4 March 28 - april 3, 2024 miaminewtimes.com | browardpalmbeach.com New Times | music | cafe | culture | Night+Day | news | letters | coNteNts | miaminewtimes.com MIAMI NEW TIMES | MUSIC | CAFE | FILM | ART | STAGE | NIGHT+DAY | METRO | RIPTIDE | LETTERS | CONTENTS | ▼ FLORIDA BARE NECESSITIES STATE LEGISLATURE RAISES MINIMUM AGE FOR STRIPPERS. BY NAOMI FEINSTEIN A Florida bill headed to the governor’s desk is set to raise the minimum age at which dancers can bare all in front of strangers in strip clubs statewide. On the last day of the legislative session, the Florida legislature approved a bill prohib- iting anyone younger than 21 years old from working or performing at adult entertain- ment venues. Supporters of the bill say it will help curb sex trafficking and exploitation of vulnerable youth. “We have to change the way that we view strip clubs and adult theaters because what we are regulating is not just sexual conduct,” Rep. David Borrero of Sweetwater said prior to the House vote on March 8. “It’s traffick- ing. It’s sexual abuse, human exploitation be- cause there truly are victims and traffickers involved in this industry.” The “Anti-Human Trafficking” bill would raise the minimum age from 18 to 21 to work in adult entertainment venues, including strip clubs, cabarets, adult bookstores, adult theaters, and unlicensed massage establish- ments. Other provisions include statutory tweaks such as replacing the national hotline with a state hotline on human-trafficking awareness signs at certain businesses such as massage parlors. The Florida Senate passed the bill on March 5, followed by an affirmative House vote on March 8. Only three state senators and three members of the Florida House voted against the bill. “Why would we want 18-year-olds, 19-year-olds, teenagers — some are still in high school — in environments where they are targeted, recruited by pimps?” Borrero said. “They are likely to be trafficked and sold into prostitution and sex slavery.” While some lawmakers applauded the anti- trafficking bill as a whole, they said they were concerned the stripping provision is trying to legislate conservative values and control adult women (coincidentally on International Women’s Day). Rep. Michele Rayner of St. Petersburg pointed to some legislators’ attempts to lower the minimum age for certain gun purchases in Florida from 21 to 18. “If we have filed bills that say folks can have guns at 18 and they are able to use guns at 18, I’m not understanding why a young woman would not be able to make a choice to decide to be an exotic dancer or stripper,” Rep. Rayner said during legislative debate. “That might not be your value, but we are not here to legislate values.” Rayner, who ultimately voted in favor of the bill, said the legislature should be focused solely on protecting human trafficking victims. She points out that young adults under 21 years old could now be “pulled into private parties,” where they can fall victim to sex trafficking. “Yet once again, this body is trying to legis- late what women can and cannot do with their bodies and it is overwhelmingly a lot of men who are trying to do that,” she added. “Some of you like strip clubs, so I don’t understand.” The legislation would make it a second-de- gree felony “to knowingly employ, contract with, or otherwise permit” a person younger than 21 years old to perform or work while nude, which is defined as “the showing of male or female genitals, pubic area, or buttock with less than a fully opaque covering, or the show- ing of the female breast with less than a fully opaque covering” below the top of the nipple. The definition of “nude” would also in- clude the display of a clothed penis in a “dis- cernibly turgid state.” It would be a first-degree misdemeanor for an adult entertainment venue to hire em- ployees younger than 21 even if they are fully clothed, according to the bill. An owner, man- ager, or employee could not escape criminal liability even if the person lied during the hir- ing process, raising the specter that a strip club’s failure to spot a fake ID could yield se- vere criminal charges. “A person’s ignorance of another person’s age or a person’s misrepresentation of his or her age may not be raised as a defense,” the bill reads. If Gov. Ron DeSantis signs the bill or declines to veto it, it will take effect July 1. | RIPTIDE | Upon becoming law, HB 7063 would raise the minimum age of adult performers in Florida beginning on July 1, 2024. Photo by Allan Swart/Getty Images ▼ BOCA RATON URINE TROUBLE LAWSUIT ALLEGES HOSPITAL SERVED HUMAN PEE IN LIEU OF SOUP. BY NAOMI FEINSTEIN A Palm Beach County man is pissed about an alleged food service mix-up that left him “both shocked and sick- ened” at his father’s bedside in a Florida hospi- tal, according to a newly filed lawsuit. In the lawsuit against West Boca Medical Center, Ronald Tompkins Jr. claims he got a sour surprise when he unwittingly took a sip of a stranger’s urine, which one of the hospital’s food service employees had served instead of a bowl of soup. The lawsuit demands damages for gross negligence in Palm Beach County Circuit Court. Tompkins Jr. claims he “suffered emotional dis- tress and mental anguish” and required medical treatment after the incident. As Tompkins Jr. was visiting his father at West Boca Medical Center last September, the hospital employee came to serve a food tray next to the fa- ther’s bed. Tompkins Jr. took a sip of what the employee called “bouillon” to ensure the temperature was not too hot for his dad, ac- cording to the complaint. Tompkins Jr. says he immediately realized the frothy liquid was not soup. “Tompkins spit out the urine and was both shocked and sickened,” the lawsuit alleges. “No explanation for why a cup of urine was present or placed on the inpatient Ronald Tompkins Sr.’s food tray was given.” The younger Tompkins claims the urine was not his father’s, though the complaint does not make it clear how he came to that conclusion. “West Boca Medical Center was negligent by way of allowing its employees to handle both food service delivery and urine/bodily fluids,” the lawsuit states. Tompkins Jr. is the sole plaintiff in the case. He’s represented by attorney Dan Moses in Boca Raton. Part of the Palm Beach Health Network, West Boca Medical Center has been operating for 40 years and has 195 beds. The hospital has not re- sponded to New Times’ request for comment. [email protected] “TOMPKINS SPIT OUT THE URINE AND WAS BOTH SHOCKED AND SICKENED.”
