Taking lead to protect human rights California bans travel to five states over controversial LGBTQ+ laws

 California is taking lead to protect human rights of all communities in the US and in this direction has banned state funded travel to Florida and four other states due to their discriminatory laws against LGBTQ+ community.

On Monday, attorney general of California, Rob Bonta added five states Florida, Arkansas, North Dakota, Montana and West Virginia to now list containing 17 states where state employees are prohibited from traveling except certain limited circumstances. “Make no mistake: we’re in the midst of an unprecedented wave of bigotry and discrimination in this country, and the state of California is not going to support it,” Bonta said.

The newly added 5 US states have introduced new bills this year to their state legislatures that target people of LGBTQ+ community and prohibit them from enjoying the basic human rights. These laws ban transgender girls from taking part in school sports as per their gender identity, block healthcare access in certain sectors and thus allow open discrimination against the said community.

Arkansas became the first state to pass law that would prohibit physicians from providing transgender minors with gender affirming healthcare, regardless consent of parents and the physician deeming procedure necessary medically. Bonta said, “These lawmakers would rather demonize trans youth than focus on solving real issues like tackling gun violence beating back this pandemic and rebuilding our economy.”

In 2016 the lawmakers in California had made a list of states to which state funded travel would be banned on basis of them passing discriminatory laws against lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender people. The other states in list are: Texas, Alabama, Idaho, Iowa, Oklahoma, South Carolina, South Dakota, Kentucky, North Carolina, Kansas, Mississippi and Tennessee.

The travels exempted from ban include those that are needed to enforce state law and to fulfill contracts that were signed before states were added to the list.