Florida Senate - 2025 SB 440 By Senator McClain 9-00748C-25 2025440__ 1 A bill to be entitled 2 An act relating to gender identity employment 3 practices; providing a short title; creating s. 4 110.1051, F.S.; defining terms; specifying an 5 employment policy of this state relating to a person’s 6 sex; providing applicability; prohibiting employees 7 and contractors of certain employers from being 8 required to use certain pronouns or requiring such 9 employer to use a pronoun that does not correspond to 10 the employee’s or contractor’s sex; prohibiting 11 specified options relating to an applicant’s sex from 12 being included on certain employment forms; 13 prohibiting adverse personnel action on the basis of 14 deeply held religious, moral, conscience-based, or 15 biology-based beliefs; providing administrative and 16 civil remedies; providing reasonable attorney fees and 17 costs; authorizing the Department of Management 18 Services to adopt rules; amending s. 760.10, F.S.; 19 providing that it is an unlawful employment practice 20 for the state or any county, municipality, special 21 district, or other political subdivision to require 22 certain training, instruction, or activity as a 23 condition of employment; reenacting s. 760.11(1) and 24 (15), F.S., relating to administrative and civil 25 remedies, to incorporate the amendment made to s. 26 760.10, F.S., in references thereto; providing an 27 effective date. 28 29 Be It Enacted by the Legislature of the State of Florida: 30 31 Section 1. This act may be cited as the “Freedom of 32 Conscience in the Workplace Act.” 33 Section 2. Section 110.1051, Florida Statutes, is created 34 to read: 35 110.1051 Personal pronouns.— 36 (1) As used in this section, the term: 37 (a) “Adverse personnel action” means the discharge, 38 suspension, transfer, demotion, or lack of promotion of an 39 employee or a contractor or the withholding of bonuses, the 40 withholding of promotional opportunities, the reduction in 41 salary or benefits, or any other adverse action taken against an 42 employee or a contractor within the terms and conditions of 43 employment by an employer. 44 (b) “Contractor” means an individual, a partnership, a 45 corporation, or a business entity that enters or attempts to 46 enter into a contract for services with an employer. 47 (c) “Employee” means an individual employed by, or 48 attempting to be employed by, an employer. 49 (d) “Employer” means the state or any county, municipality, 50 or special district or any subdivision or agency thereof. 51 (e) “Gender identity” means a fully internal and subjective 52 sense of self, disconnected from biological reality and sex, and 53 existing on an infinite continuum that does not provide a 54 meaningful basis for identification and cannot be recognized as 55 a replacement for sex. 56 (f) “Gender ideology” means the false belief that replaces 57 the biological category of sex with an ever-shifting concept of 58 self-assessed gender identity, permitting the false claim that 59 males can identify as and become women and vice versa, and 60 requiring all institutions of society to regard this false claim 61 as true. The term includes the idea that there is a vast 62 spectrum of genders that are disconnected from a person’s sex. 63 The term is internally inconsistent in that it diminishes sex as 64 an identifiable or useful category but nevertheless maintains 65 that it is possible for a person to be born in the wrong sexed 66 body. 67 (g) “Sex” means the classification of a person as either 68 female or male based on the organization of the body of such 69 person for a specific reproductive role, as indicated by the 70 person’s sex chromosomes, naturally occurring sex hormones, and 71 internal and external genitalia present at birth. 72 (2) It is the policy of this state that a person’s sex is 73 an immutable biological trait and that it is false to ascribe to 74 a person a pronoun that does not correspond to such person’s 75 sex. This section does not apply to individuals born with a 76 genetically or biochemically verifiable disorder of sex 77 development, including, but not limited to, 46,XX disorder of 78 sex development; 46,XY disorder of sex development; sex 79 chromosome disorder of sex development; XX or XY sex reversal; 80 and ovotesticular disorder. 81 (3) An employee or a contractor may not be required, as a 82 condition of employment or to avoid adverse personnel action, to 83 refer to another person using that person’s preferred pronouns 84 if such pronouns do not correspond to that person’s sex. 85 (4) An employee or a contractor may not require an employer 86 to use his or her preferred pronouns if such preferred pronouns 87 do not correspond to the employee’s or contractor’s sex. 88 (5) A job application or other related employment form that 89 requires an applicant to mark his or her sex may only inquire if 90 the applicant is male or female and may not provide a nonbinary 91 or other option. 