On Tuesday, November 21, Republican State Representative Ryan Chamberlin introduced House Bill 599, which will effectively ban LGBTQ+ nonprofits from operating in the state of Florida.

The Tea: HB 599 also prohibits state and local government employees–as well as businesses that are government contractors– from:

• changing their pronouns or honorifics if they do not match their assigned sex at birth
• instructing on gender identity or sexuality

Diving Deeper on Nonprofits: The bill prohibits the following:

• nonprofit organizations from providing training or instruction related to gender identity, gender expression, and sexual orientation.

Diving Deeper on Pronoun Usage: The bill prohibits the following:

• employees of state/local governments from sharing their pronouns if they don’t match their sex assigned at birth
• employees of companies that do business with the state from sharing their pronouns if they don’t match their sex assigned at birth
• employers referenced above from asking employees their pronouns

The Likely Impact on Nonprofits:

• This bill would cause many LGBTQ+ nonprofit organizations to effectively cease operations in Florida
• It would also affect non-LGBTQ organizations like Planned Parenthood and progressive political organizations

Further reading:

• Full text of HB 599
• Analysis at Erin in the Morning