Florida rulings ease concerns about drag performers at Pride parades, drag queen story hours

Librarians who feared fines for hosting drag queen story hours and Pride parade organizers who worried about citations for including drag performers can breathe easier now that a judge has ruled that his injunction blocking Florida's anti-drag law extends to all Florida venues, an attorney who is helping challenge the law said Thursday.

Librarians who feared fines for hosting drag queen story hours and Pride parade organizers who worried about citations for including drag performers can breathe easier now that a judge has ruled that his injunction blocking Florida's anti-drag law extends to all Florida venues, an attorney who is helping challenge the law said Thursday.

A pair of orders that U.S. District Judge Gregory Presnell issued in the past month makes clear that drag performances in themselves are not lewd or lascivious behavior, said Gary Israel, one of the attorneys for an Orlando restaurant that filed a lawsuit challenging the new Florida law championed by Gov. Ron DeSantis as unconstitutional.

"The state has a very weak hand in this litigation," Israel said.

In his first order last month, the Orlando judge granted a preliminary injunction temporarily halting enforcement of the law until a trial is held to determine its constitutionality. He also denied a Florida licensing and regulatory agency's request to dismiss the lawsuit. The agency appealed the decision and asked that during the appeal the injunction only be applied to the restaurant that brought the lawsuit.

Presnell rejected that argument on Wednesday, saying any harm to the state of Florida is minimal if the preliminary injunction remains in place, and that all Floridians are potentially parties since free speech is at stake. He reiterated that the law is likely unconstitutional.

"Protecting the right to freedom of speech is the epitome of acting in the public interest," Presnell wrote. "It is no accident that this freedom is enshrined in the First Amendment."

The state agency charged with enforcing the law, the Florida Department of Business and Professional Regulation, didn't respond to an email seeking comment on Thursday.