by Mitch Perry, Florida Phoenix
March 25, 2025

A hotly contested proposal that would prohibit the use of preferred pronouns in state and local government workplaces, and limit gender identity training for state and local government employees, won approval in its first committee stop on Tuesday.

Labeled the “Freedom of Conscience in the Workplace Act” (SB 440), the measure, sponsored by Ocala Republican Stan McClain, says that an employee in a public workplace may not be required to refer to another person using that person’s preferred pronouns if such pronouns don’t correspond to that person’s sex at birth.

It says that a public employee or contractor similarly cannot require his or her employer to use their preferred pronouns under the same circumstances. Additionally, job applications in public workplaces may only ask an applicant whether they are male or female and may not provide a nonbinary option.

No government employer could punish an applicant, employee, or contractor because of their “religious, moral, conscience-based, or biology based” beliefs, including if they oppose same-sex marriage or disagree with “gender ideology,” whether at or away from the worksite.

The measure would not affect the private sector.

Dozens of speakers signed up to denounce the proposal, which compelled committee chair Sen. Randy Fine to limit public comments to just 30 seconds.

“We need to oppose the bill to avoid the continued suppression of our speech viewpoint and self-determination here in Florida,” said Monica Davis, with the group Florida Rising. “The bill would promote workplace discrimination by supporting the outdated ideas that the use of transgender person-affirming pronouns are disconnected from reality.”

“Speaking as someone who doesn’t support the Venezuelan government, nor the Cuban government, it’s really appalling to see that the Cuban government and the Venezuelan government show more respect for gender identity than here in the Florida Legislature,” said Vanessa Garcia, who said she was born in Venezuela. “And these are countries that are oppressive and restrictive so this is not the land of the free.”

Claudia Thomas, elected late last year as the Central Florida city of Sanford’s first openly LGBTQ member of the City Commission, said she would “love” to get back to her city’s problems with water, housing, and other matters instead of “wasting her time talking about pronouns.”

“Your bill is misnamed: It should be the ‘Freedom from Conscience’ Act,” she declared.

The measure would also make it  illegal for any local government to require any training, instruction, or other activity on sexual orientation.

‘Terrorist rag’

The audience reacted derisively after Sen. Fine cracked, “Enjoy your terrorist rag,” after a speaker wearing a keffiyeh over his shoulder left the dais. As members of the audience jeered him, Fine was defiant, saying, “I’m the chairman, I can say what i want. If you don’t like it, you can leave.”

As the audience continued to make noise, Fine — who said earlier on Tuesday that this would be his last day in the Legislature as he seeks a congressional seat next week — warned that he would clear the room if he heard “one more outburst.”

“I don’t have to have any of you sit here. One more. One more. I’ll clear the room. We’ll debate, and we’ll vote.”

The meeting resumed without any more outbursts.

‘Hostile work environment’

The only legislator to speak about the bill was Orange County Democrat Kristen Arrington, who said she didn’t understand the need for the legislation.

“The bill really does promote government employers and contractors to harass transgender individuals by allowing them to intentionally misgender them by using disrespectful pronouns and having no consequences,” she said. “And this is a license to discriminate, free from accountability. It seems that’s an attempt to create a hostile work environment for LGBTQ people, particularly transgender Floridians.”

The bill defines gender identity as “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.”

“We’re not going to allow state employees to be coerced by their employers or subcontractors going forward,” declared Sen. McClain in making his closing pitch to the Senate Committee on Government Oversight and Accountability, which ultimately passed it on a party-line vote. It has two more committee stops before making the floor.

A companion bill filed in the House (HB 1495) by Seminole Republican Rachel Plakon has yet to be heard in committee.

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