Hamburger Mary’s Suing Ron DeSantis – Fights to Keep Children Watching Drag Shows
Just days before his announcement of his intention to run for the White House, a popular Florida restaurant has filed a federal lawsuit against Gov. Ron DeSantis.
The lawsuit filed in Orlando federal court by the owner of Hamburger Mary’s — which comes less than a week after DeSantis signed a bill that targets drag performances — claims the state is depriving the business of its First Amendment rights to free expression.
The restaurant is asking the court to temporarily stop the law from taking effect while the case moves forward.
DeSantis has made so-called “anti-gay” legislation a large part of his agenda as he prepares to seek the Republican presidential nomination.
He signed the bill restricting drag performances — along with bills that ban gender-affirming surgery and dangerous hormone treatments for minors, restrict discussion of personal pronouns in schools, and force people to use certain bathrooms — last week in front of a cheering crowd at the evangelical Cambridge Christian School in Tampa.
Hamburger Mary’s Bar & Grille has more than a dozen locations around the US, with the Orlando restaurant opening in 2008. According to the lawsuit, the restaurant had hosted “family-friendly” drag shows on Sundays, but the new Florida law is forcing them to ban children from all shows.
This has led to a 20% drop in Sunday bookings.
Proponents of the legislation have said the law is meant to keep children from viewing sexually explicit performances. Lawyers for the business argue the new law is so broad and vague that it could be applied to almost any performance that involves a man dressing up like a woman, even if the performance isn’t sexual in nature.
The lawsuit said the business owners couldn’t risk suspending their business or liquor licenses or facing criminal prosecution by allowing children at the shows.
As of the publication of this post, DeSantis nor his office has issued any kind of official response to the lawsuit.
claiming 20% loss; doing nothing wrong except free speech, costumes, and makeup, limiting free speech and expression —- sure looks like a dead banger guilty to me. No real money UNLESS punitive is attached and sure seems freakin punitive to me.
Uh oh —– it’s Orlando —- jury could tilt left…..plus, REMEMBER THE ALAMO……and Disney. Wanna bet where there bread is buttered rates higher than DeSanctimonious Creepy Culture?
So you would be OK with your young children participating in a drag show?
Would you allow your kids to cross dress if the wanted? What would you do to stop them if they did?
What other family friendly forms of free expression and free speech does your extremism want to ban?
Are there young participants at Hamburger Marys? Can you prove that? Are they in drag?
And it’s a non sequitur question having absolutely noting to do with the case.
Would I let my kids cross dress? Depends on the context. For Halloween, maybe. As a fetish or a serious endeavor? no. And if you raise them right, they stop their bad behavior because you have developed methods over their lives that cause them to stop. According to the source Hamburger Mary’s caters to families.
And your questions are stupid and obviously trying to bait me into something. Parents are required to guide children, because children are naive and ignorant and in need of guidance — in case you didn’t know that.
Yes Frank, if free speech is queer hours for kids, drag queen story hour for kids, then I think it is a perversion and such speech should be limited since it could damage a healthy mind. Under your logic, pedophilia is free speech since all they are saying is they have an attraction to little kids yet they get jail. Lying to a court is free speech yet they get jail for purjury. Lying to Congress is free speech, yet they get jail time. Santos lied like crazy to get elected and you bashed him for it, but that was just free speech that you were happy to punish. Hate speech is free speech but if someone commits a crime and has used hate speech on their victims, they get extra jail time. Facebook run by uber liberal Zuckerberg censored free speech of conservatives and you said nothing! If my neighbor had signs on his lawn that were against another race, that is free speech but I would have them taken down.
With regard to my child, well lets first realize that the American Psychological Association (APA) defines cross dressing as gender dysphoria and is a mental illness. So I would not let those with such mental illness speak with or read my child stories nor confuse my child’s mind. If my child showed such an interest I would get him psychological help. I would address the mental problem and not allow him to cross dress to appease the mental problem. I would not allow gender transition. I might even have him home-schooled if the school was a problem. I would make sure any videos watched and any songs listened to did not promote gender dysphoria.
