©2024 The News Service of Florida
In the closing hours of this year’s legislative session, Florida lawmakers Friday passed a bill that would prevent strippers under age 21 from working in adult-entertainment establishments.
Senators this week attached the stripper age restriction to a bill (HB 7063) that would take steps to try to curb human trafficking. The House took up the amended bill Friday and passed it in a 104-3 vote.
Rep. David Borrero, R-Sweetwater, said sex trafficking can take place in strip clubs. “It’s common sense,” Borrero said. “We ought to be on the side of young girls who are barely legal.”
But Rep. Michele Rayner, D-St. Petersburg, said lawmakers should not “legislate values” and that young women would be pulled into working at private parties if they are barred from strip clubs.
“This is just another way for women to be controlled,” said Rayner, who nevertheless voted for the bill.
Rep. Anna Eskamani, D-Orlando, Rep. Yvonne Hinson, D-Gainesville, and Rep. Angie Nixon, D-Jacksonville, cast the dissenting votes.
The bill is ready to go to Gov. Ron DeSantis.
