California Governor Jerry Brown on
Wednesday signed a bill banning government workers from non-essential
travel to states with laws that restrict LGBT rights.
State agencies are also blocked from
requiring their workers to travel to such states.
College sports teams could also be
affected by the law as it applies to the University of California and
California State University System.
While the law (Assembly Bill 1887) does
not specifically single out North Carolina's House Bill 2 – which
rolled back LGBT protections in Charlotte and prohibits transgender
people from using the bathroom of their choice in government
buildings and schools – it does appear to be a response to its
passage in March.
“This bill would prohibit a state
agency and the Legislature from requiring any of its employees,
officers, or members to travel to, or approving a request for
state-funded or state-sponsored travel to, any state that, after June
26, 2015, 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,” the bill's summary
states.
The law requires that the California
attorney general post online a list of states to which travel is
restricted.
Several states, including Oregon,
Minnesota, New York, Washington, Connecticut and Vermont, have either
banned non-essential government travel to North Carolina or condemned
the bill's passage.