The problem Frank is that liberal society in the name of free speech has allowed our children’s minds to be corrupted, and this is bull shit. Back when you and I went to school the FCC would never have allowed such speech on the radio or tv. Back then they would not even show pregnant women on tv or bed scenes on tv. You were not allowed to say the word diarrhea on the Paregoric commercials! Our minds were very well protected. We grew up healthy because we did not have this type of corruption under the banner of free speech. Your children went to school in a much healthier era than today, even you did not have to worry about all of this crap in your kid’s school. And now rather than help new parents provide healthy environments for their children, you march under the banner of free speech while allowing a generation to become more confused and corrupted, and you think you are patriotic -but you are not. And lastly, you have told me because of my views, you said, “You have blood on your hands.” I do not agree nor do I feel that way. These kids all have parents that can do what I suggest. They are responsible for raising their kids correctly. My job is to give them a healthy environment to grow up in. My hand are clean! It is your hands that have blood on them for allowing this corrupted form of free speech that screwed up their minds in the first place!!! So with every tranny kid that dies, I hope you think about the part your thirst for free speech contributed to that death!!!
Is your bottom line that these folks are equal under the law as long as they don’t speak in front of kids?
And you say your hands are clean when these folks are telling you, loud and clear, you have their blood on your hands and then they explain why.
Just don’t understand your hate and lack of logic on this, you seem so objective otherwise. I can understand that these folks might make you uncomfortable, that’s your right, but to have such a prejudice that allows you to treat them as unequal, under the Constitution, seems out of character. I can understand that you think society is going downhill saying diarrhea and other gross things on TV and you have to blame someone, so you blame the liberals. The other day I was watching a Disney dramady with a rap segment about the use and process of a tampon. It was the Doogie Howser update. I started in shock, but then realized —- hey, it’s life, it’s tame, it’s educational and WTF why not out of the closet with it. And then it became quite funny. I am not sure anyone else but Disney could have pulled that off without me tasting a little vomit in my mouth. But while I started, for a nanosecond, in shock, at the speed of light, they made it educational, safe, normal, and even funny. Only Disney can wake us to the obvious in this way and I respect them for that. Remember Tom, it wasn’t a liberal who brought “grab em by the pussy” into the mainstream culture. It wasn’t a liberal who made sex-for-hush-money if you are rich, acceptable for Presidents. We did blowjobs, much more normal, even middle class. And it wasn’t a liberal that put Maureen O’Hara over his knee for some sexy spankings in every movie she was in with him. Or made “In Like Flynn” the mantra of millions as he kissed em, they said no, and he pushed forward teaching us all how they like it Tom, they like it. We’re not fucking saints in all this Tom, we’ve been groomed too. Maybe it’s time for you to cancel your grooming and wake up. It’s all of us Tom and I agree, I could stand a little more decorum myself. Pop pop fizz fizz seems better than someone in pink pants grabbing their but to show us where it comes from.
But there are positives too —- woke, me too, summer of Floyd all mark progress for me. Sure, there were hiccups, sure, they will overcorrect but that’s life. I just pray DeSanctimonious’ culture war is a hiccup too and you folks begin to pull some of this back, especially the violence.
Tom, they are not your kids. They are other parent’s kids. Parents are not forced to go either. Drag shows most often are doing nothing illegal and the only grooming being down is to teaching folks to accept differences in others. What speech do you ban next? Look at the Florida book bans as evidence as to what happens next. First we ban them in the schools, then…. Free speech is a protected right. Other things like pedophilia, lying under oath, lying to Congress are illegal – there’s law. Crossdressing is not illegal.
In 2014, Malaysia found it unconstitutional to outlaw cross-dressing allowing Muslim men to don the dress. It’s global Tom. In all religions too.
Hate speech is not illegal, unless if a threat is involved, but it can be used to prove a hate crime which is illegal.
Do I push back on liars, sure, why not, free speech and I find them unacceptable, downright dangerous at times like Trump’s injecting disinfectant lie. With Santos, and add in Luma, sure — they should be censored or expelled under House Rules and lying can be the cause. I am not sure lying to voters is illegal, we talked about Federal Resumes to tighten that up at the Federal Level, but just follow the law as I say to most things.
