Gov. Ron DeSantis hasn’t exactly been shy about targeting businesses that have offended him in some way, but NBC News ran an unexpected report two weeks ago about the ambitious Florida Republican targeting, of all things, the Orlando Philharmonic’s liquor license.
Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis filed a complaint against the Orlando Philharmonic Plaza Foundation alleging that the nonprofit group held a sexually explicit drag show in December in the presence of minors. The complaint, filed Friday through the Department of Business and Professional Regulation’s Division of Alcoholic Beverages and Tobacco and shared with NBC News, alleges the foundation violated Florida statutes on lewdness and maintaining a public nuisance and seeks to revoke its liquor license.
A Miami Herald report published this morning helped add the backstory as to how and why this happened.
Evidently, late last year, the historic Plaza Live theater in Orlando — a venue run by the Orlando Philharmonic Plaza Foundation — hosted an event called “A Drag Queen Christmas.” That wasn’t especially remarkable: The same theater has hosted the same event every year for nearly a decade.
This year, however, Florida law enforcement dispatched “a small squad of undercover state agents” to determine “whether children were being exposed to sights” that ran afoul of the state’s decency laws.
There wasn’t much to report. As the Herald’s article explained, those in attendance saw some “bare-chested men who wouldn’t have been out of place at a Madonna concert,” and a couple of hip thrusts that spectators might’ve seen at a football game after a touchdown.
The undercover agents saw some minors in the crowd who appeared to be accompanied by adults, but “they acknowledged that nothing indecent had happened on stage.”
The DeSantis administration went on the offensive anyway. From the Herald’s report:
[T]he state’s Department of Business and Professional Regulation proceeded to file a complaint against the nonprofit that runs Plaza Live, claiming the venue had illegally exposed children to sexual content. The complaint, issued Feb. 3, seeks to strip the small, nonprofit theater of its liquor license — a serious blow that would likely put it out of business.
In fact, even after the undercover agents specifically concluded, in writing, that they “did not witness any lewd acts,” the DeSantis administration’s complaint said the venue had allowed children to see “acts of sexual conduct, simulated sexual activity, and lewd, vulgar and indecent displays” in violation of state decency laws.
It’s almost as if the GOP administration had a predetermined political agenda, and when the evidence didn’t support the plan, the evidence was simply overlooked. There is, of course, a larger context to all of this. After all, DeSantis recently celebrated Florida as “the citadel of freedom.” Evidently, his rhetoric came with some fine print the public couldn’t see. Indeed, The Washington Post ran a striking report a couple of weeks ago noting that while the right has traditionally been opposed to excessive government regulations of private businesses, DeSantis is leading the charge for “coercive” government. It’s based on a vision in which officials use regulations to force the private sector into making decisions that conservatives like. It’s a practice with which the Orlando Philharmonic Plaza Foundation now has firsthand experience. Postscript: In case this isn’t obvious, the fact that the undercover agents’ findings were leaked to the Miami Herald suggests there might be some folks in state government who aren’t impressed by DeSantis’ culture war agenda.
Steve Benen is a producer for "The Rachel Maddow Show," the editor of MaddowBlog and an MS NOW political contributor. He's also the bestselling author of "Ministry of Truth: Democracy, Reality, and the Republicans' War on the Recent Past."
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