HB 33 - Florida Competitive Workforce Act Summary

• Creates the "Florida Competitive Workforce Act" by adding sexual orientation and gender identity or expression as protected classes in Florida's Civil Rights Act of 1992, alongside existing protections for race, color, religion, sex, national origin, age, handicap, and marital status.

• Defines "gender identity or expression" as gender-related identity, appearance, or behavior that may differ from that associated with a person's physiology or assigned sex at birth, determined by medical history, consistent assertion, or other evidence that it is a sincerely held part of a person's core identity.

• Extends anti-discrimination protections to employment, housing, public accommodations, public lodging establishments, and public food service establishments.

• Provides exceptions for religious corporations, associations, educational institutions, and societies that condition opportunities based on religious tenets or beliefs, and protects constitutionally guaranteed free exercise of religion.

• Takes effect July 1, 2015.