Sadly, last week one of our best friends in the Florida Senate, Anitere Flores (R-Miami), caved under pressure from leftist activist groups promising support and resources, and agreed to co-sponsor the worst bill in the Florida Legislature, the “Florida Competitive Workforce Act” (CWA).
Deceptively worded, this dangerous, anti-liberty proposal would create a new legally protected class for sexual orientation, gender identity and gender expression (SOGI) in Florida and place them at the same level of importance as race, religion, national origin and age. These “non-discrimination” or “SOGI” bills are being actively pushed at the local, state, and national levels around the country, and where adopted, they have been used as weapons to punish Christians who simply want to live out their faith at work and in public.
These “non-discrimination” laws also give a legal defense to male predators, sexual offenders and voyeurs who choose to use a women’s bathroom, not because of their perceived sexual orientation or gender identity, but in order to violate the privacy, safety and security interests of women. It is a tragedy that Senator Flores has caved on principle and agreed to co-sponsor this bill in the upcoming 2017 Florida legislative session. News story here.
Please Contact State Senator Flores today and tell her you are disappointed that she agreed to co-sponsor the Competitive Workforce Act and ask her to reconsider her support.
Call Senator Flores at (305) 270-6550 or email her at [email protected]. You can also tweet her at @anitere_flores.
Brief Background on Senator Flores (R-Miami):
Senator Flores is a wife and mother of two children who has served as a strong pro-life Republican state senator from Miami for 6 years. She also served in the Florida House for 6 years. She is Hispanic, Catholic and has attended and spoken at our Pro-Family Days Legislative Prayer Breakfast for several years.
Prior to learning about her co-sponsorship of the Competitive Workforce Act, FFA awarded Flores a 100% rating on our 2015-2016 legislative scorecard. In that same scorecard (published in August 2016), we issued major score demerits to Legislators who had supported the CWA in 2015 and 2016, calling it the “Worst Bill in the Florida Legislature.”
What caused this change of heart? Senator Flores district and many other Senate districts were recently redrawn by the Florida Supreme Court. Her district is a now a meandering boundary winding around South Florida and into the Florida Keys, a hot-bed of liberal and gay activism. We believe she was approached by leftist, progressive activists (working for Hillary Clinton and receiving funding from George Soros) who either persuaded and/or threatened her into supporting the CWA. This group of activists has been strategically approaching candidates and promising support and future resources to run for Congress if candidates will sign on to support this horrific bill in the Florida Legislature.
When we heard of Senator Flores decision last week, our FFA field offices were making calls into her new district trying to help her turn out conservative voters in her area. Our organization has now stopped all calls and support for Senator Flores as a result her decision. Her decision, and our subsequent pull of support, is one of the greatest disappointments of the year thus far. The CWA bill is a clear and direct threat to religious liberty and the safety, security and privacy of women in Florida. We remain stunned that Senator Flores would compromise her core principles for political favor.