Florida's Stop WOKE law hurts businesses like ours. That's why we're suing DeSantis

[teach1st]

Florida’s Stop WOKE law hurts businesses like ours. That’s why we’re suing DeSantis
Miami Herald, 8/5/2022

Florida has historically been a business-friendly state. That’s why, as entrepreneurs, we chose Florida as the place to run our companies. But it’s gotten a lot harder to stay sunny in the Sunshine State since our government stepped inside of our businesses aiming to censor what we say to our employees.

We watched in disbelief as Gov. Ron DeSantis announced a war on so-called “corporate wokeness” and Florida House Bill 7, the Stop WOKE Act, sailed through the Legislature — bypassing cautions from the business community and acting as if the First Amendment didn’t exist. While governments may patrol private business conversations in other countries, we assumed censorship was for far-away dictators who outlaw disfavored words and ideas — not the free state of Florida, not the United States of America.

We were wrong.

Providing wedding technology or scoops of ice cream is what we do best. But we can’t accept this as business as usual, so we’ve joined together to do what entrepreneurs have always done: make things better. It’s why we, along with a third Florida-based entrepreneur, have filed suit against the governor and other state officials.

https://www.miamiherald.com/opinion/op-ed/article264170581.html

Authors of this opinion piece: Sara Margulis is the CEO and co-founder of Honeyfund, a Florida-based wedding registry company. Antonio McBroom is the CEO of Primo Tampa, a 100% Black-owned franchise of Ben & Jerry’s scoop shops in the Tampa Bay area.