California has implemented its own travel ban

California has implemented its own travel ban
Image: LU staff

So this is what passes as freedom in the liberal world. The Los Angeles Times reports that the California State Legislature has passed a law that prohibits state-funded and state-sponsored travel to states with laws that discriminate against members of the LGBT community.

To drive home the earnestness of the law, the article opens anecdotally with the sad tale of UC Davis senior Acacia Keith, who was excited about having been selected to present her research at a national conference, with the school covering her travel expenses. But, alas — the article informs us — young Acacia won’t be going. The conference is being held at the University of Memphis, which is one of four states, Tennessee, that discriminates against Ls, Gs, Bs, and Ts. (The other three are  Kansas, North Carolina, and Mississippi.

One presumes Keith is still free to travel to the conference on her own dime. Not so employees of state agencies, departments, boards, or commissions, unless they are traveling to one of these cretinous locations for any of seven excepted reasons, including procuring grant funding for the Golden State. Even in the most liberal cases, money still talks!

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California is not the first state to ban government travel to LGBT-unfriendly states. In March of 2016, New York Gov. Andrew Cuomo passed a bill prohibiting travel to North Carolina.

One question worth asking is whether these states will rescind their travel bans in the event that the Trump administration goes forward with a planned rollback of the Obama-era directive that allows students to use school restrooms that correspond with their gender identity. If this change is implemented, North Carolina will no longer be guilty of discrimination for requiring that people use bathrooms that conform to the plumbing they were born with.

Howard Portnoy

Howard Portnoy

Howard Portnoy has written for The Blaze, HotAir, NewsBusters, Weasel Zippers, Conservative Firing Line, RedCounty, and New York’s Daily News. He has one published novel, Hot Rain, (G. P. Putnam’s Sons), and has been a guest on Radio Vice Online with Jim Vicevich, The Alana Burke Show, Smart Life with Dr. Gina, and The George Espenlaub Show.

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