A Republican lawmaker in Montana wants to prohibit mandatory diversity training for state employees with a bill whose language matches a Florida law that is temporarily blocked by the courts.

The proposed “Montana Individual Freedom Act,” would prohibit diversity, equity and inclusion training as a condition of state employment if the training is aimed at having the employee believe that a group of people are responsible for “and must feel guilt, anguish, or other forms of psychological distress,” for historical injustices.

A House committee heard testimony Monday after the Senate passed the bill on party lines.

“I find it interesting and confusing that we’re trying to legislate emotional responses,” the executive director of the Montana Human Rights Network, Angelina Gonzalez-Aller, said Monday when she testified in opposition to the bill before a House committee.

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