Florida education officials on Wednesday unanimously approved harsher penalties against state college employees who violate a new law barring them and students from using restrooms or changing facilities for a gender other than the one assigned at birth.

The move by the state board of education comes as LGBTQ advocates have criticized the law as a larger effort to erase them from Florida schools and society.

DeSantis, who is currently fighting to be the Republican front-runner for president among 12 others, has signed contentious bills aimed at curtailing LGBTQ rights.

One of the bills signed into law by DeSantis prohibits transgender children from receiving gender-affirming treatments, including prescriptions that block puberty hormones or sex-reassignment surgeries.

Under a provision DeSantis signed into law, teachers, faculty and students would be restricted from using the pronouns of their choice in public schools.

The bill defines female as “a person belonging, at birth, to the biological sex which has the specific reproductive role of producing eggs” and male as “a person belonging, at birth, to the biological sex which has the specific reproductive role of producing sperm.”

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