GAINESVILLE, Fla. — Strip clubs and other adult entertainment establishments in Florida are challenging the state’s law that prevents adults between the ages of 18 and 20 from working in those places.

HB 7063 was signed into law by Gov. Ron DeSantis earlier this year and it took effect Monday, the Daytona Beach News Journal reported.

DeSantis claimed the law “would combat human trafficking” by subjecting any employer who hired anyone under 21 years old in an adult entertainment establishment to criminal liability.

On Monday, lawyers filed a lawsuit against the state before the U.S. District Court for the Northern District of Florida in the name of 19-year-old Serenity Michelle Bushey, a nude dancer at Café Risque, a strip club near Gainesville in Alachua County.

The lawsuit alleges the law’s arbitrary “raising of the age requirements for her profession not only made her lose her job but also violated her constitutional rights,” the News Journal reported.

The plaintiffs — which also include Café Risque, strip club chain Sinsations and Jacksonville pleasure products store Exotic Fantasies, argue that “the ban on performers under the age of twenty-one is not narrowly tailored and does not advance the asserted government interest commensurate with the burden on free speech.”

The lawsuit states that Bushey and at least eight Café Risque dancers have lost their jobs, and argues that the law also violates their First Amendment right to express themselves.

“As with similar performers around the state, Bushey earned her living through her art while providing entertainment for the benefit and enjoyment of her audience,” the plaintiffs argue, adding that they believe “the human body is a thing of beauty which, when combined with music and rhythmic motion in the form of dance, conveys an important message of eroticism.”

Café Risque, Sinsations and Exotic Fantasies, the complaint notes, “have the right to select the adult staff and employees of their choosing to assist in the dissemination of their speech, without regard to age.”

Main Image: Florida Governor Ron DeSantis and Cafe Risqué billboard