It seems like every day, policymakers in red states draw up new and cruel ways to target the transgender community. Florida has been no exception to this, where Ron DeSantis has weaponized the local Florida Board of Medicine to ban gender affirming care for trans youth. Now, a representative in Florida has found a new way to target trans people not just in Florida, but nationally as well. Representative Alex Andrade has introduced a new bill, HB991, which could chill freedom of speech nationally. The bill rolls back defamation protections in many ways, but most relevant is a section that states if you accuse somebody of transphobic discrimination, they can sue you for $35,000. Furthermore, the bill prohibits the use of "constitutionally protected" beliefs as evidence to establish the truth of the allegation.

The bill is specifically targeted towards a large range of defamation protections and seeks to roll them back. One part of the bill seeks to protect people who go viral for doing something racist or transphobic - it states that a person is not a public figure for defamation purposes if their fame or notoriety stems from “a video uploaded to the internet that reaches a large audience.” The fact that they are being racist, homophobic, or transphobic in the video may not be a defense in most circumstances according to this law. It also protects people who give interviews or who are “defending themselves” against claims of racism, homophobia, or transphobia.

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This section of the bill states that you cannot accuse someone of racist, sexist, homophobic, or transphobic discrimination. It states that if a person has religious beliefs or “scientific beliefs” around gender identity, they cannot be accused of transphobia. You cannot use these beliefs to build the case that your statements against them are truthful if this bill passes. Furthermore, if you accuse someone of transphobic discrimination, you are liable for $35,000 in damages in addition to attorney fees and court costs.

This could chill speech nationally. Florida’s bill, if passed, may allow for venue shopping. If a tweet or story about transphobic discrimination gets disseminated in Florida, one may be able to put forward a case there and sue someone. There is no exception for online speech and social media platforms in this bill. Fordham Law Professor Matthew Schafer points out in a tweet a warning from Justice Alito (notably, not a big ally to transgender people): “when, as is often the case, allegedly defamatory speech is disseminated nationally, a plaintiff may be able to bring suit in whichever jurisdiction seems likely to have the highest percentage of jurors who are sympathetic to the plaintiff ’s point of view."