FILE – California Attorney General Rob Bonta speaks at a news conference at the Capitol in Sacramento, Calif., Feb. 23, 2022. California’s attorney general says the state of Florida appears to have arranged for a group of South American migrants to be dropped off outside a Sacramento church. Bonta said Saturday, June 3, 2023 the individuals had documents purporting to be from the Florida state government. (AP Photo/Rich Pedroncelli, File)
Attorney General Rob Bonta announced Friday that California has expanded its list of states to which it will not sponsor travel over LGBTQ+ laws it deems discriminatory, even as his own state’s lawmakers work to undo the travel ban altogether.
By law, California will restrict state-funded travel to Missouri, Nebraska, and Wyoming as a result of anti-LGBTQ+ legislation recently enacted in each of those states, Bonta said, adding them to the list of 23 other states to which state-funded or sponsored travel is banned. That puts more than half the country off limits for state travel.
“These new laws enacted by Missouri, Nebraska, and Wyoming aren’t just discriminatory, they constitute a clear case of government overreach — and it’s an alarming trend we’re witnessing across the country,” Bonta said in a statement. “By preventing transgender individuals from participating in sports aligned with their gender identity, or by denying them access to critical healthcare, these legislative actions directly contradict the values of inclusivity and diversity.”
Bonta said the action is required under AB 1887, a 2016 bill by Assemblyman Evan Low, an openly gay Santa Clara County Democrat.
Bonta didn’t mention that another LGBTQ+ Democrat, Senate pro Tempore Toni Atkins of San Diego, has sponsored legislation this year to repeal that ban and replace it with a non-partisan outreach campaign to encourage acceptance of the LGBTQ+ community called the “BRIDGE Project.”
Atkins on Friday announced her bill, SB 447, passed the Assembly Committee on Jobs, Economic Development and the Economy on a 6-1 vote Tuesday and is gaining support. Atkins said in introducing the bill in March that “a new approach is needed for California to have a positive impact.” The ban didn’t stop 26 states from adopting such laws, she said.
“As the years have passed, the travel ban has had the unintended impact of further isolating members of the LGBTQ+ community in those states, and hampering Californians from being able to conduct research, business, and engage with all people from those states,” Atkins said.
The travel ban has been politically awkward for Gov. Gavin Newsom, who regularly visits his in-laws in Montana, one of the banned states. Newsom came under fire a year ago when he took such a trip without disclosing the state to which he was traveling, and being called out for it after reporters found out.
Newsom’s office said at the time such personal and privately paid travel is not considered state sponsored and financed under AB 1887, but declined to say whether California paid for any accompanying security staff.
Bonta said the state laws in question leading to the travel bans “target and marginalize transgender youth” by preventing them from participating in sports “in accordance with their gender identity,” as well as restrict access to “critical gender-affirming healthcare services” — sex-change hormonal treatments and surgeries.
The issue of transgender hormone and surgical treatments for children and teens and male-born students participating as transgender girls in competitive sports has been hotly debated. Advocates argue that failure to allow the treatments can lead gender non-conforming youths down a path of self-harm and suicide.
Critics question the research behind those statements and argue it’s immoral to allow medically unnecessary and irreversible treatments on youths who may outgrow their gender nonconformity. Critics also say that boys who identify as girls have a physical advantage in competitive sports that is unfair to girl athletes.
Low has defended AB 1887, arguing that repealing it would amount to backing down in the face of what he’s called a record amount of anti-LGBTQ+ legislation.
But Assemblyman Chris Ward, a San Diego Democrat supporting Atkins’ bill, said “it is time to pivot our strategy so that instead of a hard line of no contact, we have a direct line to reach people in the LGBTQ+ community where they are. Senate Bill 447 is the vehicle for the change we need.”
