A U.S. District judge has issued a preliminary injunction allowing an obscene LGBTQ drag show performance to be held in view of children at a June 7 “pride” festival after denying Liberty Counsel’s motion to step in and defend the interests of concerned parents. 

Liberty Counsel filed the motion after a May 2 hearing where the city of Naples failed to adequately defend putting reasonable restrictions on the show to protect children during a legal challenge from the show’s LGBTQ sponsor, Naples Pride.

While the court deemed that Liberty Counsel’s motion was not filed soon enough before the injunction decision, it will consider later whether Liberty Counsel can intervene and defend the city and parents as litigation continues to fully decide the merits of the case.

In April, the Naples City Council voted 5-2 to move the traditionally lewd and indecent drag show indoors away from Cambier Park that is frequented by parents and their children, and to put an adults-only restriction on the event. But during the preliminary injunction hearing, the city of Naples failed to defend those restrictions using Florida’s “Protection of Children Act” of 2023 that expressly outlaws public drag shows held in view of minors, as well as several U.S Supreme Court precedents that allow for “shielding minors” from indecent material. The state of Florida recognizes that children – and their parents, by extension – have a legally protectible interest in the material they are exposed to as well as having safe parks and playgrounds, wrote Liberty Counsel.   

The argument the city did offer was that Cambier Park, which has a children’s playground a mere 100 feet away from where Naples Pride wants to hold its drag show, is a limited public forum where permits are subject to reasonable and viewpoint neutral criteria. Conversely, Naples Pride argued that any location or age restriction violated its First Amendment protections.

Since Liberty Counsel’s motion to intervene was denied, the judge can only rule on the arguments presented to the court. U.S. District Judge John Steele sided with Naples Pride finding the drag show performance is “speech protected by the First Amendment.” Judge Steele ruled that the indoor and age restrictions were “viewpoint and content based” and were “forbidden.”

Judge Steele seemed to accept the Naples Pride characterization that its drag show is “family friendly.” Yet, before its motion to intervene, Liberty Counsel presented evidence in an amicus brief containing photographic documentation from the 2022 outdoor show held just 100 feet from the children’s playground. These images depict male performers in obscene drag performing lewd poses and simulating sexual acts that are unsuitable for minors. The drag performers also invited children to place money in their waist bands like strippers in a bar as the men shook their over-stuffed brazier tops and “twerked” their fish net covered hind ends mimicking sexual activities no child should ever see. The scenes are revolting and totally inappropriate for children.

However, Judge Steele made no mention of these depictions nor did his ruling address the rights of parents or the government's compelling interest to protect children from sexually inappropriate conduct.

Judge Steele did partially deny Naples Pride’s challenge related to the city’s permit process regarding security fees. Naples Pride asserted that the city assessed the drag show’s security fees as higher than previous years, and challenged the city’s entire permitting process as unconstitutional for giving officials “unbridled discretion” to restrict disfavored speech through those fees. But Judge Steele noted that even if the city did assess higher fees due to the event’s controversial nature, that alone would be “insufficient” to render the city’s entire permitting process as unconstitutional. 

The city of Naples had previously revoked the group’s permit to use the park after these lewd 2022 performances, and Naples Pride was forced to take their sexual deviancy celebration behind closed doors. In 2023 and 2024, the event was held inside and away from children in the park. But this year, the same group wants to publicly display their scantily clad bodies to visually assault the children and indoctrinate them.   

Liberty Counsel Founder and Chairman Mat Staver said, “Unfortunately, the strongest defenses to the city’s drag show restrictions were not presented to the court. Liberty Counsel will keep working to intervene in this case to give parents who wish to protect their children from obscene drag performances a fuller defense on the legal and constitutional issues left unspoken by the city of Naples. The First Amendment does not protect an obscene drag performance in full view of a children’s playground, and Florida law outright bans it. Restricting speech for children that is otherwise protected for adults passes constitutional muster in the interest of protecting their well-being. Citizens do not have to tolerate obscene drag shows in view of their children.”