'Blatant violation': Advocates warn new Florida bill would 'eradicate LGBTQ people from public life'

A Florida Republican lawmaker has introduced a bill that would expand the state's controversial "Don't Say Gay" law to workplaces, and LGBTQ advocates are sounding the alarm.

Rolling Stone reported Tuesday that Rep. Ryan Chamberlin introduced House Bill 599 for the upcoming 2024 legislative session, which would prohibit state agencies from recognizing employees' preferred pronouns if they differ with that person's biological sex, and would prevent tax-exempt nonprofit organizations from providing diversity/sensitivity training relating to gender identity and sexual orientation. It would also prevent state employees from being penalized for misgendering or deadnaming their coworkers on the "basis of deeply held religious or biology-based beliefs."

However, advocates warn that Chamberlin's bill would, if enacted, put excessive restraints on medical clinics, nonprofits, and advocacy organizations that work with the LGBTQ+ community, like Equality Florida. Civil rights attorney Alejandra Caraballo tweeted that the bill was a "blatant violation of the first amendment."

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"Just like the original 'Don't Say Gay' [legislators] make vague terms with large penalties to chill speech," Caraballo tweeted. "The intent is clear though, to eradicate LGBTQ people from public life."

Like the original "Don't Say Gay" law, HB 599 equates biological sex with gender identity, which psychologist Carolyn M. Mazure wrote is "no longer true in science." In a 2021 article published by the Yale School of Medicine, Mazure wrote that "[W]hile most people are born biologically female or male, rare biological syndromes can result in genital ambiguity. Or a resistance to a sex hormone can result in traits typical of the opposite biological sex."

"Moreover, while an individual’s internal sense of gender can be female or male, some people identify as nonbinary — neither female nor male," Mazure wrote. "Other individuals can identify as a gender that is the same as (cisgender) or different from (transgender) the one assigned at birth."

Rolling Stone noted that Chamberlin represents the same Florida House district as former Republican State Representative Joe Harding, who authored the original "Don't Say Gay" bill, which prevented discussion of gender identity and sexual orientation in elementary schools (further interpretations of the law have effectively expanded it to include all grades up to 12).

Harding was eventually indicted on federal charges of wire fraud, money laundering, and making false statements relating to Covid-19 business relief funds. The former state congressman eventually pleaded guilty and was sentenced to four months in federal prison.

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