LGBTQ activists and supporters say Florida legislators have introduced “an alarming slate” of more than 20 bills targeting LGBTQ Floridians, citing two pieces of legislation they say are “fueled by a sinister belief that transgender people are not real.”
Equality Florida, the state’s largest LGBTQ advocacy group, is holding a news conference Tuesday afternoon at the State Capitol to call attention to the anti-LGBTQ legislation. They will be joined by several Democratic legislators, including state Sen. Shevrin Jones, D-Miami Gardens, who is gay.
The advocates and legislators are vehemently opposed to what they call the “Don’t Say Gay or Trans at Work” bill (HB 599/SB 1382) and the “Trans Erasure Bill” (HB 1233 & HB 1639), along with Gov. Ron DeSantis' support of anti-LGBTQ legislation.
HB 599/SB 1382 would place restrictions on government agencies in the use of personal pronouns. Sponsored by state Sen. Jonathan Martin, R-Fort Myers, the measure is the identical bill filed in the House (HB 599) by state Rep. Ryan Chamberlin, R-Belleview.
The bills say, in part, that it is “the policy of the state that a person's sex is an immutable biological trait and that it is false to ascribe to a person a pronoun that does not correspond to such person's sex.”
They would prevent state and local government agencies from requiring employees and contractors to refer to other people “using that person's preferred personal title or pronouns if such personal title or pronouns do not correspond to that person's sex” as determined at birth.
HB 1233 would eliminate the term 'gender' from government documents, including driver's licenses, and require the sex assigned at birth to be listed under sex. It is sponsored by state Rep. Dean Black, R-Jacksonville.
HB 1639 would require certain applications and licenses to indicate a person's sex, rather than gender, among other provisions. It is sponsored by Black and state Rep. Douglas Michael Bankson, R-Apopka.
In addition to Equality Florida officials and Jones, other legislators scheduled to join the press conference are state Sen. Tracie Davis, D-Jacksonville, state Rep. Anna V. Eskamani, D-Orlando, and state Rep. Michele Rayner, D-St. Petersburg.