I have commented on social media indicating that they are private businesses, protected under the law, and able to restrict any speech they feel like. That used to be the conservative mantra good enough not to bake gay cake. If you want the internet to be regulated as public, then pass the law to do so and the Government can regulate them for free speech. I think it’s high time to treat the internet as mature and take the kid’s gloves off. But don’t blame Zuckerman, blame Congress.
We are a nation of laws Tom. DeSanctimonious has passed some that I feel transgress on civil rights, freedom of speech and other Constitutional rights. Mary Burgers has a family friendly drag show; they claim they are not grooming kids to be gay or trans or cross-dressers. They claim they are losing money because they can not exercise their freedom of speech and expression in their own establishment because DeSanctimonious has trampled on their Constitutional rights, attacking their business, their property, because jack-booted DeSanctimonious don’t like their types. He’s in a culture war and he takes no prisoners. Hell yes they should sue this prudish prick under the law. It is their right.
FYI – the only cross dressing that the APA deems a mental issue is if there’ sexual arousal — less than 3% of the total. It’s a different beast altogether. You are rationalizing through projection again.
You seem to say if your boy could prove to you he’s a girl, you would force the outcome by rejecting his desire until he’s of age and out of your home while forcing him to get him the type of mental health to cure “his problem.” Sweet.
You harken back to earlier times when all was neat and clean just like Mayberry. Do you really think we grew up healthier than today’s kids? Cuz I grew up in the 60’s, we had four-dead-in-Ohio, CIA LSD tests, and the guys who cut my hair because it was a perversion. Does that mean you are a total failure with your kids since all of this happened on your watch? Well, tie that bastard down and make him all man…..
And so, the bans result in an attack on Disney who offers none of the crap you are afraid of in their productions. Lately I have been watching their Asian stories and beyond the always enjoyable martial arts, there’s an underflow being Asia in America, it’s so tame, but so good, and totally in the woke spirit of inclusion. NOT ONE BAD THING that you mention as the downfall of America. But you folks got your hard on to ban that shit….It’s just amazing that you hate the one production company that is doing every thing you ask for in your recent passage.
Folks in Florida banned Amanda Gorman’s poem “The Hills We Climb” which was tame enough for Biden’s inauguration. Check out all the banned books from the Fahrenheit 451 sinkhole state.
You say I will have more blood on my hands by treating cross dressers and trans Americans as equal under the law while you want to abolish them, any way you can including regressive laws that unfairly, imo, target them. Unfairly because many are written so loosely that FOX can be arrested for playing Tootsie. It’s true. So I will take that blood bet. It’s just a matter of time until they begin to violently attack people, especially these people. Heck, there’s already physical altercations at Target of all places.
I understand you get nervous and uncomfortable around this stuff. That’s fair. But to treat people as less than equal is not. Pass a law, that’s fair. But it’s also fair to challenge the law. Especially this one by these folks, because, based on the facts we know today — they should win. One truth is: if this shit was so terrible, where was the DeSanctimonious hit squad to arrest them earlier? Buckle up. And please Floridians, boycott them — they need the money!
Well said!
I would have an issue with their participation in a Trump rally. Can you ban them and their free expression and free speech with the same free speech extremism you support here.
These are family friendly shows. Can you prove elsewise?
Good point Frank. Lets ban children from drag shows and ALL political rallies! I agree!
Income down 20% from what, last month or last year this time? This is about the time FL residents leave for their northern vacations and northern folks go to FL for their vacations. This will be an interesting one to watch in the courts.
The fact that you are claiming moral equivalence between the two means that you are trying to gaslight. Or maybe its the Coors…
Maybe the government needs to charge this restaurant fees for all the psychological problems children will have in the future because you can not un-see drag.
This guy has Tootsie nightmares and pisses his pants during Mrs Doubtfire.
Close the place down. There is no reason to subject our children to provocative and sexual performances.
