TALLAHASSEE — The Florida Competitive Workforce Act is officially dead.
A day after legislation that would have included gay and transgender people in the state’s anti-discrimination law was killed by a tie-vote and later revived in the Senate Judiciary Committee, bill sponsor Sen. Joseph Abruzzo, D-Boynton Beach, stood before lawmakers and announced that a deadlock remained.
“I believe we need to move it forward, but you either have the votes or you do not have the votes,” Abruzzo said before thanking the lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender community for their “bravery.”
Comments by Democrats indicated the bill’s fate before a motion to reconsider the bill failed. The Senate Judiciary Committee’s consideration of the bill was significant in itself. Human rights activists and others have tried to update the state law for the past 10 years, but the legislation never before had a hearing. Regardless of Tuesday’s outcome, the bill would have had to pass three additional Senate committees, and the House, where the measure would have certainly struggled, had not yet scheduled a hearing.
“I want to thank very much those individuals who haven’t had their voice heard in this process for many years,” said Sen. Jeremy Ring, D-Margate, who had hoped to move the bill to his own committee next. “You fought. You may not get what you want to get this year. But you opened the door to a discussion. ”
On Monday, supporters told lawmakers that the Florida Competitive Workforce Act, which would ban discrimination in the areas of employment, housing and public accommodations based on sexual orientation or gender identity, would help improve equal opportunity in the workplace and make the state more globally competitive. The support of hundreds of small businesses, chamber of commerce groups and major companies such as Disney and Tec Data seemed to create momentum that led to the bill securing a hearing.
“This is not a rainbow flag-waving issue,” Patrick Slevin, campaign manager for the Florida Businesses for a Competitive Workforce, told reporters Monday. “This is economics.”
Touting the economic benefits of inclusion is a strategy that advocates have used in the past to convince government officials and corporate executives to enact inclusive policies in local municipalities and the private sector in the absence of state anti-discrimination law that includes gay and transgender people. More than 20 states have enacted similar protections for gay and transgender citizens. Equality Florida, an LGBTQ-rights organization that promoted the bill, estimates that 55 percent of Floridians live in a place where gay and transgender people are protected from discrimination.