Carlos Guillermo Smith speaks to the press about HB 599 at the LGBT+ Center Orlando. (Photo by Jeremy Williams)
ORLANDO | Local LGBTQ+ community leaders and activists held a press conference at the LGBT+ Center Orlando on Dec. 11 to express their rejection of the recent anti-LGBTQ+ bill introduced for the 2024 legislative session.
House Bill 599, also called the “Gender Identity Employment Practices” bill, introduced by freshman state Rep. Ryan Chamberlin (R-Belleview), proposes sweeping changes to Florida employment statutes and threatens to undermine rights and dignity of the LGBTQ+ community in both the public and private sectors.
The legislation establishes that it is “state policy that a person’s sex is an immutable biological trait and that it is false to attribute to a person a pronoun that does not correspond to their sex.” If passed, the new law would prohibit government employees or contractors from using a person’s pronouns that “do not correspond to their sex.” It would also prohibit employers from asking workers to state their own pronouns and prohibit them from sharing their pronouns if they differ from their assigned sex. Additionally, Chamberlin’s bill would restrict tax-exempt nonprofit organizations and state-funded employers from providing training or instruction on sexual orientation, gender identity, or gender expression.
Daniel Sohn, president and CEO of The Pride Chamber, the LGBTQ+ business association of Central Florida, was one of several speakers who rebuffed the bill at the press conference, stating that HB 599 “takes alarming measures to enforce” the notions it proposes and that the proposed law “silences trans employees by banning them.”
In turn, Denise Merritt, president of the board of directors of The Pride Chamber of Central Florida, stated that she was “puzzled” by the support that the regulations have received from the Republican Party since “republicans usually champion less government and business. Yet here we are facing an intrusion into how employers address their employees and how employees may want to be addressed.”
But this regulation may not only have social implications, but also economic repercussions. According to state Rep. Rita Harris, who represents Florida’s 44th District, “Wells Fargo, recently conducted a study that showed that states that have a larger LGBTQ+ community often have higher rates of economic growth,” and referred to this proposed law as “an insult to our constitution.”
One of the speakers at the conference, former member of the Florida House of Representatives’ 49th district, Carlos Guillermo Smith summarized the impact of the bill when speaking exclusively to Watermark En Español:
“This is another attack on the LGBTQ community, as the proposal expands ‘don’t say gay’ to public and private workplaces. What it shows is that the ‘don’t say gay’ law was never intended to protect children, but rather to promote homophobia and transphobia. The bill also attempts to censor the work of organizations, non-governmental organizations, and other entities that specifically serve the LGBT community … This is not just a bill about pronouns, this is an attack on non-profit organizations that serve in LGBTQ communities.”
Guillermo Smith, who called the new legislation the “Don’t Say Gay or Trans at work bill,” says bills like these are being created because “right wing lawmakers who can’t solve real problems, instead engage in these culture war attacks against our communities because they have nothing else.”
Currently a companion bill has not been filed in the state Senate. Florida’s 2024 legislative session begins Jan. 9.
LGBTQ+ leaders in Central Florida will be joining The Pride Chamber and Equality Florida in Tallahassee for Pride At The Capitol on Jan. 16-17, a campaign to “show up, make our voices heard, and hold lawmakers accountable for their actions.” For more information on attending, go to EQFL.org/PATC.
You can read this story in Spanish here.
