Florida Governor Ron DeSantis signed legislation Wednesday that bars local governments from funding diversity, equity and inclusion programs, creating a private right of action that allows residents to sue over violations and enables removal of individual officials found to have financed such initiatives.
The measure represents the latest salvo in DeSantis's sustained effort to dismantle DEI across Florida. The Republican governor framed the action as a response to discrimination against white men, describing inclusion programs as an "ideological construct" that has unfairly disadvantaged certain groups.
"The disfavored groups, No. 1, obviously, would be white males, and I think they've been discriminated against," DeSantis said during a press conference announcing the signing. "It's wrong."
The governor also flagged Asian American students as victims of DEI initiatives, though supporters of such programs argue they address historical and systemic discrimination affecting underrepresented communities.
Evelyn Foxx, president of the NAACP branch in Gainesville, pushed back on the governor's framing. "If you talked to 100 white men, they wouldn't feel the same way," she said in remarks to the Associated Press, adding that DeSantis "is out of touch with people."
The new law continues a pattern established in 2023, when DeSantis signed legislation barring public colleges and universities from spending money on DEI initiatives. The governor has positioned Florida as a bulwark against what he calls "woke" ideology, using that language repeatedly to describe his policy agenda.
On the same day, DeSantis also signed a separate law blocking climate change-related initiatives, including restrictions on carbon tax obligations for businesses. He characterized ongoing county efforts to develop climate sustainability plans as "radical climate policies" that needed to be stopped.
Author James Rodriguez: "DeSantis has built a political brand on these cultural battles, and this enforcement mechanism through private lawsuits and official removal gives teeth to his rhetoric in ways earlier laws didn't."
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