Broward County spent $900,000 of your money since 2020 teaching government employees about unconscious bias and the "Genderbread Person."
The Florida Senate just looked at that number – and a dozen more like it – and voted 25-11 to make sure it never happens again.
What happened next is exactly what the left claims Republicans never do: they put real teeth in the law and made officials personally responsible for what they spend your money on.
Florida DEI Ban Covers All 67 Counties and 400 Municipalities — Not Just Universities
SB 1134, sponsored by Sen. Clay Yarborough of Jacksonville, does something the 2023 university DEI ban didn't – it reaches all the way down to every one of Florida's 67 counties and 400-plus municipalities.
The bill bars local governments from spending any funds – regardless of source – to promote DEI, staff DEI offices, or employ DEI officers.
That last part matters.
Local governments were already getting creative, routing federal grants and private donations through workarounds to keep the diversity bureaucracy funded.
This bill shuts that door.
Yarborough didn't need to manufacture outrage to make the case. He just read the receipts.
https://twitter.com/FLVoiceNews/status/2029389616264958216?s=20
Hillsborough County paid $572,000 to an outside contractor to teach employees that "merit and hard work" are part of "white culture."
Broward County spent $900,000 since 2020 on trainings that included a cartoon called the "Genderbread Person" to explain gender ideology to county workers.
"If counties and cities were not taking official actions that fund and promote these types of things," Yarborough said, "the bill would not be necessary."
Officials Who Violate Florida's New Anti-DEI Law Can Be Removed From Office
Here's what makes this bill different from most Republican legislation: it bites.
Violating officials can be charged with misfeasance or malfeasance in office – grounds for suspension or removal by the governor.
On top of that, any county resident can take their local government to court for injunctive relief and damages.
They spent five hours on the Senate floor warning about accountability mechanisms. What they were really warning about is accountability itself.
The officials who signed off on that spending will now have to answer to their constituents in court, not just at the ballot box.
The bill also requires every contractor or grant recipient doing business with local government to certify they won't use those funds for DEI training.
Companies that want taxpayer contracts can't run DEI programming on the side with public money.
How Florida's Anti-DEI Legislation Became the National Template
This isn't happening in a vacuum.
https://twitter.com/RonDeSantis/status/2008902251130061199?s=20
It's the next logical step in a movement that started when DeSantis banned DEI at state universities in 2023 – a move that quickly spread to Iowa, Arkansas, Alabama, Texas, and more than a dozen other states.
Then Trump signed the executive orders on Day One.
Federal agencies shuttered DEI offices within 48 hours.
The message went out to every government at every level: the era of taxpayer-funded identity politics is ending.
Florida is now closing the last loophole.
Conservatives banned DEI from state universities.
Trump banned it from the federal government. SB 1134 takes it away from the county commissioners and city councils who thought they could keep the machine running locally.
Yarborough said it plainly: "Opportunity should be based on merit. That is what levels the playing field. It's not based on your skin color."
https://twitter.com/Heritage_Action/status/2029623980743643576?s=20
That is not a controversial statement.
It's what most Americans have believed their entire lives.
What's remarkable is that saying it in 2026 still required five hours of floor debate against Democrats who called it a "culture war distraction."
A companion bill in the Florida House is headed for a vote early next week.
If it passes and DeSantis signs it, the law takes effect January 1, 2027.
Every Genderbread Person trainer with a county contract has a clock running.
Sources:
- Michelle Vecerina, "Florida Senate votes to end local DEI programs, curbing 'taxpayer-funded identity politics,'" Florida Politics, March 5, 2026.
- Mitch Perry, "Florida Senate votes to ban local governments from spending on DEI," Florida Phoenix, March 5, 2026.
- "Governor Ron DeSantis Signs Legislation to Strengthen Florida's Position as National Leader in Higher Education," Executive Office of the Governor, May 15, 2023.
- "President Trump Acts to Roll Back DEI Initiatives," Harvard Law School Forum on Corporate Governance, February 10, 2025.