There is one reason and only one reason these people want to steal our children and that’s because they cannot have one of their own so they are going to steal ours.
This woman is afraid of a family friendly show. Threw up at Some Like It Hot. Bosom Buddies made her queer….
Trust me, no one will touch your children given their upbringing.
We sure can tell who the Devil got a hold of by the .
Actually, they are suing DeSanctimonious, Griffin – Secretary of Business, Regulation and some other shit, and The State of Florida. But really the sinkhole State, or State of Desanctimonious. Being the worst state in the nation for lightning strikes and shark attacks, Florida is the also only state in the union with both crocs and gators as well as Ron DeSantimonious; the man with the reptilian brain.
Maybe he should really focus on real problems affecting real people like Florida being in the top ten for identity theft, number 3 last year, and rising. They top the list for fraud complaints as well.
Given that Ronnie’s policies have granted Florida the award for being in the top ten states for sex abuse, which now is home to the nation’s most renown sex abuser, one can see why they want to cut these cross dressing shows out. Takes the spotlight off the sink holes, sex abuse, and identity theft issues.
Fucking prudes are scared of their own shadows. Just shoot the son’s of bitches, you all have guns and no permit concealed ones at that. What are you waitin fer.
The plaintiff notes that the state defines “drag” as dressing in gender-opposite clothing which harkens back to Shakespeare and before, like in ancient Greece and even in one scene in modern Grease. After Some Like it Hot came out, sex abuse climbed not at all in the US: Tootsie too. However, there is doubt about Doubtfire…..
Given all the shows of ill repute in Florida, why pick on tame, family-oriented, cross-dressing shows at Hamburger Mary’s?
“Who cares if you’re last at everything else; as long as you’re tops in identity theft and second in strip clubs, people will keep moving there. Not only does the Sunshine State have the most strip clubs in the country with 243, they’ve also got FIVE in Tampa and Miami that cracked out Top 21.” *https://www.thrillist.com/sex-dating/nation/15-best-states-for-strip-clubs-florida-nevada-louisiana*
And the hetero partiers like to keep the party goin on:
Florida, with the third highest total rapes in the country, only rates a mere 37th when using a per capita rate. However, if you exclude senior citizens, they fall within the top 5 rape states in the country (and Larry loves to x-out the old folks as unimportant because they are sick and ugly). But Florida’s unwed mothers comes in at over 46%. After all, who would marry their rapist or family member? Florida also produces a lot of oranges, grapefruits and the third most serial killers in America. Maybe a drag show or two could help that….
Hamburgers, however, can be dressed any way anyone wants to.
I’m sorry to be ridiculous folks, but outlawing a family friendly drag show at a Hamburger joint is not going to save the world, it’s not even gonna stop little Sammy from putting on some culottes. Vote with your wallet if you must, but why send jack-booted thugs in to arrest, fine, and incarcerate folks for having fun and harming NO ONE.
I never conceived of going to a drag show, don’t even like any of the tv or media except Rocky Horror, and that’s more the college memories of a good party night, but since all this bullshit started, I went: it was really funny and they sang well too. Hey, if it’s a choice between Medieval Times or a Drag Revue —- the later is more entertaining for sure, But took my kids to MT in their time, and probably would repeat instead of drag, but as my FIL used to say: some people like to blow their noses with two bricks (takes all kinds, who am I to judge)
Frank, I do not think FL allows minors into strip clubs. I am in favor of the same laws applying to drag as to strip clubs, that would be fair. Both are sexualized performances.
Frank, you always go into quite a rant when anyone mentions drag being a perversion and sheltering children from it. Just curious, are you a cross dresser by chance?
No Tom, and your perception that ALL drag shows are “sexualized performances” is ludicrous. Library readings – not sexualized. Hamburger Mary’s supposedly family friendly. Do you know different or is not knowing what frightens you?
Maybe you’re afraid of your own warped sexual proclivities and envision evil without any experience.
