FORT MYERS BEACH, Florida (LifeSiteNews) – Florida Governor Ron DeSantis says that his staff is looking into legislation that would bar children from attending drag shows in Florida. The statement followed conservative pushback against drag events aimed at children.
The comments were made during a press conference on Wednesday after a reporter asked DeSantis about the legislation. The legislation, introduced by State Republican Rep. Anthony Sabatini, followed a drag event for children in West Palm Beach.
The governor hinted that Florida already has laws that protect children from being exposed to adult entertainment.
“We have child protective statutes on the books. We have laws against child endangerment,” DeSantis said. He added that his staff is looking into the legislation and cited recent legislation aimed at protecting children from sexual indoctrination.
“Part of the reason why we fought the fight with Parental Rights in Education is because there’s a movement to interject these things like gender ideology in elementary schools even, and my view is, our schools need to be teaching these kids to read and write and add and subtract and do the things that are supposed to be done in school,” DeSantis continued.
“Injecting these agendas into it is wrong, and that’s why we did the Parental Rights in Education bill.”
READ: Drag queen who hosted show for kids in Texas has criminal past that includes prostitution, drugs
The comments follow a drag show that took place at a Dallas gay bar that was advertised as family friendly. Video footage of the event showed kids being invited to perform with drag queens and also giving them money.
“You had these very young kids … at a – quote – ‘drag show’ where they were putting money in the underwear of this [man], and that is totally inappropriate,” DeSantis said in reference to the Dallas event.
“That is not something that children should be exposed to, and so … we may have the ability to deal with that if something like that happens.”
“It used to be kids would be off-limits. Used to be everybody agreed with that … And now it just seems like there’s a concerted effort to be exposing kids more and more to things that are not age appropriate,” DeSantis continued. He added that Florida needs to be a “family-friendly state.”
DeSantis and Sabatini are not the only Republican politicians that have discussed legislation that would punish parents for bringing their children to drag shows. A Texas state representative introduced legislation following the Dallas show that would make drag shows oriented towards children illegal. Georgia Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene and Colorado Rep. Lauren Boebert have also called for legislation that would make drag shows for minors illegal.
READ: ‘Libs of TikTok’ locked by Twitter for exposing drag shows performed for kids
DeSantis has a record of supporting legislation that would stop children from being exposed to sexually explicit material. In March, DeSantis signed the Parental Rights in Education bill, which banned discussion of gender theory in Florida schools from kindergarten to third grade. Earlier this month, DeSantis’ administration announced that it would ban Medicaid coverage for transgender surgeries and drugs. The move also banned transgender surgeries for minors. Last week DeSantis signed legislation that eliminated the statute of limitations for adults that take children to “sexual performances.”
DeSantis is expected to run for the presidency in 2024. A recent straw poll showed that most conservative voters prefer DeSantis to former President Donald Trump, who is also expected to run.