H 641

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1A bill to be entitled
2An act relating to gender identity employment
3practices; providing a short title; creating s.
4112.0456, F.S.; providing definitions; specifying an
5employment policy of this state relating to a person's
6sex; providing applicability; prohibiting employees
7and contractors of certain employers from being
8required to use certain pronouns or requiring such
9employers to use a pronoun that does not correspond to
10the employee's or contractor's sex; prohibiting
11certain forms from offering specified options relating
12to an applicant's sex; prohibiting adverse personnel
13action on the basis of gender ideology; providing
14administrative and civil remedies; providing
15reasonable attorney fees and costs; authorizing the
16Department of Management Services to adopt rules;
17amending s. 760.10, F.S.; providing it is an unlawful
18employment practice for certain employers to require
19certain training, instruction, or activity as a
20condition of employment; reenacting s. 760.11(1) and
21(15), F.S., relating to administrative and civil
22remedies, to incorporate the amendment made to s.
23760.10, F.S., in references thereto; providing an
24effective date.
25
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26    Be It Enacted by the Legislature of the State of Florida:
27
28Section 1.  This act may be cited as the "Freedom of
29    Conscience in the Workplace Act."
30Section 2.  Section 112.0456, Florida Statutes, is created
31    to read:
32112.0456  Personal pronouns.—
33(1)     As used in this section, the term:
34(a)     "Adverse personnel action" means the discharge,
35    suspension, transfer, demotion, or lack of promotion of an
36    employee or a contractor; the withholding of bonuses; the
37    withholding of promotional opportunities; the reduction in
38    salary or benefits; or any other adverse action taken against an
39    employee or a contractor within the terms and conditions of
40    employment by an employer.
41(b)     "Contractor" means an individual, partnership,
42    corporation, or business entity that enters or attempts to enter
43    into a contract for services with an employer.
44(c)     "Employee" means an individual employed by, or
45    attempting to be employed by, an employer.
46(d)     "Employer" means the state or any county,
47    municipality, or special district or any subdivision or agency
48    thereof.
49(e)     "Gender identity" means a fully internal and
50    subjective sense of self, disconnected from biological reality
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51    and sex, and existing on an infinite continuum that does not
52    provide a meaningful basis for identification and cannot be
53    recognized as a replacement for sex.
54(f)     "Gender ideology" means the false belief that replaces
55    the biological category of sex with an ever-shifting concept of
56    self-assessed gender identity, permitting the false claim that
57    males can identify as and become women and vice versa, and
58    requiring all institutions of society to regard this false claim
59    as true. The term includes the idea that there is a vast
60    spectrum of genders that are disconnected from a person's sex.
61    Gender ideology is internally inconsistent in that it diminishes
62    sex as an identifiable or useful category but nevertheless
63    maintains that it is possible for a person to be born in the
64    wrong sexed body.
65(g)     "Sex" means the classification of a person as either
66    female or male based on the organization of the body of such
67    person for a specific reproductive role, as indicated by the
68    person's sex chromosomes, naturally occurring sex hormones, and
69    internal and external genitalia present at birth.
70(2)     It is the policy of this state that a person's sex is
71    an immutable biological trait and that it is false to ascribe to
72    a person a pronoun that does not correspond to such person's
73    sex. This section does not apply to individuals born with a
74    genetically or biochemically verifiable disorder of sex
75    development, including, but not limited to, 46,XX disorder of
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76     sex development; 46,XY disorder of sex development; sex
77     chromosome disorder of sex development; XX or XY sex reversal;
78     and ovotesticular disorder.
79(3)     An employee or a contractor may not be required, as a
80     condition of employment or to avoid adverse personnel action, to
81     refer to another person using that person's preferred pronouns
82     if such pronouns do not correspond to that person's sex.
83(4)     An employee or a contractor may not require an
84     employer to use his or her preferred pronouns if such preferred
85     pronouns do not correspond to the employee's or contractor's
86     sex.
87(5)     A job application or other related employment form
88     that requires an applicant to mark his or her sex may inquire if
89     the applicant is male or female only and may not provide a
90     nonbinary or other option.
91(6)(a)       It is an unlawful employment practice for an
92     employer to take adverse personnel action against an employee or
93     a contractor because of the employee's or contractor's deeply
94     held religious, moral, conscience-based, or biology-based
95     beliefs regarding gender ideology, whether those views are
96     expressed by the employee or contractor at or away from the
97     worksite.
98(b)     An employee or a contractor aggrieved by a violation
99     of this subsection may avail himself or herself to the
100    administrative and civil remedies provided in s. 760.11. The
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101    court shall award reasonable attorney fees and costs to the
102    prevailing party.
103(7)     The Department of Management Services may adopt rules
104    to administer this section.
105Section 3.  Subsections (10) and (11) of section 760.10,
106    Florida Statutes, are renumbered as subsections (11) and (12),
107    respectively, and a new subsection (10) is added to that
108    section, to read:
109760.10       Unlawful employment practices.—
110(10)        It is an unlawful employment practice for an employer
111    who receives funding from the state to require, as a condition
112    of employment, any training, instruction, or other activity on
113    sexual orientation, gender identity, or gender expression.
114Section 4.  For the purpose of incorporating the amendment
115    made by this act to section 760.10, Florida Statutes, in a
116    reference thereto, subsections (1) and (15) of section 760.11,
117    Florida Statutes, are reenacted to read:
118760.11       Administrative and civil remedies; construction.—
119(1)     Any person aggrieved by a violation of ss. 760.01-
120    760.10 may file a complaint with the commission within 365 days
121    of the alleged violation, naming the employer, employment
122    agency, labor organization, or joint labor-management committee,
123    or, in the case of an alleged violation of s. 760.10(5), the
124    person responsible for the violation and describing the
125    violation. Any person aggrieved by a violation of s. 509.092 may
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126    file a complaint with the commission within 365 days of the
127    alleged violation naming the person responsible for the
128    violation and describing the violation. The commission, a
129    commissioner, or the Attorney General may in like manner file
130    such a complaint. On the same day the complaint is filed with
131    the commission, the commission shall clearly stamp on the face
132    of the complaint the date the complaint was filed with the
133    commission. In lieu of filing the complaint with the commission,
134    a complaint under this section may be filed with the federal
135    Equal Employment Opportunity Commission or with any unit of
136    government of the state which is a fair-employment-practice
137    agency under 29 C.F.R. ss. 1601.70-1601.80. If the date the
138    complaint is filed is clearly stamped on the face of the
139    complaint, that date is the date of filing. The date the
140    complaint is filed with the commission for purposes of this
141    section is the earliest date of filing with the Equal Employment
142    Opportunity Commission, the fair-employment-practice agency, or
143    the commission. The complaint shall contain a short and plain
144    statement of the facts describing the violation and the relief
145    sought. The commission may require additional information to be
146    in the complaint. The commission, within 5 days of the complaint
147    being filed, shall by registered mail send a copy of the
148    complaint to the person who allegedly committed the violation.
149    The person who allegedly committed the violation may file an
150    answer to the complaint within 25 days of the date the complaint
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151    was filed with the commission. Any answer filed shall be mailed
152    to the aggrieved person by the person filing the answer. Both
153    the complaint and the answer shall be verified.
154(15)        In any civil action or administrative proceeding
155    brought pursuant to this section, a finding that a person
156    employed by the state or any governmental entity or agency has
157    violated s. 760.10 shall as a matter of law constitute just or
158    substantial cause for such person's discharge.
159Section 5.  This act shall take effect July 1, 2026.
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