A seat in the front row to a show of intolerance

Rusty Maple saw the whole thing. He went to A Drag Queen Christmas.

Maple is a 68-year-old retired entrepreneur, a former clergyman who left St. Louis and settled in downtown Fort Lauderdale with his wife a few years ago. He joined a group of about 15 Flagler Village residents who were given free tickets by a generous neighbor who was celebrating her birthday.

“She wanted to treat her friends,” he said. So they all headed over to the Broward Center for the Performing Arts Monday night, dodging many more raindrops than protesters, to watch the show that Gov. Ron DeSantis has characterized as sexually explicit and possibly illegal because kids supposedly were there.

Inside the theater, Maple could hardly believe his eyes.

It wasn’t the performers or their wild costumes — it was the audience. It looked like a Rotary Club meeting.

“I was amazed. The crowd was conservative. Thirty-year-olds up to 75-year-olds,” he said. “I didn’t see any kids. I saw no young people.”

He said the one distraction was “some guy who started yelling.” That’s Chris Nelson, the publicity-seeking activist who shouted, “It isn’t right!” as his iPhone camera rolled. Security escorted him outside amid a cascade of boos. It’s all there on his Twitter feed.

This was Rusty Maple’s first drag show, and likely his last, he said. He found the material mildly entertaining. But as for its explicitness, he said, it was tame compared to what he’s heard at a local comedy club in Dania Beach or seen at his health club.

“I’ve seen more sexually explicit outfits at the local gym and at yoga classes,” Maple told the Sun Sentinel.

Still, in this Broward retiree’s view, A Drag Queen Christmas isn’t for children. “I would advise against that, personally,” Maple said. “It’s not for kids, in my opinion.”

Many would agree that a sexually suggestive drag show is inappropriate for kids. But that’s a choice for a parent to make, not the government. “Parental rights,” remember?

Is DeSantis equally enraged by parents who bring their kids to an R-rated movie? Has Florida’s governor ever seen what’s on Netflix at night?

What has conservatives all atwitter (pun intended) is that the show was initially marketed as an “all ages show” that “may contain adult content,” similar to a nightclub performance, according to an archived event page.

Later, it was reworded to adults 18 and over unless accompanied by a parent, and ticket buyers received “Know Before You Go” emails. Security checked IDs at the door, the center said.

“As of today (Thursday), we have not been contacted by state officials,” the Broward Center said in a statement.

For eight years, most recently throughout December, the same show has toured the country mostly without incident, in such godless cities as Tulsa, Tucson and Wichita.

There was some controversy in Amarillo, Texas, in December, and a recent show in Knoxville, Tennessee, drew crowds of peaceful protesters and counter-demonstrators who waved “Stop the Hate” placards and LGBTQ pride signs.

But only in Florida did the governor bring the full weight of state government down upon event sponsors, including threats to revoke their state-issued liquor licenses.

This manufactured outrage is intolerance of gay people being dressed up as a kids’ safety issue — homophobia in drag, if you will. Which brings us back to Fort Lauderdale. Intolerance and threats of censorship helped Rusty Maple decide to pack up and leave Missouri, a place he found culturally repressed, for Fort Lauderdale and its more welcoming spirit of tolerance and inclusion.

“We love being around our neighbors,” he said.

Maple is repulsed by Florida’s “self-righteous” governor and his morality police in the Department of Business and Professional Regulation. Suddenly, he sees deeper meaning in Donald Trump’s reference to DeSantis as “DeSanctimonious.”

Said Maple: “For once, Trump is right.”