“The View” co-hosts invited cross-dressing male drag performers onstage to celebrate co-host Ana Navarro’s belated birthday, and one co-host even suggested Republican Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis secretly wants to cross-dress.
The drag performers are from R House, a Miami-area bar that had allegedly hosted sexually explicit drag shows with children knowingly in attendance. DeSantis’ administration attempted to revoke this bar’s liquor license for the alleged “sexually explicit drag shows” exposed to children through a July 2022 complaint.
Navarro has attended drag shows at this bar, with a crowd of performers arriving onstage to celebrate. The co-hosts and the performers, fully in character, took digs at the Florida governor without once mentioning how children have been subjected to their performances.
“Well, it’s funny. One of my favorite things about a drag show is there’s no one that’s out of place at a drag show,” co-host Sara Haines said. “It does feel so inclusive, which I love. But the R House is located in Miami, which is under the state rule of Governor DeSantis. I know he’s really come for drag shows and LGBTQ+ communities lately.”
“And our shoes, too,” one of the performers said. (RELATED: ‘The Party’s Gone Crazy’: Ana Navarro Compares Red States To Cuba And North Korea)
“What’s his problem?” co-host Joy Behar asked.
“Why is it so important now more than ever to keep performing?” Haines asked.
A drag performer said “the art saves lives” and that drag shows “bring people together.” Behar then wondered if DeSantis would like to perform in drag.
“Do you think that maybe DeSantis secretly wants to get dressed up in ladies’ clothes? Is that possible?” Behar asked.
“He has my number, so I don’t know,” one of the performers answered.
“I think it’s really important that we understand that it’s not that DeSantis went after LGBTQ and drag. He went after the R House in specific,” Navarro said. “He tried to shut them down for over a year, they’ve been under attack, they’ve been targeted, they’ve been terrorized. They’ve spent a fortune in legal fees, and so you know what? The drag queens survived and his campaign is dead!”
The performers gifted Navarro with a plaque naming her the “Godmother of R House.”
R House has had several recorded instances where a half-naked performer exposed himself in front of young children. In one instance, a male performer wearing G-string underwear with stuffed dollar bills exposed his buttocks around a girl between the ages of 3 to 5, according to the complaint filed by The Florida Department of Business and Professional Regulation. In a separate instance, a dancer pole-danced in revealing women’s clothes while waving dollar bills.
The bar agreed to pay a $10,000 fine to settle a legal dispute with the state, according to the Tampa Bay Times. The owners said the settlement “did not result from the finding of any violation of any administrative or criminal laws.”