Newsom in a statement thanked Atkins for “this important measure that enables California to continue taking a stand for the rights of LGBTQ+ people throughout the country and combating intolerance and hate with empathy and allyship.”
California’s state travel ban was enacted with a 2016 law, AB 1887, by Assemblyman Evan Low, a Cupertino Democrat who is gay. The law restricted state agencies, departments, boards and commissions from state-funded travel to states that have adopted what California considers discriminatory anti-LGBTQ+ laws.
Attorney General Rob Bonta announced his office was adding three more states — Missouri, Nebraska and Wyoming — to the listThe laws in question that have led California to expand its travel ban mostly dealt with transgender access to school bathrooms, participation in youth sports and “gender affirming” hormonal and surgical procedures on children, a matter that has roiled school boards, health care and athletics in recent years.
, Montana, to visit his wife’s family. 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.