Attorney General Rob Bonta announced Monday that California is restricting state-funded travel in five states where anti-LGBTQ+ legislation was recently enacted.
The five states – Arkansas, Florida, Montana, North Dakota and West Virginia – have each recently passed legislation that “directly work to ban transgender youth from playing sports, block access to life-saving care, or otherwise limit the rights of members of the LGBTQ+ community," the Attorney General's office said in a press release on Monday.
"Assembly Bill 1887 is about aligning our dollars with our values," Bonta said. "When states discriminate against LGBTQ+ Americans, California law requires our office to take action. These new additions to the state-funded travel restrictions list are about exactly that."
AB 1887, drafted in 2016, restricts any state agency, department, board or commission from authorizing travel to a state that enacted a law that authorizes “discrimination on the basis of sexual orientation, gender identity, or gender expression.”
The bill was created in response to when then-Governor of Indiana Mike Pence signed a law allowing exemptions for discrimination for religious reasons.
With the five new additions, there are now 17 states that fall under the travel-ban legislation. The other states include: Alabama, Idaho, Iowa, Kansas, Kentucky, Mississippi, North Carolina, Oklahoma, South Carolina, South Dakota, Tennessee and Texas.
"Some politicians think it’s in their best interest to demonize trans youth and block life-saving care," Bonta said. "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 restrictions also aim to protect California state employees by not requiring them to travel to states that have discriminatory laws in place.
"We also wanted to send a clear message to all California messages as well - teachers and students alike - that we will never, never put them in harm’s way by requiring them to travel to some of these states to which they could be subjected to this type of discrimination," Assemblymember Evan Low, who authored the 2016 bill, said.
Florida and Montana will be banned starting July 1, followed by West Virginia on July 8, Arkansas on July 29 and North Dakota on Aug. 1.
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