/ Advocates are pushing a Republican committee chair to hear a bill that would expand Florida's hate crime protections to include gender and gender identity. The bill cleared its first committee but got reassigned before its next committee stop. The measure was initially assigned to the Senate Judiciary Committee, chaired by Sen. Jeff Brandes (R-St. Petersburg). Sen. Lori Berman (D-Boynton Beach) says Brandes voted in favor of the bill in its first committee hearing. "Since he was in support of the bill in the criminal justice committee, there was a strong presumption that he would hear the bill in his judiciary committee," Berman says.