nearly 30 people from Polk County who took a bus to Tallahassee last week for what was labeled the Drag Queens March at the state Capitol, a protest against SB 1438 and other legislation. McCoy said a few drag performers from Polk marched but didn’t dress in drag because of the heat.
Room for interpretation?
Jason DeShazo, one of Polk County’s best-known drag performers, was not able to make that trip. But DeShazo, who performs as Momma Ashley Rose, appeared in drag at committee meetings early in the legislative session, arguing against the restrictions on drag shows.
DeShazo’s character is a Southern matron who dresses modestly. He has described his brand as the “Disney Channel” of drag. DeShazo welcomes children and families at some of his events, fundraisers for the Momma Ashley Rose Foundation, which supports LGBTQ-oriented nonprofits.
SB 1438 forbids government entities from issuing permits for events that include “adult live performances” and gives the state’s Division of Hotels and Restaurants the power to suspend or revoke the licenses of businesses that host such events. In defining adult live performances, the bill lists such elements as depicting or simulating nudity, sexual conduct or sexual activities and the “lewd exposure of prosthetic or imitation genitals or breasts” in ways that are patently offensive or appeal to “a prurient, shameful or morbid interest.”
DeShazo regularly hosts drag brunch events in Lakeland in an art gallery that doesn’t serve alcohol and tea parties at a kava bar.
“So at face value, it should not affect anything that we do as an organization because there’s no definite description of what the adult entertainment is,” DeShazo said. “You know, from our events, everything is safe for all ages. But we also know that the people will try to make it affect us. So, and speaking to lawyers and (getting) legal advice, no one really has an answer, no one really knows what to do until it becomes official, and we just kind of have to ride this annoying wave and kind of test it out.”
DeShazo said he considers the legislation to be written vaguely enough that critics of drag shows could claim his events violate the strictures.
“There’s too much room for interpretation, which — just like when I spoke to the Senate and told the legislators that this is the type of laws that bring hate to our events, that cause Nazis and protesters and death threats and all the stuff that we’re going through, because of the vagueness of it,” he said.
A group of men wearing Nazi attire and displaying Nazi symbols demonstrated in December outside a Lakeland venue as DeShazo prepared to host an event, “A Celebration of the Arts,” that included drag performances. More recently, under pressure from the Florida Department of Education, an Orlando high school canceled an after-school “drag and donuts” discussion at which DeShazo would have spoken with a gay-straight student group.
DeShazo said a PFLAG (Parents and Friends of Lesbians and Gays) group in Riverview canceled drag performances for an LGBT youth prom taking place Friday after drawing negative attention from conservative organizations.
And DeShazo is no longer hosting an all-ages drag bingo event at a restaurant in Lake Wales following a backlash that he said has hurt the business.