Tallahassee, Florida - Florida Governor Ron DeSantis on Wednesday signed a bill into law banning all policies promoting diversity, equity, or inclusion for minority groups within the state's local governments.
Under SB 1134, all of Florida's counties, municipalities, contractors, and grantees are prohibited from using any public funds to promote or maintain DEI policies or staff any DEI offices.
Florida's government has argued that such policies discriminate against white men and, as a result, are unlawful and unfair and must be removed from publicly funded institutions.
If the new law is broken, it will be classified as misfeasance or malfeasance in office, and Florida residents will be able to take legal action.
"We are, of course, the state where woke goes to die," DeSantis said during a press conference on Wednesday.
"The disfavored groups, number one, obviously, would be white males, and I think they've been discriminated against," he said. "It's like, a lot of people are: 'Oh, that's fine, that's fine.' No, it's not fine, it's wrong."
DeSantis also signed HB 1217, a piece of anti-climate legislation prohibiting government entities from "adopting or enforcing net-zero policies, including carbon taxes."
Florida's latest rules follow trends set by President Donald Trump's administration, which has systematically stripped the federal government of initiatives to take action on climate change or provide basic support for minority groups.
Evelyn Foxx, president of the NAACP's Gainesville branch, told the Associated Press that DeSantis' radical views on DEI differ from "everyone else's."
"If you talked to 100 white men, they wouldn't feel the same way," Foxx said. "The governor is out of touch with people, and that is the bottom line."