NGLCC Denounces Florida’s HB-3 Preemption Bill as Destructive to their Economy and Dangerous for the LGBT Community

March 11, 2019

Washington, DC — The National LGBT Chamber of Commerce, the business voice of the LGBT community, decries Florida’s HB-3 preemption bill, which would prohibit local governments from imposing and adopting new regulations on businesses, as reprehensible. The passage of this bill would create an open invitation to publicly discriminate against tax-paying, law-abiding LGBT Floridians and members of other diverse communities that are not adequately represented in statewide lawmaking. The law is ethically unsound and detrimental to the business climate of the Sunshine State, which has been celebrated as welcoming to LGBT tourists, employees, and entrepreneurs because of many local non-discrimination ordinances and protections.

“Florida is a national leader in tourism, research, and entrepreneurship, and we vehemently stand against any bill that would create space for the legal discrimination against LGBT Floridians by repealing and blocking their local protections. LGBT inclusion is associated with higher levels of entrepreneurship and economic growth, whereas LGBT discrimination goes hand-in-hand with a decline in productivity and success,” said NGLCC Co-Founder & President Justin Nelson.  “The NGLCC is bringing its 2019 International and Business Conference, the largest LGBT business event on the planet, to Tampa in August 2019 because of the pro-LGBT climate of the region. Considering conferences like ours leave a multimillion-dollar economic footprint behind, Florida lawmakers should reconsider the dangerous fiscal impact that a bill like HB-3 would have on the economy.”

Florida’s HB-3 preemption bill is more restrictive than other similar bills that have been defeated in state legislatures across the country and has been met with public disapproval and condemnation by the local LGBT business community. 

“At a time when Congress will soon debate the importance of federal LGBT protections in the Equality Act, threatening the safety and livelihood of LGBT Floridians is dangerous. Equal protection for Florida’s LGBT employees, business owners, and job creators has an immediate bottom line benefit in Florida and communities across the country,” says NGLCC Co-Founder & CEO Chance Mitchell. “Think of the endless opportunities to contribute to the economy that await the LGBT business community when they are no longer afraid of being fired from their jobs, evicted from their homes, and denied service in restaurants and shops simply for being who they are. That fear is amplified by HB-3 and must be stopped.”

The National LGBT Chamber of Commerce is dedicated to galvanizing the business community to stop legalized discrimination from becoming the status quo. NGLCC works closely with its local affiliate LGBT chambers, including MBA Orlando, Tampa Bay Diversity Chamber of Commerce, Southwest Florida Harmony Chamber of Commerce, Miami-Dade Gay & Lesbian Chamber of Commerce, and Greater Fort Lauderdale LGBT Chambers of Commerce, as well as hundreds of hardworking LGBT entrepreneurs and allied corporations in Florida to create equal opportunities that create jobs, innovate industries, and raise revenues for the state. This law threatens the ability of LGBT business owners to do business and create success in Florida.