Title: Gender Identity Employment Practices

Summary: Citing this act as the "Freedom of Conscience in the Workplace Act"; specifying an employment policy of this state relating to a person's sex; prohibiting employees and contractors of certain employers from being required to use certain pronouns or requiring such employer to use a pronoun that does not correspond to the employee's or contractor's sex; providing that it is an unlawful employment practice for the state or any county, municipality, special district, or other political subdivision to require certain training, instruction, or activity as a condition of employment, etc.

Full Text:
An act relating to gender identity employment practices; providing a short title; creating s. 110.1051, F.S.; defining terms; specifying an employment policy of this state relating to a person s sex; providing applicability; prohibiting employees and contractors of certain employers from being required to use certain pronouns or requiring such employer to use a pronoun that does not correspond to the employee s or contractor s sex; prohibiting specified options relating to an applicant s sex from being included on certain employment forms; authorizing the Department of Management Services to adopt rules; amending s. 760.10, F.S.; providing that it is an unlawful employment practice for the state or any county, municipality, special district, or other political subdivision to require certain training, instruction, or activity as a condition of employment; reenacting s. 760.11(1) and (15), F.S., relating to administrative and civil remedies, to incorporate the amendment made to s. 760.10, F.S., in references thereto; providing an effective date. Be It Enacted by the Legislature of the State of Florida: Section 1.  This act may be cited as the  Freedom of Conscience in the Workplace Act.  Section 2. Section 110.1051, Florida Statutes, is created to read: 110.1051   Personal pronouns.  (1)   As used in this section, the term: (a)    Adverse personnel action  means the discharge, suspension, transfer, demotion, or lack of promotion of an employee or a contractor or the withholding of bonuses, the withholding of promotional opportunities, the reduction in salary or benefits, or any other adverse action taken against an employee or a contractor within the terms and conditions of employment by an employer. (b)    Contractor  means an individual, a partnership, a corporation, or a business entity that enters or attempts to enter into a contract for services with an employer. (c)    Employee  means an individual employed by, or attempting to be employed by, an employer. (d)    Employer  means the state or any county, municipality, or special district or any subdivision or agency thereof. (e)    Gender identity  means a fully internal and subjective sense of self, disconnected from biological reality and sex, and existing on an infinite continuum that does not provide a meaningful basis for identification and cannot be recognized as a replacement for sex. (f)    Gender ideology  means the false belief that replaces the biological category of sex with an ever-shifting concept of self-assessed gender identity, permitting the false claim that males can identify as and become women and vice versa, and requiring all institutions of society to regard this false claim as true. The term includes the idea that there is a vast spectrum of genders that are disconnected from a person s sex. The term is internally inconsistent in that it diminishes sex as an identifiable or useful category but nevertheless maintains that it is possible for a person to be born in the wrong sexed body. (g)    Sex  means the classification of a person as either female or male based on the organization of the body of such person for a specific reproductive role, as indicated by the person s sex chromosomes, naturally occurring sex hormones, and internal and external genitalia present at birth. (2)   It is the policy of this 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. This section does not apply to individuals born with a genetically or biochemically verifiable disorder of sex development, including, but not limited to, 46,XX disorder of sex development; 46,XY disorder of sex development; sex chromosome disorder of sex development; XX or XY sex reversal; and ovotesticular disorder. (3)   An employee or a contractor may not be required, as a condition of employment or to avoid adverse personnel action, to refer to another person using that person s preferred pronouns if such pronouns do not correspond to that person s sex. (4)   An employee or a contractor may not require an employer to use his or her preferred pronouns if such preferred pronouns do not correspond to the employee s or contractor s sex. (5)   A job application or other related employment form that requires an applicant to mark his or her sex may only inquire if the applicant is male or female and may not provide a nonbinary or other option. (6)   The Department of Management Services may adopt rules to administer this section. Section 3. Present subsections (10) and (11) of section 760.10, Florida Statutes, are redesignated as subsections (11) and (12), respectively, and a new subsection (10) is added to that section, to read: 760.10 Unlawful employment practices.  (10)   It is an unlawful employment practice for the state or any county, municipality, special district, or other political subdivision to require, as a condition of employment, any training, instruction, or other activity on gender identity or gender expression. Section 4. For the purpose of incorporating the amendment made by this act to section 760.10, Florida Statutes, in references thereto, subsections (1) and (15) of section 760.11, Florida Statutes, are reenacted to read: 760.11 Administrative and civil remedies; construction.  (1) Any person aggrieved by a violation of ss. 760.01 760.10 may file a complaint with the commission within days of the alleged violation, naming the employer, employment agency, labor organization, or joint labor-management committee, or, in the case of an alleged violation of s. 760.10(5), the person responsible for the violation and describing the violation. Any person aggrieved by a violation of s. 509.092 may file a complaint with the commission within days of the alleged violation naming the person responsible for the violation and describing the violation. The commission, a commissioner, or the Attorney General may in like manner file such a complaint. On the same day the complaint is filed with the commission, the commission shall clearly stamp on the face of the complaint the date the complaint was filed with the commission. In lieu of filing the complaint with the commission, a complaint under this section may be filed with the federal Equal Employment Opportunity Commission or with any unit of government of the state which is a fair-employment-practice agency under C.F.R. ss. 1601.70-1601.80. If the date the complaint is filed is clearly stamped on the face of the complaint, that date is the date of filing. The date the complaint is filed with the commission for purposes of this section is the earliest date of filing with the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission, the fair-employment-practice agency, or the commission. The complaint shall contain a short and plain statement of the facts describing the violation and the relief sought. The commission may require additional information to be in the complaint. The commission, within days of the complaint being filed, shall by registered mail send a copy of the complaint to the person who allegedly committed the violation. The person who allegedly committed the violation may file an answer to the complaint within days of the date the complaint was filed with the commission. Any answer filed shall be mailed to the aggrieved person by the person filing the answer. Both the complaint and the answer shall be verified. (15) In any civil action or administrative proceeding brought pursuant to this section, a finding that a person employed by the state or any governmental entity or agency has violated s. 760.10 shall as a matter of law constitute just or substantial cause for such person s discharge. Section 5. This act shall take effect July 1, 2025.