She’s putting her heels down over this pole-arizing new law.
A 19-year-old Florida stripper and her employer are suing the Sunshine State over new age-restrictions for adult dancers, alleging that the law violates her constitutional rights.
Serenity Michelle Bushey claimed that she lost her job at the Gainesville-area strip club Cafe Risque after a new law raising the stripping age from 18 to 21 took effect on Monday, according to the lawsuit, WPLG reported.
The suit, filed in federal court in Tallahassee Monday on behalf of Bushey, the strip club’s owners and two other adult businesses in Jacksonville, requests a permanent injunction halting the law from being enforced.
She and the strip clubs claim the law infringes on their First Amendment right to free speech and their Fourteenth Amendment right to equal protection, according to WPLG.
According to the suit, Bushey and eight other strippers who are older than 18 but younger than 21 are no longer able to work at Cafe Risque due to the law, which was signed by Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis in May.
“As with similar performers around the state, Bushey earned her living through her art while providing entertainment for the benefit and enjoyment of her audience,” the suit states. “Plaintiffs have a clear legal right to engage in protected speech of this nature.”
The new law additionally prohibits adult entertainment businesses from hiring cooks, DJs, waitresses and security guards younger than 21.
Businesses also can no longer even use workers under 21 from third-party contractors to complete work like air conditioning repairs or carpentry, the suit claims.
The Florida Attorney General’s office told WPLG Tuesday that it had not yet received the lawsuit but intends to defend the new law.
Raising the age of workers in adult entertainment from 18 to 21 was part of an attempt to combat human trafficking in the state. Adult businesses are also required to display signage warning about human trafficking.
“This legislation will help better protect the most vulnerable in our communities, it will ensure that if businesses are not complying with these very modest, reasonable requirements, whether knowingly or unknowingly, they will be held accountable,” DeSantis said when he signed the bill.
