Weird Laws in Florida: Strange Rules That Are Actually Real

Florida has a talent for keeping bizarre laws on the books way longer than anyone expects, and then acting shocked when the internet does the math. One of the weirdest examples was the state’s old cohabitation rule, a relic from 1868 that basically treated sharing a home like a crime.

Back then, Florida Statute §798.02 made it a second-degree misdemeanor for an unmarried man and woman to “lewdly and lasciviously associate and cohabit together.” It wasn’t something most people saw enforced, but it was still technically valid, which meant by 2016 Florida, Michigan, and Mississippi were the last holdouts with these kind of cohabitation laws.

Then Rick Scott signed a repeal on April 6, 2016, and the statute that replaced it still left plenty of room for Florida to get messy about what counts as “open and gross lewdness.”

A Law Florida Finally Got Around to Repealing

Florida Statute §798.02 made it a second-degree misdemeanor for any unmarried man and woman to "lewdly and lasciviously associate and cohabit together." The law dated to 1868 - three years after the Civil War ended. For nearly 150 years, it sat on the books, rarely enforced but technically valid.

By 2016, Florida, Michigan, and Mississippi were the only three states in the country that still had cohabitation laws on the books. Florida's had a potential penalty of a $500 fine and 60 days in county jail. Hundreds of thousands of unmarried couples in the state were technically committing a crime every night they shared a home.

Governor Rick Scott signed the repeal on April 6, 2016. The vote in the Florida House was unanimous. The Florida Senate passed it with only five Republican "no" votes.

The statute that replaced it simply reads: "If any man or woman, married or unmarried, engages in open and gross lewdness and lascivious behavior, they shall be guilty of a misdemeanor of the second degree." The cohabitation provision was gone.

The old cohabitation law sat there for nearly 150 years, quietly turning ordinary nights in the same house into a technical misdemeanor in Florida.</p>

Florida Laws With Actual Statute Numbers

Releasing balloons outdoors is illegal. Florida Statute §379.233, originally passed in 1990, was significantly tightened by a 2024 amendment that removed the old 10-balloon threshold and the biodegradable balloon exemption. The current law makes any outdoor release of gas-filled balloons a noncriminal littering infraction. The only remaining exemptions are government and scientific releases, hot air balloons that are recovered after launching, and balloons released indoors. Children six and under are exempt. Florida Fish and Wildlife actively enforces this.

Bloodless bullfighting is still a crime. Florida Statute §828.121 makes it a misdemeanor to conduct or participate in a simulated or bloodless bullfighting exhibition. The law dates to 1971 and applies even when no animal is actually harmed. The exhibition itself is the offense.

Theater doors must open outward or the owner commits a felony. Florida Statute §823.06, passed in 1891, requires all buildings erected for theatrical, operatic, or other public entertainment to have entrance shutters that open outward and can be readily operated by anyone inside trying to escape. Violating this is a third-degree felony, not a code violation. It carries potential prison time.

You can buy unlimited fireworks to scare birds from fish hatcheries. Florida Statute §791.07 restricts most consumer fireworks purchases but carves out a specific exemption: there are no limits on the amount of fireworks a person can buy if the stated purpose is scaring birds away from fish hatcheries. The exemption is real. It appears in the statute verbatim.

Pregnant pigs may not be kept in confinement crates. Florida's Constitution, Article X, Section 21, adopted by ballot initiative in 2002, prohibits any person from confining a pregnant pig in an enclosure that prevents the animal from turning around freely. Florida is one of a handful of states to address this in constitutional rather than statutory language.

Feeding wild alligators is a second-degree misdemeanor, and it's actively enforced. This is not a curiosity from another century. Florida Fish and Wildlife Conservation Commission officers regularly cite people for intentionally feeding wild alligators. The law exists because fed alligators lose their natural wariness of humans, which leads to dangerous encounters. It applies statewide.

The Myths That Won't Die

Two fake Florida laws have circulated for over 20 years without a single citation ever being produced.

Singing in public while wearing a swimsuit is not illegal in Florida. There is no Sarasota ordinance banning it. The current Sarasota code prohibits singing only when it disturbs others, with no mention of attire. Researchers have searched city and county records repeatedly and found nothing supporting the claim.

Unmarried women cannot parachute on Sundays is similarly unverifiable. No statute number has ever been cited. No county name has ever been confirmed. The claim appears on hundreds of lists and has no documented basis in Florida law at any level, state, county, or municipal.

The weird laws in the United States article covers how these myths spread and how to check whether a "law" is actually real. Florida is also one of the few states where fraudulent events have produced their own legal aftermath worth reading about, as the Fyre Festival case showed - a different kind of rules-on-paper vs. reality collapse that unfolded just offshore.

By 2016, Florida was one of only three states still stuck with cohabitation laws, until Rick Scott’s April 6 repeal finally erased the “lewdly and lasciviously associate” language.</p>

This is similar to Texas laws with statute numbers, like the ones about windshields and ambulance chasing.

A Note on the Dwarf-Tossing Statute

Florida Statute §561.665, which prohibited dwarf-tossing on licensed alcohol premises, has a complicated history worth knowing. Florida passed it in 1989. A man named Dave Flood, the very person the law was intended to protect, later testified to the Florida Legislature that the ban prevented him from earning a living as a performer.

The legislature subsequently moved to repeal it in 2011. Its current enforceability is disputed in the legal literature, and sources disagree on whether it was fully removed from the code.

Even the “bloodless bullfighting” rule keeps its grip, because Florida Statute §828.121 still makes the simulated exhibition itself a misdemeanor, whether or not anyone gets hurt.</p>

How Florida Ends Up with These Laws

Florida's combination of a large tourism industry, significant agricultural economy, environmental concerns around coastlines and wildlife, and a long history of circus and entertainment venues in cities like Sarasota creates conditions where very specific laws get written. The balloon law came from documented harm to sea turtles. The theater door law came from fires. The alligator feeding rule came from attacks.

That pattern is consistent across Southern states. Weird laws in Georgia include a mandatory gun ownership ordinance in Kennesaw and a fried chicken fork ban in Gainesville, both with verifiable ordinance numbers. Weird laws in Alabama have similar roots in specific historical conditions.

Florida's legal quirks also match its personality as a state. The same place that produced the theater door law, the fish hatchery fireworks exemption, and the pregnant pig constitutional amendment also gave the world some of the more memorable weird roadside attractions in the country. The legal code and the roadside culture are both products of the same very specific sensibility.

Florida's legal code is publicly searchable at the Florida Legislature's official website, where every statute listed here can be verified in full text.

Florida’s not just weird, it’s weird on paper, and the paper still gets enforced.

Want more real “weird law” surprises, with statutes to prove it, check out these weird laws in the United States that are actually real.