I do love women’s clothes jewelry, but not to wear. I am quite good at selection. My wife’s tanzanite collection is huge since I started 50 years ago when it was cheap. Fine china and kitchenware too. My prize is some simple earthenware Russel Wright, museum quality. Last Smithsonian exhibit I saw, mine was better. Sure, weird maybe, but I 100% male pig too, trust me, woke is a bridge too far no matter how much effort I put in. Pretty much an ugly American internationally too.
That’s why my teams loved me (or left quickly); unique, fun and authentic.
I just believe all folks created equal, don’t believe I need to judge others on the small stuff like this .But I do judge all the time and I judge you as having a bad experience that skews your independent logic on this one.
If HM drag shows were as you say, wouldn’t the Florida Gestapo have shuttered the place?
Are you that afraid they are coming for you and your children? Do you think that little of your kids. Or maybe you’re afraid you will slip, come out of your closet, and let your freak flag fly.
First you come for the drags queens and trans because they are strange looking and few in number.
Then you come for the gays because God told you to.
You come for the lesbians last because you like to watch.
Who’s next on your list of: “hey, those folks are not like us, not quite right like us. They must be denied, must be destroyed.”
Why do we celebrate Memorial Day and what did they sacrifice for?
FYI: didn’t think I needed to add: SURE — kids not allowed in strip clubs, bars, lots of places as legally decided.
Plus, I am for MORE STRINGENT ratings on media products, even social media, for kids.
BUT Hamburger Mary is saying 1) WE ARE FAMILY FRIENDLY, as in G rating. 2) DeSanctimonious, and Tom, have violated our Constitutional right to free speech and assembly. If this is true, they win.
I, for one, am glad they are challenging this bogus law. I have no problem with restriction sexualize performances, but a guy in drag starts as just a costume, cosplay, and YOU don’t have the right to ban that.
Frank, nobody is asking you to judge the cross dressers. What is being asked of us all is to judge the morality of exposing children to a perversion like strip clubs, cross dressing, men in women’s bathrooms, etc. Again, you are masking judging these perverted acts by saying you do not want to judge the people. My feeling is if a man wants access to women’s clothing and wants to trot around his house dressed as a woman fine, I have no problem with them or them dressing as women. But its when you take it into the public and try to pass it off as part of “normal” which it is not.
The plaintiff says they offer a family friendly drag show that DeSantis’s law is depriving them of free speech, expression and they have been financially harmed by his actions.
Bet you would pee your pants at a Blue Man Group show.. I went early, when it was not only unknown, but really sort of edgy. It made me uneasy and nervous —- should we ban!!!!
Imagine that, the voters of Florida supported a man who doesn’t think there is any such thing as a “family friendly” drag show.
The burger dive will lose the lawsuit. Many more people in FLA want their children raised in wholesome family environments safe from exposure to sexually-based trash like drag shows. DeSantis wins, again
Sue this. Sue that. Same with BLM, Antifa, white supremacists, and many other hate groups. They always claim one thing, and do the opposite. That sounds like the Biden regime. Democracy is always thrown in their narrative to make it sound like they really care. Here are many non profit organizations I get in the mail. Week after week. Donate to hem, then ask for more. AARP is tied to the Democrat Party. CNN, MSNBC, N.Y. Times, Washington Post. Fox News was said to be bridging with the Democrat Party. Did watch Steve Hilton, The Next Revolution today. Despite what people push. It was a good discussion. I think NEWSMAX and THE FIRST, after research, are truthful. You decide. Soros has his Nazi ties to this. I wonder why he is not behind bars? Now we have the FBI, DOJ, and others pushing the Green Energy nonsense. WHO, CDC, WEF, BIg Corporations, BIG PHARMA and others have turned against the freedom of America for their own selfish, corrupt policies. Pray in Jesus Name. They have no power over my soul, and believers everywhere.
Hard to believe there are so many stupid people reading this blog (not referring to you Frank). What these people are asking for is more big government-where the government controls more and more aspects of your life. They want to take the decision away from parents as to what kind of people their children see, what kind of books they read. Very scary to me, as this is what fascism is all about-governmental control. And yet the idiot in the florida governor’s office talks about the free state of florida. Don’t think so…