California bans state-funded travel to Florida over anti-trans laws

‘We’re in the midst of an unprecedented wave of bigotry and discrimination in this country’

California has banned state-funded travel to Florida along with four other states over new anti-trans laws that discriminate against the LGBT+ community.

The state’s attorney general announced on Monday that they had added Florida, Arkansas, Montana, North Dakota and West Virginia to the list forbidding state employee travel.

"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," Democratic Attorney General Rob Bonta said.

"California must take action to avoid supporting or financing discrimination against lesbian, gay, bisexual, and transgender people,” a release announcing the restrictions said.

Mr Bonta said five states had introduced bills 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 LGBT+ community”.

The Human Rights Campaign, the largest LGBT+ advocacy group in the US, says that so far in 2021, at least 35 bills have been introduced targeting transgender people and affecting their ability to seek medical care.

Politico reported that the organisation said it has widely been a record-breaking year for anti-LGBT+ and anti-transgender legislation, with such bills being proposed in more than a dozen states.

In 2016, the state enacted a law banning non-essential travel to states with laws that discriminate against LGBT+ people.

A year later in 2017, California banned state-funded travel to Texas in light of the state’s decision to allow agencies to reject adoption applications of LGBT+ couples based on religious reasons.

Since then, 12 other states have been included on California’s banned travel list including Texas, Alabama, Idaho, Iowa, Oklahoma, South Carolina, South Dakota, Kentucky, North Carolina, Kansas, Mississippi, and Tennessee.

“It’s important for our state to send a strong message," assembly member Evan Low, chair of the California legislative LGBT+ caucus, said on Monday, Politico said.

The state law has exemptions for some trips such as travel needed to enforce California law and those to honour contracts signed before the states were added to the list.

Additional reporting by the Associated Press