Written by Will Seykora
On Monday Attorney General Rob Bonta banned state-funded travel to Arkansas, Florida, North Dakota, Montana, and West Virginia, adding them to a list of states that state employees cannot travel to except under extremely limited circumstances. Bonta says these states have pushed bills that restrict LGBTQ rights and have lawmakers that “would rather demonize trans youth than focusing on solving real issues like tackling gun violence, beating back this pandemic, and rebuilding our economy.”
He further says “Make no mistake: We’re in the midst of an unprecedented wave of bigotry and discrimination in this country – and the State of California is not going to support it,”
The bills resulting in this travel ban vary greatly from state to state. For example, Floria, Montana, Arkansas, and West Virginia passed laws that stop transgender girls from being part of teams that best fits their gender identity. While Arkansas passed a bill that stops physicians from providing gender-adjustment services to minors, regardless of what the parents want.
Other states already on this list include Texas, Alabama, Idaho, Iowa, Oklahoma, South Carolina, South Dakota, Kentucky, North Carolina, Kansas, Mississippi, and Tennessee. These were all added due to a 2016 bill that banned non-essential travel to states that discriminate against gay, lesbian, bisexual, and transgender people.
Despite this, the bill does have some exceptions. In cases where contracts were signed before the states were added to the list, or when California law needs to be enforced in other states, travel may be permitted.
The financial and diplomatic cost of these additions remains to be seen as Bonta had no information on which agencies have stopped sending employees to the states.
