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

By MIKE SCHNEIDER
Associated Press

ORLANDO, Fla. (AP) — Librarians in Florida 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 is because a federal judge in Florida has ruled that his injunction blocking the state’s anti-drag law extends to all venues in the state. Gary Israel, an attorney for a restaurant that challenged the new law, says a pair of orders from the judge makes clear that drag performances in themselves are not lewd or lascivious behavior. The new law punished venues for allowing children into “adult live performances,” though it did not mention drag shows specifically.