Mirroring a House bill filed in November, a Senate Republican on Thursday proposed a measure that would place restrictions on government agencies in the use of personal pronouns.
Sen. Jonathan Martin, R-Fort Myers, filed the proposal (SB 1382) for consideration during the 2024 legislative session, which will start Tuesday. Rep. Ryan Chamberlin, R-Belleview, filed the identical House bill (HB 599). The bills could add to long-running battles in the Legislature about issues related to gender identity.
The bills say, in part, that 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.” They would prevent state and local government agencies from requiring employees and contractors to refer to other people “using that person’s preferred personal title or pronouns if such personal title or pronouns do not correspond to that person’s sex” as determined at birth.
Also, they would prevent employees of government agencies and contractors from providing to their employers preferred pronouns that “do not correspond to his or her sex” and would prevent employers from asking workers to provide personal pronouns.
–News Service of Florida