92 (6)(a) It is an unlawful employment practice for an 93 employer to take adverse personnel action against an employee or 94 a contractor because of the employee’s or contractor’s deeply 95 held religious, moral, conscience-based, or biology-based 96 beliefs, including a belief in traditional or Biblical views of 97 sexuality and marriage, or the employee’s or contractor’s 98 disagreement with gender ideology, whether those views are 99 expressed by the employee or contractor at or away from the 100 worksite. 101 (b) An employee or a contractor aggrieved by a violation of 102 this subsection may avail himself or herself of the 103 administrative and civil remedies provided in s. 760.11. The 104 court shall award reasonable attorney fees and costs to the 105 prevailing party. 106 (7) The Department of Management Services may adopt rules 107 to administer this section. 108 Section 3. Present subsections (10) and (11) of section 109 760.10, Florida Statutes, are redesignated as subsections (11) 110 and (12), respectively, and a new subsection (10) is added to 111 that section, to read: 112 760.10 Unlawful employment practices.— 113 (10) It is an unlawful employment practice for the state or 114 any county, municipality, special district, or other political 115 subdivision to require, as a condition of employment, any 116 training, instruction, or other activity on sexual orientation, 117 gender identity, or gender expression. 118 Section 4. For the purpose of incorporating the amendment 119 made by this act to section 760.10, Florida Statutes, in 120 references thereto, subsections (1) and (15) of section 760.11, 121 Florida Statutes, are reenacted to read: 122 760.11 Administrative and civil remedies; construction.— 123 (1) Any person aggrieved by a violation of ss. 760.01 124 760.10 may file a complaint with the commission within 365 days 125 of the alleged violation, naming the employer, employment 126 agency, labor organization, or joint labor-management committee, 127 or, in the case of an alleged violation of s. 760.10(5), the 128 person responsible for the violation and describing the 129 violation. Any person aggrieved by a violation of s. 509.092 may 130 file a complaint with the commission within 365 days of the 131 alleged violation naming the person responsible for the 132 violation and describing the violation. The commission, a 133 commissioner, or the Attorney General may in like manner file 134 such a complaint. On the same day the complaint is filed with 135 the commission, the commission shall clearly stamp on the face 136 of the complaint the date the complaint was filed with the 137 commission. In lieu of filing the complaint with the commission, 138 a complaint under this section may be filed with the federal 139 Equal Employment Opportunity Commission or with any unit of 140 government of the state which is a fair-employment-practice 141 agency under 29 C.F.R. ss. 1601.70-1601.80. If the date the 142 complaint is filed is clearly stamped on the face of the 143 complaint, that date is the date of filing. The date the 144 complaint is filed with the commission for purposes of this 145 section is the earliest date of filing with the Equal Employment 146 Opportunity Commission, the fair-employment-practice agency, or 147 the commission. The complaint shall contain a short and plain 148 statement of the facts describing the violation and the relief 149 sought. The commission may require additional information to be 150 in the complaint. The commission, within 5 days of the complaint 151 being filed, shall by registered mail send a copy of the 152 complaint to the person who allegedly committed the violation. 153 The person who allegedly committed the violation may file an 154 answer to the complaint within 25 days of the date the complaint 155 was filed with the commission. Any answer filed shall be mailed 156 to the aggrieved person by the person filing the answer. Both 157 the complaint and the answer shall be verified. 158 (15) In any civil action or administrative proceeding 159 brought pursuant to this section, a finding that a person 160 employed by the state or any governmental entity or agency has 161 violated s. 760.10 shall as a matter of law constitute just or 162 substantial cause for such person’s discharge. 163 Section 5. This act shall take effect July 1, 2025.