A 19-year-old nude dancer alleges that a new Florida law raising the age limit on who is employed by adult entertainment businesses infringes on her constitutional rights.
Serenity Michelle Bushey filed a federal lawsuit Monday in the U.S. District Court for the Northern District of Florida, stating that the law violates her First Amendment right to free speech. Two adult entertainment businesses, including the corporation that owns the club where Bushey worked, are also plaintiffs in the suit.
The law, HB 7063, is aimed to prevent human trafficking and includes a ban on employing anyone under the age of 21 at adult entertainment businesses. Gov. Ron DeSantis signed the bill in May but it did not go into effect until Monday.
According to the suit, the lack of any type of “grandfather clause” in the bill has forced these businesses to terminate anyone under the age of 21 immediately. As a result, Bushey has lost her job as a nude performer at Café Risque.
“In addition to Bushey, at least eight other adult performers who were over the age of eighteen, but under the age of twenty-one, are no longer able to perform at Café Risque because of HB 7063,” the suit said.
The suit alleges that the law violates the right to free speech by restricting Bushey from being able to perform her art and make a living, adding that the state did not consider alternatives that would advance state interest without placing a burden on the First Amendment rights.
“Plaintiffs maintain that the human body is a thing of beauty which, when combined with music and rhythmic motion in the form of dance, conveys an important message of eroticism,” the suit said.
The law also prevents legal age adults who are not yet 21 from working in other capacities that do not involve nude entertainment, the suit said.
A corporation called Sinsations, which owns an adult store called Exotic Fantasies, joined the suit alleging that it is labeled an adult entertainment business by the state though it does not engage in live entertainment. The store sells adult videos, lingerie, clothing, accessories and other adult novelty items.
Although all of the employees at Exotic Fantasies are fully clothed “at all times,” it is subject to the same law. The suit distinguished the store from the type of businesses where there may be viewing of pornography on the premises.
“Exotic Fantasies operates what the industry refers to as a ‘percentage store’ because only a modest percentage of its stock constitutes ‘sexually oriented material,'” the suit said.
Kylie Mason, communications director for the state attorney general, told The Associated Press on Tuesday that the office would defend the law.
NBC News was unable to reach the attorney general’s office on Thursday due to the Fourth of July holiday. An email seeking comment from DeSantis’ office was not immediately returned.
