Jim Rosica
A seemingly unlikely coalition of progressive groups, conservative organizations and businesses now have coalesced to support an anti-discrimination bill that historically hasn’t found traction in the Legislature.
The bill (HB 45/SB 120), known as the “Florida Competitive Workforce Act,” aims to prohibit employment, retail and other discrimination against people because of their sexual orientation or gender identity, amending the state’s Civil Rights Act.
Key Largo Republican Holly Raschein is sponsoring the bill in the House; Joe Abruzzo, a Boynton Beach Democrat, is carrying it in the Senate. A version of it has been filed for the better part of the past decade, to no avail.
Now, Darden Restaurants, Disney, Wells Fargo and a raft of businesses big and small across the state have signed on to “Florida Businesses for a Competitive Workforce.” It’s also supported by Equality Florida, the St. Petersburg-based lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender advocacy group.
Patrick Slevin, who is managing the effort to get the bill passed next session, said the otherwise progressive measure falls in line with “conservative principles, not just economic development but also freedom.”
“As Americans, we celebrate individuality and yet there’s a certain population that is being discriminated against,” he said. “They’re being discriminated against in the workplace, or at restaurants or hotels.
Many, but not all, “corporations have realized this and changed their policies to protect workers,” Slevin said.
“We want to give equal rights to the rest of those employees who are playing by the rules, working hard and doing their jobs. They can still be singled out and arbitrarily fired because they’re gay or lesbian or transgender.”
This year may be the measure’s moment, said Darryl Paulson, a Republican and a retired professor of government at the University of South Florida St. Petersburg.
Social justice issues, like Medicaid expansion and gay marriage, have been begun to “fracture the conservative coalition within the Legislature,” he said, creating a possible opening for this kind of legislation.
“The other side of this is that there’s been such a rapid movement on social issues that businesses see an opportunity to move on issues that they were hesitant to in the past,” Paulson told FloridaPolitics.com. “When you see this quantum shift over the last (few) years from public opposition to public support, it seems to me that businesses are jumping on the bandwagon.
“It’s always good for businesses to be on the right side of social trends,” he said. “Business wants to move with the majority of the electorate because obviously that’s where the dollars are.”
Some conservatives still bitterly oppose such legislation. John Stemberger, president and general counsel of the conservative Florida Family Policy Council, told the Tampa Bay Times such measures impede the religious rights of employers who choose not to knowingly hire gays, for example.
“These types of statutes are the greatest threat to liberty right now in America,” he told the newspaper. “While these statutes claim to prevent discrimination, they seek to discriminate against and punish Christians who simply wish to practice their faith in the public square.”
Slevin said he appreciates that the bill will be a hard sell to many who have long leaned right on social matters. The proposed law says it “shall not limit the free exercise of religion guaranteed by the United States Constitution and the Florida Constitution.”
“You’re entitled to your beliefs,” Slevin said. “You can just cannot discriminate because of them.”
He went on, asking, “How can you be a competitive company when you can’t recruit the best talent? We don’t want a state that refuses to protect a segment of its population. We don’t want a reputation of being exclusive.”
