On March 16, 2021, Rob Bonta, California Attorney General, spoke at Ruby Bridges Elementary school in Alameda (Calif.). AP Photo/Jeff Chiu California bans state-funded travel to Florida and 4 other red statesOAKLAND California has added Florida and four additional states to its travel ban list. Attorney General Rob Bonta stated Monday that the states had passed anti-LGBTQ legislations directly targeting transgender youth.This announcement was made at a press conference marking the 52nd anniversary the Stonewall Riots. It means that California has now banned state-funded travel from 17 U.S states, based on a 2016 law. Bonta said that Arkansas, Montana and North Dakota are joining Florida on the latest list.Bonta stated that California must prevent discrimination against lesbians, gay, bisexual and transgender persons.California banned taxpayer-funded travel to any state that had passed discriminatory laws against LGBTQ people five years ago. Assembly Bill 1887 was born out of California's anger at a North Carolina law that required individuals to use public restrooms based on what sex they showed on their birth certificates.Prior to Bonta's Monday announcement, 12 additional states were already on California's ban list: Alabama and Idaho, Kansas, Kentucky. Mississippi, North Carolina. Oklahoma. South Carolina. South Dakota. Tennessee. There are limited exceptions to the law, including travel that is necessary to enforce California laws or participate in litigation. Private funds have been used by college teams to travel to prohibited states for athletic competition.According to the Human Rights Campaign, the largest LGBTQ advocacy group in America, 2021 was a record year for anti-LGBTQ legislation. It has been proposed in over a dozen states. According to the organization, it has tracked at most 117 bills that were introduced during the current legislative session and targeted the transgender community.Bonta pointed out that we are witnessing a "rash" of new laws in different states, which aim to limit transgender youth's participation on sports teams and their ability to use the bathrooms of their choice. Bonta stated that such laws are inconsistent with our values and that we won't spend state money on sending state employees to states like these.After Texas, the second-most populous state in America, allowed agencies to refuse adoptions of LGBTQ couples on religious grounds, California banned state-funded travel from Texas in 2017.In 2020, Texas asked the U.S. Supreme Court for a blockade of California's law. State Attorney General Ken Paxton wrote last January that "Boycotting States based only on political disagreement reduces the state's ability to serve as laboratories for democracy while still working together in one nation the exact thing our Constitution intended," he said. Texas' request was denied by the Supreme Court in April.It is important that our state sends a strong message," Assemblymember Evan Low, D-Campbell, chair of the California Legislative LGBTQ Caucus said Monday. He stated that the expansion of the lists sends a message that state workers will not have to travel to states that discriminate against LGBTQ youth and those whose opponents are motivated by hate and fear.
