JACKSONVILLE, Fla. \u2014 A Florida law dubbed the state\u2019s \u201cdrag show ban\u201d by its opponents is now in effect after roughly two and a half years in legal limbo.\u00a0<\/p>\n
The law prohibits minors from attending \u201cadult live performances,\u201d and while the law doesn\u2019t specifically use the words \u201cdrag shows,\u201d the dialogue\u00a0around the legislation when it was passed made it clear drag shows are at the very least a partial target.<\/p>\n
>>> STREAM ACTION NEWS JAX LIVE <\/b><\/a><\/p>\n Hamburger Mary\u2019s 2.0 opened up in Murray Hill<\/b><\/a> after its old location burned down<\/b><\/a>.<\/p>\n \u201cI\u2019ve probably had 35 text messages from this morning with people concerned about it,\u201d Hamburger Mary\u2019s 2.0 owner Jordyn Shepherd said.<\/p>\n While Shepherd said the vast majority of the restaurant\u2019s drag performances are adults only, it does host family-friendly brunches.<\/p>\n \u201cAnd we understand there\u2019s no cleavage, there\u2019s no cussing, no inappropriate music, movements, anything like that,\u201d Shepherd said.<\/p>\n 2023 STORY: <\/b>Hamburger Mary\u2019s hearing set against law prohibiting minors from attending \u2018adult live performances\u2019<\/b><\/a><\/p>\n But Shepherd said those will soon come to an end, due to the new court ruling that has allowed the state to begin enforcing its prohibition on children attending adult live performances.<\/p>\n Penalties range from $10,000 fines for businesses that violate the law to misdemeanor offense for employees that knowingly allow children to attend.<\/p>\n \u201cIf we don\u2019t do what we need to do now then, you know, Mary\u2019s may be under attack because of it and we want to keep our doors open,\u201d Shepherd said.<\/p>\n [DOWNLOAD: <\/b>Free Action News Jax app for alerts as news breaks<\/b><\/a>]<\/b><\/p>\n Congressman Randy Fine sponsored the bill in 2023 and notes it doesn\u2019t specifically target drag shows.<\/p>\n \u201cThe bill did not prevent adults from participating in, going to, watching whatever it is that they want,\u201d Fine said.\u00a0\u201cNo sex shows for kids whether they\u2019re drag shows or any other kind of shows. And I\u2019m grateful to see that bill is going to be enforced.\u201d<\/p>\n Shepherd agreed children should not be exposed to sexually explicit content, but argued the law is so broad it\u2019s hard to know what\u2019s allowed.<\/p>\n [SIGN UP: <\/b>Action News Jax Daily Headlines Newsletter<\/b><\/a>] <\/b><\/p>\n And that means businesses like Hamburger Mary\u2019s have to err on the side of caution.<\/p>\n \u201cIf they care about kids like they say they care about kids, then actually come in here on a Sunday and see the kids that are hugging on us and crying or thanking us because they\u2019re being picked on in school for being different,\u201d Shepherd said.<\/p>\n The only venue currently exempt from the law in the state is Hamburger Mary\u2019s in Orlando, which originally challenged the law, but the legal battle likely has a long way to go before all is said and done.<\/p>\n Click here<\/b><\/a> to download the free Action News Jax news and weather apps, <\/b>click here<\/b><\/a> to download the Action News Jax Now app for your smart TV and <\/b>click here<\/b><\/a> to stream Action News Jax live.<\/b><\/p>\n Action News Jax Top Stories<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"JACKSONVILLE, Fla. \u2014 A Florida law dubbed the state\u2019s \u201cdrag show ban\u201d by its opponents is now in…\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":455003,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[5136],"tags":[12189,5229,3188,723,208491,208490,208488,11561,7310,174645,48916,208489,425,8051,61247,6063,139916,58469,67,586,132,5230,68,2969],"class_list":{"0":"post-455002","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-jacksonville","8":"tag-action_news","9":"tag-america","10":"tag-fl","11":"tag-florida","12":"tag-hamburger_mary","13":"tag-hamburger_marys","14":"tag-hamburger_marys_2-0","15":"tag-jack","16":"tag-jacksonville","17":"tag-jake_stofan","18":"tag-jake_stowan","19":"tag-jordan_shepherd","20":"tag-local","21":"tag-mary","22":"tag-murray_hill","23":"tag-orlando","24":"tag-randy_fine","25":"tag-shepherd","26":"tag-united-states","27":"tag-united-states-of-america","28":"tag-unitedstates","29":"tag-unitedstatesofamerica","30":"tag-us","31":"tag-usa"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@us\/115739189825019371","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/455002","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=455002"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/455002\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/455003"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=455002"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=455002"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=455002"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}