God Save the Queens

Could City Codes End up Killing One of the Few Remaining Cultural Elements That Made South Beach Famous?

By Angie Hargot

Photos by Richard M. Brooks

Early-ish on a Friday night and a salty, cool breeze flutters toward a string of Art Deco hotels, and the cars already form the intermittent red, white, red (mostly red) taillights of tourists along Ocean Drive.

Droves of the foot-bound filter in from a block over, where punk bars once happily coexisted with techno clubs, crime bosses and A-list celebrities casually navigated the velvet ropes of Washington Avenue, fetish shops and bodegas shared walls and everyone was welcome.

On the 1200 block, patrons of all persuasions sparsely gather at the unassuming little bar at the Palace. Moments later a voice rings out from the terrace. Towering over the seated patrons, the speaker appears, clad in a shocking pink leotard, pink tutu, matching lipstick and blond, flowing waist-length hair.

In a matching outfit, another Argentine-born performer in the Queen Cabaret, the legendary Geraldine, takes her side.

“You faggots, you have any idea what Amendment 2 is?” asks performer Fernan D Cute. “Forget it. Let’s start the show.”

The crowd erupts in laughter and huge bright smiles as the entertainers begin their lip-syncing cabaret musical number.

Geraldine and Fernan D Cute eventually sashay out into the audience that has gathered on the corner of 12th Street in the same way for roughly two decades to gawk as the duo twirls and leaps across the street, singing to audience members. Eventually, the tutus come off, revealing pink miniskirts, and sail into the crowd.

One of the biggest smiles belongs to Dorothy Miller. “We don’t see anything like this in Ohio,” Miller says.

As Geraldine and Fernan D Cute make, well, use of a parked car across the street, a young girl clutching shopping bags sums up the impression of perhaps even the most stuffy viewer: “Oh yeah,” begins grinning Orlando resident Tatiana Pena. “This is very gay — but it’s exciting,” she says.

Within a few minutes the pair is back on the terrace and, out of breath, Fernan D Cute takes a break and again picks up the mic.

“This part of the show is sponsored by Home Depot — it’s where Geraldine gets her bodywork done,” she says, met with the laughter of the crowd.

She introduces Octavio Campos, producer of the gay rights play 1,000 Homosexuals, and Thomas Barker, Wire columnist and member of the Miami Beach Gay Business Development Committee. Barker explains what the passing of Amendment 2, which legally defines “marriage” in Florida as “one man and one woman,” meant to the gay community.

“They made it impossible for gays to marry,” Barker says. “But we will not take this lightly. Eventually, we will live in a state where all of us are equal.”

About half an hour and a costume change (or three) later, Fernan D Cute and Geraldine are back on their terrace interacting with tourists from Chicago, Spain, Boston and Germany, who sway and dance along with the music.

Equality might be a goal the lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender community must still strive for, but first things first. A much smaller battle must now be waged at City Hall.

After learning of Fernan D Cute and Geraldine’s street-side antics, local activist and self-anointed “noise consultant” Morris Sunshine e-mailed a complaint to the city.

The discussion item was placed on Monday’s Land Use and Development Committee meeting agenda after Palace attorney Michael Larkin contacted city officials about a series of citations that code enforcement officers, often responding to residents’ phoned complaints, had issued to the club.

At that meeting, Sunshine came out of the closet, so to speak, revealing himself as the complainant who has the Palace’s performances entrenched in a free speech, constitutional, gay rights and code violation nightmare.

“I was the one who complained. I have no problem with drag shows — I go out in drag several times a week,” Sunshine joked. “But I urge you not to approve anything, but to permit Mr. Larkin to discuss this with neighbors. It will open up an entertainment war.”

Days earlier, Larkin had gone before the city’s Gay Business Development Committee to rally support.

“Each sidewalk café must get a permit,” Larkin said, explaining that the Palace has permits for inside entertainment, but sidewalk performances require a separate permit. “What I’m suggesting is [that the city allow performances] from 15th to Fifth Street, on Thursday, Friday and Saturday for one hour at a time,” while being closely monitored for safety issues by special staff.

Larkin added he plans to request a conditional use permit for the Palace’s performances at the Nov. 25 meeting of the Planning Board. Although “special event” permits are restricted to a maximum five per year, Larkin suggested that eventually the code for special types of performances could change, possibly creating a “cabaret district” in South Beach.

Gay Business Committee member Robin Schwartz, however, said unconditional support of the measure, “just because it’s a drag show, just because it’s gay-oriented,” was not a given.

Chair Babak Movahedi also asserted that the committee would not support performances “outside of the law … but speaking as Babak, and not as the chair, I don’t want to see this part of culture end.” The committee unanimously passed a motion to urge the Planning Board to grant the conditional use permit to the Palace.

However, it became clear at Monday’s Land Use and Development Committee meeting that the battle wouldn’t end there.

“They’re [the Palace] being shut down at this point,” said Commissioner Jonah Wolfson, expressing concern that the citations threaten the establishment’s viability. “Is there some reason, after this many years, we’re bringing this up?” Wolfson asked.

Over the last several years, according to city records, the Palace has been investigated for dozens of alleged noise violations, with varying outcomes, including complaints being ruled invalid and Palace Manager Ken Pace signing for a written warning “under protest.”

The Palace has also received other violations, most recently in October for operating “outdoor entertainment without a conditional use permit,” specifically, for having “performers in [the] sidewalk cafe area.”

“I was there [at the Palace] on Saturday night — in anticipation of this meeting,” said First Assistant Attorney Gary Held, citing issues that will inevitably have to be addressed: “Pedestrians are going into the streets. They are stopping cars,” and as always, money — the solicitation, versus the acceptance, of tips.

By the end of the Land Use Committee’s discussion, Palace performances were being compared in a legal sense to the street performers often seen on Lincoln Road, flower sellers, cigar girls, photographers, snake charmers and the “scantily clad” waiters at Mango’s Cafe.

“The Palace is a great cultural aspect,” Larkin said. “It’s a different type of culture. It’s what makes Miami Beach stand out.”

Land Use Committee member Saul Gross agreed.

“This has been going on for 20 years, and we’re going to stamp it out now?” Gross said.

The discussion was continued, pending research, to the December meeting of the Land Use Committee. In the interim, the city’s special master will be urged to, in effect, suspend action on the citations the Palace has received.

The city’s Legal Department must now consider how to resolve the issue amicably without opening itself up to a constitutional challenge or discrimination lawsuit from other street performers.

The Queen Cabaret, meanwhile, seems quite unfazed during its performances by the legal battle its antics have created.

“No matter how friendly we look,” Fernan D Cute told the crowd Friday, “don’t feed the drag queens.” Dancing past a crowd of tourists near the patio, she razzed The SunPost’s photographer and introduced her co-performer’s latest costume: a low-cut red dress. “Geraldine: Miss Hialeah 1992,” she crooned into her mike, putting the locals in stitches. She sauntered about the terrace, bowing, to the applause of the crowds. “God save the queen, honey,” she said.

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