Advocates claim victory as several anti-LGBTQ bills fail this legislative session
LGBTQ advocates are claiming victory after this year's legislative session.
'We just achieved the impossible again: Every anti-LGBTQ bill filed this year has been defeated!' wrote Equality Florida in a press release.
Bills that would have banned pride flags and regulated the use of pronouns in the workplace died in committee or never even had a hearing, the LGBTQ advocacy group said.
Senate Democratic Leader Lori Berman attributed the failure of this year's anti-LGBTQ bills to the hundred of LGBTQ Floridians and their allies who showed up to the Capitol and met with lawmakers face to face.
'Florida lawmakers are increasingly turning away from the relentless anti-LGBTQ culture war attacks of recent years,' Berman told the USA TODAY Network – Florida. 'Those laws have done real harm to the LGBTQ community, especially transgender Floridians. But they're not helping anyone. And that's what Floridians want lawmakers to focus on – making their lives better.'
In recent years, the Republican majority has pushed laws that have targeted LGBTQ Floridians. It kicked off in 2022, when the Florida Legislature passed HB 1557, which is known as the 'Don't Say Gay' bill by critics. The law, called the 'Parental Rights in Education Act,' prohibits the teaching of sexual orientation and gender identity in schools.
Since then, Gov. Ron DeSantis and Republican leaders have expanded that law and passed more legislation, including laws that require people use the bathroom of their biological sex at birth and that driver's licenses display the biological sex at birth versus someone's gender identity.
DeSantis has touted these laws as examples of how Florida is the state 'where woke goes to die.'
But in 2025, the four bills advocates flagged as 'expressly anti-LGBTQ,' died at the previously scheduled end of the regular legislative session. (Lawmakers will return to Tallahassee May 12 but only to finish the state budget and related bills, including a tax cut package.)
A bill that would have banned Pride flags flying on government buildings (SB 100) failed after the Senate bill's sponsor, Randy Fine, R-Melbourne, resigned to run for Congress, and no other senator picked up the measure.
Another bill advocates dubbed the 'Don't Say Gay or Trans at Work' (SB 440) never moved past the committee phase in the Senate and was never heard in the House. If passed, it would have prohibited workplaces from requiring employees to use preferred pronouns.
'Official Actions of Local Governments' (SB 420) would have banned local municipalities from spending money or promoting diversity, equity and inclusion policies. While it got through a committee stop, lawmakers, including Senate Rules Committee chair Kathleen Passidomo, R-Naples, did voice concern about the language, worrying it was too broad. The bill was never heard in its second committee.
And 'Official Actions of Local Governments' (SB 1710/HB 731) died in committee in both the Senate and the House. The measure would have prohibited spending on DEI initiatives and applying for federal health care grants that include DEI.
'This year the Legislature asserted more independence and spent less time on partisan issues,' said Jon Harris Maurer, Equality Florida's public policy director. 'Positively, with more emphasis on policy over partisanship, many of the culture war issues failed, including anti-LGBTQ legislation.'
Ana Goñi-Lessan, state watchdog reporter for the USA TODAY Network – Florida, can be reached at agonilessan@gannett.com.
This article originally appeared on Tallahassee Democrat: Florida LGBTQ advocates say every targeted bill failed this session
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