Read the full stored bill text
Florida Senate
-
2026
CS for SB 1642
By
the Committee on Governmental Oversight and Accountability;
and Senator McClain
585-02427-26 20261642c1
1 A bill to be entitled
2 An act relating to gender identity employment
3 practices; providing a short title; creating s.
4 112.0456, 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 employers to use a pronoun that does not correspond to
10 the employee’s or contractor’s sex; prohibiting the
11 inclusion on certain forms of specified options
12 relating to an applicant’s sex; prohibiting adverse
13 personnel action on the basis of sincerely held
14 religious, moral, conscience-based, or biology-based
15 beliefs against gender ideology; providing
16 administrative and civil remedies; providing
17 reasonable attorney fees and costs; authorizing the
18 Department of Management Services to adopt rules;
19 amending s. 760.10, F.S.; providing that it is an
20 unlawful employment practice for certain employers to
21 require certain training, instruction, or activity as
22 a condition of employment; defining the term
23 “employer”; reenacting s. 760.11(1) and (15), F.S.,
24 relating to administrative and civil remedies, to
25 incorporate the amendment made to s. 760.10, F.S., in
26 references thereto; providing an effective date.
27
28 Be It Enacted by the Legislature of the State of Florida:
29
30 Section 1.
This act may be cited as the “Freedom of
31
Conscience in the Workplace Act.”
32 Section 2. Section 112.0456, Florida Statutes, is created
33 to read:
34
112.0456
Personal pronouns.—
35
(1)
As used in this section, the term:
36
(a)
“Adverse personnel action” means the discharge,
37
suspension, transfer, demotion, or lack of promotion of an
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employee or a contractor or the withholding of bonuses, the
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withholding of promotional opportunities, the reduction in
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salary or benefits, or any other adverse action taken against an
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employee or a contractor within the terms and conditions of
42
employment by an employer.
43
(b)
“Contractor” means an individual, a partnership, a
44
corporation, or a business entity that enters or attempts to
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enter into a contract for services with an employer.
46
(c)
“Employee” means an individual employed by, or
47
attempting to be employed by, an employer.
48
(d)
“Employer” means the state or any county, municipality,
49
or special district or any subdivision or agency thereof.
50
(e)
“Gender identity” means a fully internal and subjective
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sense of self, disconnected from biological reality and sex, and
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existing on an infinite continuum that does not provide a
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meaningful basis for identification and cannot be recognized as
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a replacement for sex.
55
(f)
“Gender ideology” means the false belief that replaces
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the biological category of sex with an ever-shifting concept of
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self-assessed gender identity, permitting the false claim that
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males can identify as and become women and vice versa, and
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requiring all institutions of society to regard this false claim
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as true. The term includes the idea that there is a vast
61
spectrum of genders that are disconnected from a person’s sex.
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Gender ideology is internally inconsistent in that it diminishes
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sex as an identifiable or useful category but nevertheless
64
maintains that it is possible for a person to be born in the
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wrong sexed body.
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(g)
“Sex” means the classification of a person as either
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female or male based on the organization of the body of such
68
person for a specific reproductive role, as indicated by the
69
person’s sex chromosomes, naturally occurring sex hormones, and
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internal and external genitalia present at birth.
71
(2)
It is the policy of this state that a person’s sex is
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an immutable biological trait and that it is false to ascribe to
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a person a pronoun that does not correspond to such person’s
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sex. This section does not apply to individuals born with a
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genetically or biochemically verifiable disorder of sex
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development, including, but not limited to, 46,XX disorder of
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sex development; 46,XY disorder of sex development; sex
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chromosome disorder of sex development; XX or XY sex reversal;
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and ovotesticular disorder.
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(3)
An employee or a contractor may not be required, as a
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condition of employment or to avoid adverse personnel action, to
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refer to another person using that person’s preferred pronouns
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if such pronouns do not correspond to that person’s sex.
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(4)
An employee or a contractor may not require an employer
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to use his or her preferred pronouns if such preferred pronouns
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do not correspond to the employee’s or contractor’s sex.
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(5)
A job application or other related employment form that
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requires an applicant to mark his or her sex may only inquire if
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the applicant is male or female and may not provide a nonbinary
90
or other option.
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(6)(a)
It is an unlawful employment practice for an
92
employer to take adverse personnel action against an employee or
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a contractor because of the employee’s or contractor’s sincerely
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held religious, moral, conscience-based, or biology-based
95
beliefs against gender ideology, whether those views are
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expressed by the employee or contractor at or away from the
97
worksite.
98
(b)
An employee or a contractor aggrieved by a violation of
99
this subsection may avail himself or herself of the
100
administrative and civil remedies provided in s. 760.11. The
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.
105 Section 3. Present subsections (10) and (11) of section
106 760.10, Florida Statutes, are redesignated as subsections (11)
107 and (12), respectively, and a new subsection (10) is added to
108 that section, to read:
109 760.10 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. For
114
purposes of this subsection, the term “employer” includes the
115
state or any county, municipality, or special district or any
116
subdivision or agency thereof.
117 Section 4. For the purpose of incorporating the amendment
118 made by this act to section 760.10, Florida Statutes, in
119 references thereto, subsections (1) and (15) of section 760.11,
120 Florida Statutes, are reenacted to read:
121 760.11 Administrative and civil remedies; construction.—
122 (1) Any person aggrieved by a violation of ss. 760.01
123 760.10 may file a complaint with the commission within 365 days
124 of the alleged violation, naming the employer, employment
125 agency, labor organization, or joint labor-management committee,
126 or, in the case of an alleged violation of s. 760.10(5), the
127 person responsible for the violation and describing the
128 violation. Any person aggrieved by a violation of s. 509.092 may
129 file a complaint with the commission within 365 days of the
130 alleged violation naming the person responsible for the
131 violation and describing the violation. The commission, a
132 commissioner, or the Attorney General may in like manner file
133 such a complaint. On the same day the complaint is filed with
134 the commission, the commission shall clearly stamp on the face
135 of the complaint the date the complaint was filed with the
136 commission. In lieu of filing the complaint with the commission,
137 a complaint under this section may be filed with the federal
138 Equal Employment Opportunity Commission or with any unit of
139 government of the state which is a fair-employment-practice
140 agency under 29 C.F.R. ss. 1601.70-1601.80. If the date the
141 complaint is filed is clearly stamped on the face of the
142 complaint, that date is the date of filing. The date the
143 complaint is filed with the commission for purposes of this
144 section is the earliest date of filing with the Equal Employment
145 Opportunity Commission, the fair-employment-practice agency, or
146 the commission. The complaint shall contain a short and plain
147 statement of the facts describing the violation and the relief
148 sought. The commission may require additional information to be
149 in the complaint. The commission, within 5 days of the complaint
150 being filed, shall by registered mail send a copy of the
151 complaint to the person who allegedly committed the violation.
152 The person who allegedly committed the violation may file an
153 answer to the complaint within 25 days of the date the complaint
154 was filed with the commission. Any answer filed shall be mailed
155 to the aggrieved person by the person filing the answer. Both
156 the complaint and the answer shall be verified.
157 (15) In any civil action or administrative proceeding
158 brought pursuant to this section, a finding that a person
159 employed by the state or any governmental entity or agency has
160 violated s. 760.10 shall as a matter of law constitute just or
161 substantial cause for such person’s discharge.
162 Section 5. This act shall take effect July 1, 2026.