The Florida Senate approved legislation Wednesday night that will prohibit cities and counties from funding, promoting, or taking official actions relating to diversity, equity and inclusion (DEI) efforts.<\/p>\n
The final vote was 25-11 and came after a debate that began in the morning and ultimately ended at 8:36 p.m. Miami-Dade County Sen. Alexis Calatayud was the lone Republican to join all of the Democrats in opposing the measure. Independent Sen. Jason Pizzo voted with all of the other Republicans in support of it.<\/p>\n
The bill is (SB 1134<\/a>), sponsored by Clay Yarborough, a Jacksonville Republican. In introducing the legislation on the floor, Yarborough rolled off a number of instances when local governments spent taxpayer funds in a way that he said justified why he had filed the bill.<\/p>\n Among those expenditures was Broward County spending nearly $900,000 since 2020 on DEI training, part of which included a so-called \u201cGenderbread Person\u201d<\/a> to explain gender roles \u2014 or \u201cpush radical gender ideology,\u201d as Florida DOGE put it on X.<\/p>\n Another was Hillsborough County paying $572,000<\/a> for an external contract that included training for county employees about unconscious bias.<\/p>\n \u201cIf counties and cities were not taking official actions that funds and promotes these types of things \u2014 these are just a few examples, by the way \u2014 the bill would not be necessary,\u201d Yarborough said. \u201cBut we\u2019re representing the same constituents and have an obligation to uphold the standards of transparency and accountability. That\u2019s what the bill is about.\u201d<\/p>\n Locally elected officials could be removed from office for violating the bill, and local governments found in violation could face lawsuits from any county or city resident who would choose to sue.<\/p>\n Ft. Lauderdale Mayor Dean Trantalis in Tallahassee on Feb. 2, 2026. (Photo by Mitch Perry\/Florida Phoenix) \u201cThis proposed legislation is a serious threat to local governments and directly challenges the constitutional principle of home rule in Florida,\u201d said St. Petersburg Mayor Ken Welch in a remote video conference with local elected officials around the state earlier Wednesday.<\/p>\n \u201cIt is also the latest attempt by some in the Legislature to redefine and demonize the concept of diversity, equity and inclusion. This legislation is vague, and the impacts will be much broader than many will realize.\u201d<\/p>\n Fort Lauderdale Mayor Dean Trantalis said that, among the programs local governments might have to remove if the legislation is approved, are ones \u201csupporting women and minority-owned business programs, many cultural festivals and nonprofits and even support for Pride festivals.\u201d<\/p>\n AmbiguityThat vagueness is a major talking point for the bill\u2019s critics.<\/p>\n \u201cPolicy debates are absolutely appropriate, but when legislation introduces unclear standards and then attaches severe penalties to those standards, it creates instability in local governance,\u201d said Fernandina Beach Commissioner Genece Minshew. \u201cThe bills use broad terminology related to diversity, equity, and similar concepts but the boundaries of what are prohibited are not clearly defined.\u201d<\/p>\n Ambiguity was also referenced on the Senate floor by Democrats, who were unsuccessful with amendments they argued would make the legislation clearer.<\/p>\n \u201cAs written, the bill exposes officials to severe consequences for any perceived violation, even when decisions are made in good faith,\u201d said Sen. Tina Polsky, D-Boca Raton. \u201cTerms like \u2018related to diversity, equity, and inclusion\u2019 are undefined and sweeping and create significant legal risks for reasonable judgement calls.\u201d<\/p>\n As the Senate and House versions moved through committee, sponsors have continued to amend the language, realizing they did not intend certain programs or activities to be banned. That included not affecting the city of Orlando\u2019s development of a permanent memorial outside of Pulse, the former gay nightclub that was the site of a mass shooting in 2018.<\/p>\n As the Senate debated the bill into the evening, Sen. Carlos Guillermo Smith, D-Orlando, said \u201cthe bill is rotten to its core.\u201d<\/p>\n \u201cIt\u2019s so broad,\u201d he said. \u201cIt\u2019s so sweeping and consequential in nature that it\u2019s no wonder that the bill has been amended over and over and more and more exceptions have been added and more carveouts have been added, because there\u2019s simply too many unintended consequences from this proposal.\u201d<\/p>\n Not the first time the state has gone after DEI\u00a0The Florida Legislature and Gov. Ron DeSantis have been dismantling DEI programs in Florida for four years. In 2022, the Legislature passed and the governor signed legislation restricting how race and gender are taught in schools and discussed in workplace trainings. In 2023, the Legislature passed legislation banning the state\u2019s public colleges and universities<\/a> from spending money on DEI programs.<\/p>\n Passage of the bill is likely to result in an indeterminate cost savings to local governments, according to a Senate bill analysis<\/a>.<\/p>\n Mayor Trantalis has already been up to Tallahassee at least once during the legislative session to oppose another bill that would impose state regulations on pronoun use<\/a> for public-sector employees and contractors. When asked what he thought was the true intent of this anti-DEI bill, he didn\u2019t hold back.<\/p>\n \u201cIt\u2019s clear [it\u2019s] to denigrate the gay community, the African-American community, any persons of color. Women,\u201d Trantalis said. \u201cIt\u2019s quite targeted at those communities. The rhetoric over the past several years continues to show a direction that this particular administration and this Legislature has followed.\u201d<\/p>\n House Speaker Daniel Perez said Wednesday that the bill is being misinterpreted to mean that the Legislature doesn\u2019t want a local government to host a Pride festival.<\/p>\n \u201cThat is inaccurate,\u201d he told reporters. \u201cDo we want taxpayer dollars to be used to put on certain events that have to do with DEI and promote it by local governments? No, we don\u2019t want taxpayer dollars used for that. But that doesn\u2019t inhibit the ability for local governments to have a gay pride festival if that is what they choose to do.\u201d<\/p>\n The companion bill in the House (HB 1001<\/a>) is sponsored by Jacksonville Republican Rep. Dean Black. A spokesperson for the House said on Wednesday that it will be voted on in that chamber early next week.<\/p>\n Florida Phoenix<\/a> is part of States Newsroom, a nonprofit news network supported by grants and a coalition of donors as a 501c(3) public charity. Florida Phoenix maintains editorial independence. Contact Editor Michael Moline for questions: info@floridaphoenix.com<\/a>.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"The Florida Senate approved legislation Wednesday night that will prohibit cities and counties from funding, promoting, or taking…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":180710,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[6],"tags":[28,30,29],"class_list":["post-180709","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-florida","tag-florida","tag-florida-headlines","tag-florida-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/180709","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=180709"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/180709\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/180710"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=180709"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=180709"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=180709"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}