The Florida Sunshine Entertainment Association (FL SEA) opposes Florida House Bill 1379 and Senate Bill 1690, which the group said bans an estimated 300 18-to-20-year-olds from working in the state’s 114 legal adult entertainment establishments.
According to the adult club industry group, these bills moving through the Florida legislature restrict a legal adult’s autonomy concerning employment choices, have little to do with the purported goal of reducing sex trafficking, and represent an unusual amount of government overreach in Florida.
The proposed legislation prohibits employment of persons younger than 21 years of age in adult entertainment establishments, requires adult entertainment establishments to check identification of entertainers, and specifies forms of identification that may be used.
For more than a decade, FL SEA said their organization has fought against human trafficking through Club Operators Against Sex Trafficking (COAST), an outreach led by law enforcement. As a result, the group stated federal and state government data shows that the incident of sex trafficking at legal adult clubs in Florida is less than 1%.
“There is no meaningful evidence that banning 18-to-20-year-olds from work at these legitimate businesses reduces trafficking,” said Angelina M. Spencer-Crisp, Executive Director for The Florida Sunshine Entertainment Association. “This is like saying that all 160 state legislators must be treated as criminals if only one or two of them ever committed a crime.”
“It is inconsistent and unjust to deny 18-20-year-olds the same job opportunities afforded to others. Young adults are still responsible for decisions like student loans, voting, marriage, and military service, where they stand a far greater chance of being harmed. Government and commercial sectors like construction, agriculture, law enforcement, fishing, landscaping, transportation, warehousing, emergency services, and manufacturing also entail physical risks. Yet the state is not proposing any restrictions on 18-to-20-year-olds in these industries.”
As an alternative and far more effective solution, FL SEA urges the enforcement of existing laws.
“This includes increased funding for law enforcement to shut down illegal clubs, mandatory training for workers at legal clubs in identifying and combating trafficking, and stringent enforcement of mandatory age-verification procedures already put in place last year by the Florida legislature,” said Spencer-Crisp.
View HB 1379 by Republican Representative Carolina Amesty and SB 1690 by Republican Senator Clay Yarborough related to Human Trafficking online.
The Florida Sunshine Entertainment Association is a federally registered trade association for the FL adult club industry.
