TALLAHASSEE, Fla. — In a surprise moment of bipartisanship, Republicans and Democrats in the Florida House voted unanimously to advance House Bill 269.

The legislation would make defacing or damaging religious cemeteries, projecting images of hate against a religion on private property, or harassing someone for religious clothing a third-degree felony. 

The bill comes on the heels of an increase in antisemitic incidents across the nation. According to the Anti-Defamation League, Florida has the third highest number of incidents in the nation with 190 in 2021 alone. 

Officials say the Florida Holocaust Museum has been a target of hate several times, which included antisemitic messages spray-painted on the outside of the building.

Museum board chair Michael Igel says the new bill is a step in the right direction. 

“They are taking leadership in what we call at the museum an 'upstander' and stepping up and doing the right thing," Igel told Spectrum News.

Along with the vandalism at the museum, there have been fliers handed out to communities in St. Petersburg and across the state. The fliers include old tropes that the Nazi Party used in Germany in the 1930s and 1940s.

“It makes me frustrated. It makes me angry. It makes me scared," Igel said. "But that is far overshadowed by a desire to be a leader and galvanized to fight back against it. There is so many more of us than there are of them, and these are opportunities to show that."

HB 269 is now in the hands of the Senate Rules Committee.