FILE - Senate President Pro Tempore Toni G. Atkins, D-San Diego, the first openly LGBTQ+ person to lead the statehouse's upper chamber, speaks at the inauguration of Karen Bass, the first Black woman elected Los Angeles mayor, on Sunday, Dec. 11, 2022. The state Assembly passed Atkins' bill to end a ban on state-funded travel to states with anti-LGBTQ+ law on Monday, Sept. 11, 2023.
California started banning official travel to states with laws it deemed discriminatory against LGBTQ+ people in 2017, starting with Kansas, Mississippi, North Carolina and Tennessee. Since then, the list has grown to include a total of 26 states, most of them Republican-led, following a surge of anti-LGBTQ+ legislation these past few years.
The prohibition has prevented elected officials, state workers and university scholars from traveling to more than half of the country using the state's money. That has posed a significant challenge to sports teams at public colleges and universities, which have had to find alternative funding sources to pay for their road games in states like Arizona and Utah.
“In many instances, the travel ban has inadvertently caused California to isolate its services and citizens in a time when we are leading the nation in ensuring inclusivity and freedom,” said Democratic Assemblymember Rick Zbur, the former executive director of the advocacy group Equality California.
The reversal on the travel ban comes amid intense political battles across the country over transgender rights, including efforts to
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