This week, Alabama Gov. Kay Ivey signed SB 129 into law. It prohibits certain public entities from having offices that promote diversity, equity, and inclusion (DEI) programs.
According to a description of the legislation, it also prohibits the promotion and endorsement of “certain divisive concepts in certain public settings,” and requires the designation of “multioccupancy restrooms based on biological sex.”
Both the American Civil Liberties Union and the PEN America advocacy network have criticized the bill.
“SB129 disrupts the work of student, staff, and faculty organizations at higher education institutions that rely on public funding from their university to develop DEI or culturally based programming,” said the ACLU. “This is not only a form of classroom censorship, it’s an anti-truth bill which curtails an education on systemic inequities, racial violence, and the historic efforts to gain civil rights and civil liberties for marginalized communities throughout our nation’s history.”
PEN America explained how the bill is expected to impact classrooms.
“This new language would prohibit assigning readings of essays, books, or films where the author expresses that they feel complicit in past wrongs because of their identity, or historical documents demonstrating historical perspectives on race, gender, or class,” said the group. “This is a more expansive restriction than even Florida’s HB 7 (Stop WOKE), which only prohibits assigning readings advocating for complicity, not merely expressing the author’s experience.”
In a statement shared with CNN, Ivey said she supported the anti-DEI legislation because it is part of a “liberal political movement counter to what the majority of Alabamians believe,” but also said she would “continue to value Alabama’s rich diversity.”
Ivey also announced this week that she signed SB 48, what she called “the parental right to know bill.”