California's liberal lawmakers have voted in favor of a travel ban last year, but unlike President Trump's plan, this travel ban isn't designed to keep out refugees from Muslim-majority countries -- instead, it's designed to prevent students of public universities from traveling to states that have been deemed by the California attorney general to be unfriendly toward the LGBT community.
The travel ban that mainstream media forgot to cover
The law, which went into effect on January 1, prohibits students from California State University and the University of California from traveling to four states identified by Attorney General Xavier Becerra as hotbeds of anti-LGBT sentiment: Kansas, Mississippi, North Carolina and Tennessee.
While students are still allowed to travel to the offending states on their own dime, the new law prevents state-funded institutions from picking up the tab. Hundreds of students have already been affected by the law, including students at UC Davis, who had made arrangements to attend a research conference in Tennessee at the University of Memphis.
Students are the real victims
The Council on Undergraduate Research conference provides 3,000 undergraduates from across the nation an opportunity to make their mark in the world of academia and forge networking connections that could open doors to high-paying jobs and prestigious graduate programs, and the same holds true for many other academic conferences.
This means that California's pro-LGBT zeal may hurt students far greater than it will hurt the offending states.
Many students, however, are supportive of the travel ban. “I don’t want any funding on my behalf from the state, my parents or grandparents to go to a state like Tennessee that discriminates against LGBT people,” said Acacia Keith, a senior at UC Davis, to the Los Angeles Times.
Athletic programs are also affected by the travel ban, although exceptions can be made in situations in which a contract was signed prior to Jan. 1. For instance, UCLA's football team will still be permitted to play Memphis later this year, while the Cal State Long Beach baseball team will be allowed to travel to North Carolina.
