{"id":178786,"date":"2026-03-05T03:54:10","date_gmt":"2026-03-05T03:54:10","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/178786\/"},"modified":"2026-03-05T03:54:10","modified_gmt":"2026-03-05T03:54:10","slug":"florida-bills-targeting-dei-in-local-government-draw-sharp-debate-2","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/178786\/","title":{"rendered":"Florida bills targeting DEI in local government draw sharp debate"},"content":{"rendered":"

Florida leaders, including St. Petersburg Mayor Ken Welch<\/a>, hosted a virtual conversation today to discuss what they described as \u201canti-diversity\u201d bills affecting local government as the measures reached the Senate floor.<\/p>\n

The proposed legislations \u2014 Senate Bill 1134<\/a> and House Bill 1001<\/a> \u2014 would prohibit cities and counties from funding, promoting or taking official actions relating to diversity, equity and inclusion initiatives, potentially exposing local officials to penalties.<\/p>\n

Critics say the measures could significantly alter or eliminate local programs and events, including St. Patrick\u2019s Day celebrations and Pride festivals.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe option of the governor to remove us from office if we walk down the street in one of these parades; It’s almost getting to the point of absurdity, the extent to which these representatives in Tallahassee are taking their culture agenda,\u201d said Fort Lauderdale Mayor Zachary Eakins-Durand.<\/p>\n

Welch said the most recent version of the bill he reviewed would not take effect immediately.<\/p>\n

\u201cI think the implementation date is January 27th, the last version I saw. January of 2027. So it wouldn’t affect this year’s Pride but it is so far ranging that it just depends how risk averse a city or county wants to be,\u201d Welch said.<\/p>\n

Governor Ron DeSantis <\/a>has been an avid supporter of rolling back DEI initiatives<\/a>. Posting on social media in January, he wrote in part, \u201cFlorida has led the nation on DEI elimination.”<\/p>\n

Republican gubernatorial candidate James Fishback has echoed that stance as the Nov. 3 election approaches.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe problem with DEI is that it pre-supposes that certain races are not qualified and therefore need a special cheat code to get into jobs,\u201d Fishback told 10 Tampa Bay News.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt’s not necessarily anti-DEI. It’s pro-equality. I think everyone in Florida, Democrat or Republican, Christian, Muslim or Jew recognizes that you hire the best person based on what they bring to the table, not on the color of their skin. Not on their gender,\u201d he added.<\/p>\n

The legislative session is scheduled to end March 13. If one of the bills passes both chambers, DeSantis is likely to sign it into law.<\/p>\n

House Bill 1001 mirrors the Senate measure and is expected to go before the full body tomorrow.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Florida leaders, including St. Petersburg Mayor Ken Welch, hosted a virtual conversation today to discuss what they described…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":89981,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[6],"tags":[4232,28,30,29,2346,16665,412],"class_list":["post-178786","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-florida","tag-bills","tag-florida","tag-florida-headlines","tag-florida-news","tag-ken-welch","tag-local-government","tag-ron-desantis"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/178786","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=178786"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/178786\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/89981"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=178786"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=178786"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=178786"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}