How Could a Florida Bill Restricting Use of Pronouns Impact Public Workplaces?

Takeaways

• Florida legislators have introduced a bill on gender identity in the public sector workplace.
• If enacted, Florida public employers would be barred from recognizing employees’ and contractors’ pronouns that do not correspond with their sex, or from taking adverse employment action against employees who object to using pronouns other than those that correspond with their colleagues’ sex.
• Several states have enacted similar laws. Other states have passed legislation which requires employers to honor an employee’s personal pronouns based on their gender identity and gender expression.

Related links

• HB 641
• New Presidential EO Says Federal Government Recognizes ‘Two Sexes’ Only

Article

On Dec. 3, 2025, Florida state Rep. Rachel Saunders Plakon (R-36) and Rep. Kim Kendall (R-18) introduced the “Freedom of Conscience in the Workplace Act” (HB 641). If enacted, the Act would prohibit Florida public employers from recognizing employees’ and contractors’ pronouns that do not correspond with their sex or from taking adverse employment action against employees who object to using pronouns other than those that correspond with their colleagues’ sex, and, in both instances, as “sex” is defined in the bill.

Key Provisions

The bill:

• Applies to Florida public employers only and defines “employer” as “the state or any county, municipality, or special district or any subdivision or agency thereof.”
   
• Defines “gender ideology” as 

the false belief that replaces the biological category of sex with an ever-shifting concept of self-assessed gender identity, permitting the false claim that males can identify as and become women and vice versa, and requiring all institutions of society to regard this false claim as true. The term includes the idea that there is a vast spectrum of genders that are disconnected from a person’s sex. Gender ideology is internally inconsistent in that it diminishes sex as an identifiable or useful category but nevertheless maintains that it is possible for a person to be born in the wrong sexed body.
 

• Defines “sex” as 

the classification of a person as either female or male based on the organization of the body of such person for a specific reproductive role, as indicated by the person’s sex chromosomes, naturally occurring sex hormones, and internal and external genitalia present at birth.
 

• States that it is Florida’s policy “that a person’s sex is an immutable biological trait and that it is false to ascribe to a person a pronoun that does not correspond to such person’s sex.”
   
• Provides that an employee or contractor may not be required, as a condition of employment or to avoid an adverse personnel action, “to refer to another person using that person’s preferred pronouns if the pronouns do not correspond to that person’s sex.” The bill prohibits employees and contractors from compelling an employer to use pronouns that do not correspond to their sex, as the bill defined it.
   
• Mandates that applications and other “related employment forms” that ask about an applicant’s gender may only inquire if the applicant is male or female and may not provide a nonbinary or other option.
   
• States it is unlawful to take an adverse personnel action against an employee or contractor “because of the employee’s or contractor’s deeply held religious, moral, conscience-based, or biology-based beliefs against gender ideology, whether those views are expressed by the employee or contractor at or away from the worksite.”
   
• Provides that it is unlawful for any employer that receives state funding to require “any training, instruction, or other activity on sexual orientation, gender identity, or gender expression” as a condition of employment.
   
• Provides that aggrieved individuals may file a complaint, “naming the person responsible for the violation and describing the violation,” with the Florida Commission on Human Relations or with the federal Equal Employment Opportunity Commission within 365 days of the alleged violation. Separately, the Commission, a commissioner, or the Florida attorney general may also file a complaint. A finding that a person employed by the state or by a government agency violated the law may serve as “just or substantial” cause for their discharge from employment. The prevailing party may recover reasonable attorneys’ fees and costs.

What Employers Should Know

At the time of writing, the bill was before the government operations subcommittee. If enacted, the law would go into effect July 1, 2026.

The proposed legislation echoes President Donald Trump’s Executive Order 14168, “Defending Women from Gender Ideology Extremism and Restoring Biological Truth to the Federal Government,” which states that it is the federal government’s policy to recognize only two sexes, male and female.

With this bill, Florida joins several states, such as Montana and Wyoming, that already enacted similar laws. At the same time, other states, such as Colorado and New York, have adopted an opposite policy and have issued guidance or amended their employment discrimination statutes to protect gender identity and expression-based personal pronouns, names, and other identification practices.

The bill is a reminder to all employers to track developments in states in which they have employees, particularly when considering policies and practices as they relate to gender identity and pronouns.

Jackson Lewis attorneys will continue to monitor developments as the legislation progresses through the Florida legislature. Please contact a Jackson Lewis attorney with any questions.