DOWNTOWN TALLAHASSEE, Fla. (WTXL) — Community leaders in Tallahassee are raising concerns about a bill that would prevent cities and counties from enacting diversity, equity, and inclusion policies, and some advocates are now considering legal action.
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The Florida Legislature approved Senate Bill 1134 earlier this week. The bill prohibits local governments from enacting or funding DEI policies and adds penalties for local officials who violate the law. It also creates a mechanism for residents to report potential violations by local governments.
The bill now heads to the Governor's desk. If signed into law, it would take effect Jan. 1 of next year.
Reverend R.B. Holmes and City of Tallahassee Commissioner Dianne Williams Cox joined other community leaders Thursday to speak out against the legislation.
Commissioner Williams Cox says the bill is broad, and the change could affect programs like the Office of Economic Vitality's Minority, Women, and Small Business Enterprises program and Emancipation Day celebrations.
"Until we know more, we get some implementing language, get some rules developed around it, then we don't know. We could be violating and not know we're violating," Williams-Cox said.
Per a press release from bill co-sponsor Representative Dean Black, the bill defines DEI as any effort to "manipulate or otherwise influence the composition of employees with reference to race, color, sex, ethnicity, gender, identity, or sexual orientation other than to ensure that hiring is conducted in accordance with state and federal antidiscrimination laws."
Black said on the House floor Tuesday that DEI policies create unnecessary divides.
"We're always going to be a diverse nation, and that is great, and that is one of our strengths. But when diversity is used to divide us, then it weakens us," Black said.
Florida Republican Party Chairman Evan Power said the change allows people and policies to be judged by their merits.
"The founders believed in freedom, personality responsibility, and merit, and that's what this bill delivers. It gets rid of it, and gives everyone an equal footing in society," Power said.
Reverend Holmes said he and other community leaders are looking into legal action and talking to civil rights attorney Ben Crump to see what can be done if the bill is signed into law.
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