Today, the Senate Judiciary Committee did not advance the Competitive Workforce Act—meaning this important legislation protecting LGBT Floridians from discrimination is dead for this legislative session.

Is this disappointing? Absolutely. Every day without statewide protections is another day that our state and economy suffer. There’s no doubt that Floridians need this bill passed, without delay.

But we can’t lose sight of the big picture: The Competitive Workforce Act has been introduced every year for a decade and never even received a hearing. But this year, for the first time EVER, we built the bipartisan support we needed to secure a historic hearing and spur a statewide conversation:

• Our state’s leading businesses, from Tech Data to Florida Blue, went on the record to make the case that the Competitive Workforce Act is absolutely essential to attracting a vibrant workforce to Florida.
• We enlisted a record-number of Republican supporters—including Senator Jack Latvala, the first Republican Senator to co-introduce the bill.
• And we mobilized tens of thousands of supporters who called on lawmakers to stand with the majority of Floridians in support of comprehensive LGBT protections.

In short: What we accomplished this year was a game-changer. And while we aren’t celebrating a victory just yet, we’ve built the momentum that will absolutely carry us through the finish line in 2017.


Let Florida lawmakers know: We aren’t going anywhere. We’ll keep organizing, we’ll keep working—and we’ll be back to pass the Competitive Workforce Act in 2017!

We’re building a movement that is winning; a movement we can all be proud of.

Thanks for standing with us.