California has banned state-funded travel to five states over “discriminatory” LGBTQ laws, CNN reports. This means that people can’t travel to specific places using state dollars. They can, however, travel on their own dime.
California Attorney General Rob Bonta said Monday that the decision shows the importance of “aligning our dollars with our values.”
“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,” Bonta said, according to The Associated Press.
Specifically, California will add travel restrictions to the following states:
- Arkansas
- Florida
- Montana
- North Dakota
- West Virginia
Other states on the list include:
- Texas
- Alabama
- Idaho
- Iowa
- Oklahoma
- South Carolina
- South Dakota
- Kentucky
- North Carolina
- Kansas
- Mississippi
- Tennessee.
According to CNN, Bonta said this change has been made because the states have added “dangerous” new laws that will “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.”
Assembly Bill 1887 prohibits a state agency from requiring any employees or officers to travel to a specific state that “has enacted a law that voids or repeals, or has the effect of voiding or repealing, existing state or local protections against discrimination on the basis of sexual orientation, gender identity, or gender expression or has enacted a law that authorizes or requires discrimination against same-sex couples or their families or on the basis of sexual orientation, gender identity, or gender expression, as specified, subject to certain exceptions.”
- It also “prohibits California from approving a request for state-funded or state-sponsored travel to such a state,” according to the state attorney general’s office, CNN reports.