State and local elected officials have expressed concerns about bills making their way through the Florida Legislature that would prohibit city and county governments from “funding or promoting or taking official action as it relates to diversity, equity, and inclusion.”
Under the proposal (HB 1001/SB 1134), DEI is defined as an attempt to promote or adopt “training, programming, or activities designed or implemented with reference to race, color, sex, ethnicity, gender identity, or sexual orientation.” It does not prohibit action by a county or city that’s required for compliance with state or federal law or regulations.
Orlando City Commissioner Patty Sheehan said during Monday’s City Council meeting that she wants to see the city fight the proposal “tooth and nail,” arguing that DEI is being used as a “ridiculous buzzword for conservatism and hurting people.”
Commissioner Tom Keen, meanwhile — a former Democratic state representative elected to City Council last year — said he’s working with local state legislators to ensure the bill won’t affect the city’s development of a permanent memorial outside Pulse, the former gay nightclub. “Our office is trying to make some corrections to it,” Keen said of the proposed legislation.
The club located just south of downtown Orlando was the site of a mass shooting on June 12, 2016, that killed 49 people, many of whom were LGBTQ+ people of color.
According to a Senate staff analysis, the legislation targeting DEI includes a carve-out for monuments and memorials that are intended to honor or recognize individuals or groups. But State Rep. Anna Eskamani, D-Orlando, said that it’s still unclear whether all city or county actions on the Pulse memorial site would be in the clear if this legislation passes as written.
“There are still questions regarding the daily operations of a Pulse Memorial and the hosting of community events at the memorial,” Eskamani told Orlando Weekly in an email. “As we work to oppose and stop this bill, measures are also being taken to mitigate its harm.”
Overly broad
Critics have said the proposal could affect local governments’ ability to fund or sponsor Pride parades, or recognize civil rights leaders during Black History Month, and potentially could have broader implications for other cultural events. It would also bar municipalities from establishing a DEI office, appointing a DEI officer, or hiring or giving preferential treatment to employees based on their race, color, sex, ethnicity, gender identity or sexual orientation.
The Miami Beach city commission, for its part, wrote a letter to state leaders this month urging them to kill the bill, according to Florida Politics. In their letter, they questioned whether the proposal could affect the city’s ability to support cultural events focused on a specific racial or ethnic group, such the Miami Jewish Film Festival. They described the proposal’s definition of DEI as “overly broad.”
The letter also raised questions about whether the bill would prevent the city from pursuing targeted initiatives such as funding free mammograms for women, funding gender-specific homeless service programs, or translating emergency alerts from the city into Spanish or Kréyol.
Violations of the bill, if it becomes law, include potential penalties for local elected officials that could include malfeasance or misfeasance charges, or even removal from office. It would also allow individuals to sue local governments over alleged violations.
“It’s just ridiculous,” said Sheehan. “I wish they [state lawmakers] would concentrate on things that really impact Floridians,” she added. “I’m paying a lot more for my property insurance than I ever have in my life, and it’s really impacting me. And I wish they would concentrate on real issues, rather than culture wars that just harm everyone.”
“I wish they would concentrate on real issues, rather than culture wars that just harm everyone.”
The city government has committed $7.5 million to the development of a permanent memorial at the former Pulse nightclub site and has accepted responsibility for covering the cost of daily operations after that. The Orange County government has also agreed to pitch in $5 million for its development, while the state government approved nearly $400,000 in state grant money for the memorial last July.
A permanent memorial at the Pulse site has been years in the making and remains a sensitive issue for many in the Orlando community, in no small part because of all the money and time that was previously committed to it by the nonprofit OnePulse Foundation.
The nonprofit, founded by former club owner Barbara Poma, failed to ever break ground on its ambitious plans for a permanent memorial and ultimately dissolved in disgrace at the end of 2023. The city of Orlando committed to building the memorial instead shortly ahead of the nonprofit’s dissolution.
In a statement to Orlando Weekly, city spokesperson Ashley Papagni confirmed the city is “monitoring” the anti-DEI legislation making waves up in Tallahassee, adding that they “have worked and will continue to work with legislative leaders to ensure that the National Pulse Memorial is not unintentionally impacted by the bill.”
“The city is appreciative of this Legislature’s funding support for the memorial and we look forward to continuing work with our local, state and federal partners to build a place of reflection for the families of the 49 lives taken at Pulse and the survivors,” she said.
On its way
The legislation, sponsored by two Jacksonville-area Republicans, meanwhile is getting closer to passage. The House bill, sponsored by Rep. Dean Black, has cleared two of its three committee stops in the Florida House, while the Senate version, sponsored by Sen. Clay Yarborough, has cleared all three of its committee stops in the Senate, setting it up for a full vote by the full chamber.
“In no way are we trying to remove the age-old concepts and terms and understanding of diversity, equity and inclusion,” Yarborough said during a hearing on his bill last week, according to the Tampa Bay Times and Miami Herald. “It’s this DEI effort,” he said, claiming that DEI has been used to “cloak expenditures and practices” that shouldn’t be funded by taxpayers.
A similar proposal targeting government-funded DEI failed to pass the House and Senate last year, theTimes and Herald reported. However, this year it’s gotten its own special shout-out from outgoing Republican Gov. Ron DeSantis, who’s term-limited from running for re-election this year.
DeSantis, a former 2024 presidential candidate, claimed on social media last month that Florida “has led the nation on DEI elimination,” throwing his support behind the new proposal. “Now, Sen. Yarborough and Rep. Black have filed a bill to eliminate DEI in local government,” he wrote on X. “Lets go!”
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