Broadway star Phillipa Soo has not forgotten her childhood stage fright

A federal court temporarily halted Florida’s controversial restrictions on drag performances, warning the law was overbroad and could risk infringing on free speech rights. The SB1438 law, signed in May by Republican governor Ron DeSantis, is “dangerously susceptible to standardless, overbroad enforcement which could sweep up substantial protected speech,” US judge Gregory Presnell wrote in his ruling. Far from a neutral attempt to protect children, as its backers have sometimes claimed, the law is an admitted attempt to “specifically suppress the speech of drag queen performers,” Judge Presnell wrote. The governor’s office told Reuters the ruling was “dead wrong.” “Of course it’s constitutional to prevent the sexualization of children by limiting access to adult live performances,” spokesperson Jeremy Redfern said. The suit against the state comes from Hamburger Mary’s, a restaurant chain that features family-friendly drag performances. An Orlando franchise of the restaurant filed suit in May. It claimed the law, which levies criminal penalties at food establishment for admitting children to an “adult live performance,” would “explicitly restrict or chill speech and expression protected by the First Amendment.” “This bill has nothing to do with children, and everything to do with the continued oppression of the LGBTQ+ community,” Hamburger Mary’s Orlando wrote in a Facebook post. Florida governor Ron DeSantis has made limiting the rights of LGBTQ+ people a key part of his agenda, signing bills that restrict gender-affirming care, protections for trans people in schools, and access to youth education on gender and sexuality. This month, courts struck down a Florida rule and statute banning Medicaid payments for transgender healthcare, and partially blocked a state law banning people under 18 from getting gender-affirming medicine. Earlier this month, a federal judge in Tennessee declared the state’s drag ban to be “unconstitutionally vague and substantially overbroad.” “There is no question that obscenity is not protected by the First Amendment,” Judge Thomas Parker wrote. “But there is a difference between material that is ‘obscene’ in the vernacular, and material that is ‘obscene’ under the law.” “Simply put, no majority of the Supreme Court has held that sexually explicit — but not obscene — speech receives less protection than political, artistic, or scientific speech.” Read More Trump faces questions about whether he'll drag down the Republican Party after his indictments Group with Nazi flags protest outside Florida children’s museum days after similar stunt at Disney World Here are the restrictions on transgender people that are moving forward in US states Florida's law targeting drag shows is on hold under federal judge's order Evangelical leader hopes conference is 'testosterone booster shot' for anti-abortion 2024 candidates Trump, DeSantis interviews show Fox influence on GOP field still strong despite troubled year

Slovenia says it will introduce border checks with neighboring Hungary and Croatia following Italy’s decision to do the same with Slovenia because of security concerns due to violence in the Middle East

Russia's defence minister Sergei Shoigu praised N Korea’s military as the “most powerful” in the world.

Seventeen troops died in a jihadist ambush in Niger, the government said, in a reminder of the nation's deep security crisis as its military rulers face off against neighbours...

Police carried out new searches at a reservoir in Portugal on Tuesday connected to the disappearance of British toddler Madeleine McCann, who vanished from a resort in...

By Rachel Nostrant NEW YORK A New York State Supreme Court judge on Friday ordered the city of

'I was in Winona's trailer and...she put me on the phone with Johnny. And Johnny explained it to me'

The US State Department is warning Americans not to travel to Lebanon and will allow family members of US government personnel and some non-emergency personnel to voluntarily depart the country "due to the unpredictable security situation."

Oil traded near a three-month high as China flagged more measures to boost economic growth, aiding the outlook

Charlotte Sena, 9, a student at Corinth Central Elementary School, was last seen on Loop A at around 6.15 pm on Saturday, September 30

Arab leaders have been joined by Syrian President Bashar Assad for the first time in more than a decade at an annual Arab League summit in Saudi Arabia