Florida Bans Diversity Programs and Pronouns

'College campuses should be places where students are taught how to think, not what to think.'

An LGBT activist holds pins about gender pronouns, at the University of Wyoming campus in Laramie, Wyo., on Aug. 13, 2022. (Patrick T. Fallon/AFP via Getty Images)

A set of Florida bills ban diversity, equity, and inclusion programs as well as the use of personal pronouns.

On May 3, Florida’s Republican legislators passed a collection of bills that cut funding for diversity programs and banned teachers from using preferred pronouns or names that don’t correspond to their assigned birth sex.

The sister bills—House Bill 999, sponsored by state Rep. Alex Andrade and Senate Bill 266, sponsored by state Sen. Erin Grall—prohibit colleges and universities from using state and federal funds for diversity, equity, and inclusion (DEI) programs. The measures also prohibit higher education institutions from offering majors or minors in critical race theory, gender studies, or intersectionality. The bills also include measures to the grant hiring and firing power of faculty to university boards of trustees appointed by DeSantis and give these boards the authority to subject tenured faculty to a job review at any time.

House Bill 1069 (pdf)—sponsored by state Sen. Clay Yarborough and state Rep. Stan McClain and state Rep. Adam Anderson—prohibits employees, contractors, and students“ from being ”required to use, from providing, and from being asked to provide certain titles and pronouns“ and prohibits ”students from being penalized or subjected to certain treatment for not providing certain titles and pronouns.”

The Epoch Times reached out to Yarborough, McClain and Anderson.

Following the vote on the sister bills, PBS quoted Democratic state Sen. Jason Pizzo saying, “The message that resonates from this chamber over the last few years is one of hate and exclusion and punishment.”

State Sen. Tracie Davis said, “Think about what we’re doing, honestly. Think about how this will affect families that don’t look like yours. They’re still families. They’re Florida families. But we’re treating them like they’re outsiders, and we’re telling them we don’t want them here.”

‘An Existential Threat’

Andrade says his bill “is designed to inject some sanity back into public discourse on college campuses.”

“College campuses should be places where students are taught how to think, not what to think,” Andrade told The Epoch Times. “But when we have the concept of diversity, equity, and inclusion used to justify not telling high school students in Virginia that they were nation merit scholars for fear of hurting other students’ feelings, it’s become an existential threat to everything our college campuses and universities so special. We should be focused on making sure our courses between our state universities are recognizable and credible.”

Andrade also said that students who take courses at one Florida college or university should be able to have confidence that those courses will be recognized by another institution so they can receive credit for the course, regardless of where they took the class.

According to a House of Representatives Staff Analysis of HB 999, two Florida Atlantic University courses—“Racism and Anti-Racism” and “Gender and Climate Change” and two Florida State University courses—“Social (In)Equalities: Social Construction of Difference and Inequalities,” and “Philosophy of Race, Class, and Gender”—are examples of current courses that would be banned under the proposed legislation.

Former Florida Rep. Carlos Guillermo Smith used Twitter to accuse Republicans of being “scared” of having a debate on the issue.

Andrade replied on twitter, saying: “It’s tough to debate while being shouted down and threatened by angry liberals. DEI advocates HATE open debate.”

The House analysis also revealed that 12 higher education institutions spent $34,501,886 on the “operational costs” associated with campus activities related to DEI and critical race theory, $20,735,902 of which came from Florida taxpayers.

Andrade also insists Florida’s College and university students should also feel safe to “engage in free thought and to make their arguments based on evidence without being shouted down.”

“When you have administrators using DEI as the reason to shut down free speech, it’s a problem,” Andrade said. “Anybody who thinks it’s just it’s justifiable to shut down free speech or shut down the free exchange of ideas because of disagreement has no place on a college campus.”

Andrade cited the incident at Stanford University in March, where Associate Dean of DEI Tirien Steinbach joined students in heckling Trump-appointed federal Judge Kyle Duncan, effectively shutting down his scheduled speech.

While Steinback denied the shut-down was “a set-up,” she took his place at the lectern to read something she “had to write something down” because she felt “this event” was “tearing at the fabric of” the community she cares so much about.

After silencing Duncan, Steinbeck delivered a six-minute speech, questioning the decision to provide people like him with a forum to speak.

“Is the juice worth the squeeze?” she asked. “Is it worth it?”

Andrade noted how “she had the gall to come out and say she wasn’t sure the First Amendment is worth it.”

“I think the arguments for diversity, equity, and inclusion at this point, like administrators tasked solely with DEI initiatives, have come down to justifying discrimination in the name of equity,” Andrade posited, suggesting that using hecklers “to shut down free speech that hurts your feelings is something that we really need to take seriously.”

“It’s a symptom of a much bigger issue,” he said. “Until we can get to a place where everyone understands that someone disagreeing with you is not violence, positions and bills like this will be necessary. There’s no world where free speech should be equated with violence and where violence should be equated with free speech. They’re two very different concepts, especially on college campuses, and it’s  a shame that I even have to try to point that out.”

The Epoch Times reached out to Pizzo and Davis for comment.