A new bill in Florida would make accusations of Transphobia would be treated as defamation. The defendant could not “prove truth” by citing a plaintiff’s “scientific or religious beliefs.”
A new bill introduced in Florida, Senate Bill 1780, would make accusations of discrimination towards transgender people “defamation per se,” with accusers on the hook for a hefty $35,000 penalty. Critically, the bill states that if you are sued for defamation under the statutes, you cannot use the defendant’s scientific or religious beliefs or expression to prove that they are acting in a discriminatory fashion towards transgender people. These and other provisions would make it so that accusations of transphobic discrimination would be nearly impossible to prove, and would leave anyone making the accusation on the hook for damages.
The bill outlines several methods and protections for individuals accused of transphobic actions to sue their accusers. For example, one clause stipulates that a person cannot be deemed a public figure due to their association with “a video, image, or statement uploaded on the internet that has reached a large audience.” This implies that if someone is captured on video engaging in discriminatory behavior against transgender individuals, such as denying entry or using slurs, this viral content cannot establish their status as a “public figure.” Consequently, this makes it easier for them to initiate lawsuits against those who accuse them of transphobia, regardless of what the video shows.
Most importantly, the bill contains a section that would make allegations that someone is operating in a discriminatory fashion towards “race, sex, sexual orientation, or gender identity” defamation per se, meaning accusations of racism, sexism, homophobia, or transphobia could result in hefty lawsuits. For homophobia and transphobia, there is an additional provision that would make lawsuits much more likely to succeed: defendants could not cite a plaintiff’s “constitutionally protected religious expression or beliefs” or a plaintiff’s “scientific beliefs” to prove the truth of their allegation of homophobia or transphobia.
Your ideology must be going great if you need laws to punish people just for observing that it exists.
Protected hate is a very conservative thing nowadays. It’s because they’re all cowards.
So basically a “you can’t sue or I’m rubber and your glue” bill to go with the “don’t say gay bill”. Imagine needing to put this much time into bills like this because you can’t stop your hate from getting you in trouble and you would rather attack marginalized groups than do any actual governing.
The rubber and glue rule. It almost kinda rhymes.
Seriously tho wtf are they doing
Defamation is so difficult to convict on in the US because of 1st amendment protections. This new statute is DOA once a non-shitass court looks at it.
Yup. Defamation case law has set an incredibly high bar in the United States. There’s no way this is going to stand up in court, assuming it even passes.
The chilling effect it would have on speech in the meantime is the whole point.
If you say I’m scared one more time, I’m gonna call the cops!!!
