They're long-shot proposals, and therefore likely won't even make it to a vote, but Democrats say now is not the time to stay silent and Floridians must "fight back."
Democratic lawmakers have filed four sweeping bills in the Florida House and Senate that aim to undo "harms" imposed through "anti-woke" and "culture-war" legislation, and to restore the rights of LGBTQ individuals and their families that those policies have undermined.
Identical bills filed by Democratic Rep. Anna Eskamani (HB 1283) and Sen. Shevrin Jones (SB 1404) would repeal several policies. The legislation, titled the “Health Care Freedom Act,” would repeal a state policy that prohibits the use of state funds to cover gender-affirming treatments for transgender people. The proposal would also repeal a policy enacted last year that requires Medicaid-accepting hospitals to ask patients about their immigration status, and aims to eliminate state policies that restrict access to abortion, which is currently legal up to 15 weeks of pregnancy.
Legislation filed by Democratic Sen. Tracie Davis (SB 1414) and Rep. Michelle Rayner (HB 1355) titled the “Freedom to Learn Act,” would effectively repeal Florida’s so-called “Don’t Say Gay” law (restricting discussion of gender identity and sexual orientation in school classrooms) and repeal the Stop WOKE Act championed by Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis. That legislation, signed into law in 2022, prohibited public schools, colleges, and universities from providing instruction that teaches that individuals are “inherently racist, sexist, or oppressive” or that people are privileged or oppressed based on their race, color or national origin. The same prohibition under Stop WOKE was also extended to workplace trainings.
“For years now, our state has been held hostage by the political ambitions of this governor and held hostage by the rubber-stamp legislature he got bullied into submission,” said Joe Saunders, senior political director for Equality Florida and candidate for state House District 106, during a press conference Tuesday. “It’s time in January for this legislature to divorce DeSantis.”
Sen. Shevrin Jones, Florida’s first openly gay state senator, said that laws passed by GOP lawmakers in recent years have infringed on the same parental rights that Republicans claim to champion (when it fits their agenda).
Jones said his legislation “moves to restore the personal and parental rights of Floridians.”
“And I mean true parental rights,” he added.
For example, the right of parents to choose to consent to evidence-based, gender-affirming treatment for their child. The right to have an abortion in Florida, and for doctors to provide abortion care.
“We need to do what we can to fight back,” said Rep. Eskamani. “We need to do what we can to help win the hearts and minds of other Floridians who are caught in this who don’t have enough information to understand what it means to be trans, and how a parent with a trans kid is just like any other parent — they want their kid to be healthy, happy and strong.”
The 2024 state legislative session officially kicked off last week and runs through March 8. While Democrats have their own legislative wish list that includes meaningfully tackling issues like high property insurance premiums and affordable housing in addition to these repeal proposals, Republicans have also filed legislation that could makes the lives of transgender people and others on the LGBTQ+ spectrum harder.
A bill (HB 1233) filed by Republican Rep. Dean Black (D-Jacksonville), for instance, would prevent transgender people from changing the gender listed on their driver’s licenses to match the gender they identify with. It would require that the gender listed on a person’s driver’s license align with the sex assigned to them at birth.
Individuals applying for a state license would also have to sign a sworn affidavit confirming the sex listed on their application matches the sex listed on their birth certificate. The same bill would also require health insurance policies to cover conversion therapy for trans people.
Another proposal, filed by Rep. Ryan Chamberlain, would prevent the state and local governments from requiring employees to use preferred pronouns for transgender and nonbinary coworkers. This would also apply to nonprofits and government contractors that receive money from the state.
Trans journalists and activists have created a spreadsheet that tracks bills proposed in Florida and across the country that either directly affect or otherwise hold implications for LGBTQ+ people. Over a dozen are listed for Florida.
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