S 1642

Florida Senate - 2026  CS for SB 1642
By the Committee on Governmental Oversight and Accountability;
and Senator McClain
585-02427-26  20261642c1
1A bill to be entitled
2An act relating to gender identity employment
3practices; providing a short title; creating s.
4112.0456, F.S.; defining terms; 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 the
11inclusion on certain forms of specified options
12relating to an applicant’s sex; prohibiting adverse
13personnel action on the basis of sincerely held
14religious, moral, conscience-based, or biology-based
15beliefs against gender ideology; providing
16administrative and civil remedies; providing
17reasonable attorney fees and costs; authorizing the
18Department of Management Services to adopt rules;
19amending s. 760.10, F.S.; providing that it is an
20unlawful employment practice for certain employers to
21require certain training, instruction, or activity as
22a condition of employment; defining the term
23“employer”; reenacting s. 760.11(1) and (15), F.S.,
24relating to administrative and civil remedies, to
25incorporate the amendment made to s. 760.10, F.S., in
26references thereto; providing an effective date.
27
28Be It Enacted by the Legislature of the State of Florida:
29
30Section 1. This act may be cited as the “Freedom of
31Conscience in the Workplace Act.”
32Section 2. Section 112.0456, Florida Statutes, is created
33to read:
34112.0456Personal pronouns.—
35(1)As used in this section, the term:
36(a)“Adverse personnel action” means the discharge,
37suspension, transfer, demotion, or lack of promotion of an
38employee or a contractor or the withholding of bonuses, the
39withholding of promotional opportunities, the reduction in
40salary or benefits, or any other adverse action taken against an
41employee or a contractor within the terms and conditions of
42employment by an employer.
43(b)“Contractor” means an individual, a partnership, a
44corporation, or a business entity that enters or attempts to
45enter into a contract for services with an employer.
46(c)“Employee” means an individual employed by, or
47attempting to be employed by, an employer.
48(d)“Employer” means the state or any county, municipality,
49or special district or any subdivision or agency thereof.
50(e)“Gender identity” means a fully internal and subjective
51sense of self, disconnected from biological reality and sex, and
52existing on an infinite continuum that does not provide a
53meaningful basis for identification and cannot be recognized as
54a replacement for sex.
55(f)“Gender ideology” means the false belief that replaces
56the biological category of sex with an ever-shifting concept of
57self-assessed gender identity, permitting the false claim that
58males can identify as and become women and vice versa, and
59requiring all institutions of society to regard this false claim
60as true. The term includes the idea that there is a vast
61spectrum of genders that are disconnected from a person’s sex.
62Gender ideology is internally inconsistent in that it diminishes
63sex as an identifiable or useful category but nevertheless
64maintains that it is possible for a person to be born in the
65wrong sexed body.
66(g)“Sex” means the classification of a person as either
67female or male based on the organization of the body of such
68person for a specific reproductive role, as indicated by the
69person’s sex chromosomes, naturally occurring sex hormones, and
70internal and external genitalia present at birth.
71(2)It is the policy of this state that a person’s sex is
72an immutable biological trait and that it is false to ascribe to
73a person a pronoun that does not correspond to such person’s
74sex. This section does not apply to individuals born with a
75genetically or biochemically verifiable disorder of sex
76development, including, but not limited to, 46,XX disorder of
77sex development; 46,XY disorder of sex development; sex
78chromosome disorder of sex development; XX or XY sex reversal;
79and ovotesticular disorder.
80(3)An employee or a contractor may not be required, as a
81condition of employment or to avoid adverse personnel action, to
82refer to another person using that person’s preferred pronouns
83if such pronouns do not correspond to that person’s sex.
84(4)An employee or a contractor may not require an employer
85to use his or her preferred pronouns if such preferred pronouns
86do not correspond to the employee’s or contractor’s sex.
87(5)A job application or other related employment form that
88requires an applicant to mark his or her sex may only inquire if
89the applicant is male or female and may not provide a nonbinary
90or other option.
91(6)(a)It is an unlawful employment practice for an
92employer to take adverse personnel action against an employee or
93a contractor because of the employee’s or contractor’s sincerely
94held religious, moral, conscience-based, or biology-based
95beliefs against gender ideology, whether those views are
96expressed by the employee or contractor at or away from the
97worksite.
98(b)An employee or a contractor aggrieved by a violation of
99this subsection may avail himself or herself of the
100administrative and civil remedies provided in s. 760.11. The
101court shall award reasonable attorney fees and costs to the
102prevailing party.
103(7)The Department of Management Services may adopt rules
104to administer this section.
105Section 3. Present subsections (10) and (11) of section
106760.10, Florida Statutes, are redesignated as subsections (11)
107and (12), respectively, and a new subsection (10) is added to
108that section, to read:
109760.10 Unlawful employment practices.—
110(10)It is an unlawful employment practice for an employer
111who receives funding from the state to require, as a condition
112of employment, any training, instruction, or other activity on
113sexual orientation, gender identity, or gender expression. For
114purposes of this subsection, the term “employer” includes the
115state or any county, municipality, or special district or any
116subdivision or agency thereof.
117Section 4. For the purpose of incorporating the amendment
118made by this act to section 760.10, Florida Statutes, in
119references thereto, subsections (1) and (15) of section 760.11,
120Florida Statutes, are reenacted to read:
121760.11 Administrative and civil remedies; construction.—
122(1) Any person aggrieved by a violation of ss. 760.01
123760.10 may file a complaint with the commission within 365 days
124of the alleged violation, naming the employer, employment
125agency, labor organization, or joint labor-management committee,
126or, in the case of an alleged violation of s. 760.10(5), the
127person responsible for the violation and describing the
128violation. Any person aggrieved by a violation of s. 509.092 may
129file a complaint with the commission within 365 days of the
130alleged violation naming the person responsible for the
131violation and describing the violation. The commission, a
132commissioner, or the Attorney General may in like manner file
133such a complaint. On the same day the complaint is filed with
134the commission, the commission shall clearly stamp on the face
135of the complaint the date the complaint was filed with the
136commission. In lieu of filing the complaint with the commission,
137a complaint under this section may be filed with the federal
138Equal Employment Opportunity Commission or with any unit of
139government of the state which is a fair-employment-practice
140agency under 29 C.F.R. ss. 1601.70-1601.80. If the date the
141complaint is filed is clearly stamped on the face of the
142complaint, that date is the date of filing. The date the
143complaint is filed with the commission for purposes of this
144section is the earliest date of filing with the Equal Employment
145Opportunity Commission, the fair-employment-practice agency, or
146the commission. The complaint shall contain a short and plain
147statement of the facts describing the violation and the relief
148sought. The commission may require additional information to be
149in the complaint. The commission, within 5 days of the complaint
150being filed, shall by registered mail send a copy of the
151complaint to the person who allegedly committed the violation.
152The person who allegedly committed the violation may file an
153answer to the complaint within 25 days of the date the complaint
154was filed with the commission. Any answer filed shall be mailed
155to the aggrieved person by the person filing the answer. Both
156the complaint and the answer shall be verified.
157(15) In any civil action or administrative proceeding
158brought pursuant to this section, a finding that a person
159employed by the state or any governmental entity or agency has
160violated s. 760.10 shall as a matter of law constitute just or
161substantial cause for such person’s discharge.
162Section 5. This act shall take effect July 1, 2026.