A California lawmaker has proposed a bill banning state employees from using government funds for travel to other states with laws that advocates for gays, lesbians, bisexuals, and transgender people say discriminate against them.
"No one wants to send employees into an environment where they would be uncomfortable," Democratic Assemblyman Evan Low told
The Sacramento Bee.
Lowe's bill would affect administrative travel, not political, and comes shortly after South Dakota's Republican governor vetoed a bill that would have restricted transgender students' access to public schools and locker rooms.
The proposed ban is the first proposed after last year, when Indiana's religious freedom bill prompted Democratic governors from New York, Washington, and Connecticut and several mayors to issue temporary government travel bans. However, the bans were all lifted when
Indiana Gov. Mike Pence signed a revision that banned LGBT discrimination, reports
The Washington Post.
Low's bill will be heard in April, and could include 21 states where religious freedom laws are in place, including places like Arizona, Idaho, New Mexico, Tennessee, Kentucky. and Virginia.
Currently, there are some 150 bills nationwide classified unfriendly to LGBT people, according to The Human Rights Campaign, a community lobbying group. Further, around a dozen states are considering bathroom bill such as the one vetoed in South Dakota.
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Sandy Fitzgerald ✉
Sandy Fitzgerald has more than three decades in journalism and serves as a general assignment writer for Newsmax covering news, media, and politics.