California Attorney General Xavier Becerra announced on Wednesday that the State of California would continue its State employee/taxpayer-funded travel ban to North Carolina and to other states that have instituted "bathroom laws" that discriminate against the LGBT Community. Even though the State of North Carolina softened up some of its anti-LGBT discrimination laws in recent weeks, the state nevertheless still continues to discriminate against gay, lesbian, bisexual and transgender people and the cities of North Carolina are prohibited from implementing anti-LGBT discrimination laws.
Bacerra made it emphatically clear that so long as North Carolina, Kansas, Mississippi and Tennessee have any laws that in any way discriminate against the LGBT community, that the travel ban will continue.
Terms of the ban
Under the terms of the travel ban, California state employees and elected officials cannot engage in State-financed travel to any of the four states that are continuing to discriminate against the LGBT Community. The travel ban was implemented when a new California law prohibiting travel to discriminatory states was put into effect in January of 2017. Attorney General Becerra will be the one who will determine if and when discriminatory states are included on the travel ban list.
Pence weighs in
Recently, Vice-president Mike Pence stated that anti-LGBT laws are not welcome in the Donald Trump Administration. Nevertheless, North Carolina and the other three aforementioned states, still discriminate and will not have any taxpayer-financed visitations from California employees or elected officials until they overturn their discriminatory laws.
Trump policies contradict Pence
Despite assurances from Pence that anti-LGBT laws will not be tolerated in the Trump Administration, President Trump nevertheless implemented a discriminatory executive order. In that order, President Obama's executive order banning discrimination against the LGBT Community was overturned. It appears that there is at least a minimal communication gap and/or a misunderstanding among the high-ranking officials of the Trump Administration.
The firings of Michael Flynn and Steve Bannon seem to reinforce the belief that things have gone awry within the Administration that promises to "Make America great again."
California leads the nation
Although there still remain several conservative states that are resistant to change, the momentum is with California. The fact remains that California still "leads the nation" as the country's most progressive state. Considering this, it would appear likely that other states may follow California and also implement state-financed travel bans to the states that discriminate against the LGBT Community.
