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Mandatory-misgendering legislation for trans workers denounced by LGBTQ+ Dems – Daily Montanan [1]

['Michael Moline', 'More From Author', '- November']

Date: 2023-11-27  

A legislative proposal to bar state and local governments and contractors or nonprofits drawing state money from recognizing employees’ preferred gender pronouns if they differ from their biological sex has drawn criticism from LGBTQ+ Democrats as “a disturbing escalation of right-wing extremism in Florida.”

The Florida LGBTQ+ Democratic Caucus issued a written statement on Friday regarding HB 599, sponsored by Ryan Chamberlin, a Republican representing part of Marion County. There’s no Senate companion bill yet. The House bill was filed for the regular legislative session that opens in January.

“This expansion of government control is about removing and discouraging transgender Floridians from participating in public service roles and censoring the missions of Florida’s nonprofits of which the DeSantis administration disagrees,” Nathan Bruemmer, president of the Florida LGBTQ+ Democratic Caucus, said in a written statement.

“This is a disturbing escalation of right-wing extremism in Florida and an aggressive acceleration by the DeSantis administration in its continued attempt to censor and erase our existence,” Bruemmer added.

Spurred by Gov. Ron DeSantis as he has been running for president as a Republican, the Legislature and the DeSantis administration have approved a number of restrictions on transgender Floridians, including access to gender-affirming care, access to bathrooms or school sports teams that correspond to their gender identities, policing room shares during school field trips — even attempting to crack down on drag performances.

In addition, DeSantis has publicly ridiculed transgender people.

The bill goes beyond barring an employer from asking employees to respect co-workers’ gender identities — it forbids employees from even asking to be recognized in that way.

“It is the policy of the 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,” the bill declares.

‘Unlawful employment practice’

The measure does allow that it doesn’t apply to people with “a genetically or biochemically verifiable disorder of sex development,” such as various intersex characteristics.

“An employee or a contractor may not provide to an employer his or her preferred personal title or pronouns if such preferred personal title or pronouns do not correspond to his or her sex,” the bill says.

“An employee or a contractor may not be asked by an employer to provide his or her preferred personal title or pronouns or be penalized or subjected to adverse personnel action for not providing his or her preferred personal title or pronouns,” it continues.

Additionally, “It is an unlawful employment practice for an employer to take adverse personnel action against an employee or a contractor because of the employee’s or contractor’s deeply held religious or biology-based beliefs, including a belief in traditional or Biblical views of sexuality and marriage, or the employee’s or contractor’s disagreement with gender ideology, whether those views are expressed by the employee or contractor at or away from the worksite.”

Aggrieved parties would be eligible to file a state administrative complaint or lawsuit to attempt to recover “affirmative relief,” including backpay, damages (including as much as $100,000 in punitive damages) and attorney fees.

This story was originally produced by the Florida Phoenix which is part of States Newsroom, a network of news bureaus, including the Daily Montanan, supported by grants and a coalition of donors as a 501c(3) public charity.

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