California Travel Bans to Anti-LGBT States Take Shape

With bills allowing religious-based discrimination against LGBT people pending in state legislatures across the U.S., state employees in California, as well as those working for San Francisco, Santa Clara and Santa Cruz counties, could find themselves barred from traveling on the public's dime to a large swath of the country next year.

As of January 1 the Golden State will join Santa Clara and Santa Cruz counties in banning non-essential taxpayer-funded travel to states that have enacted laws allowing for discrimination based on sexual orientation or gender identity. It stems from the passage in the fall of Assembly Bill 1887 authored by gay Assemblyman Evan Low (D-Campbell).

In November the state attorney general's office informed Richard Gillihan, director of the California Department of Human Resources, that it intended to ban state employees from traveling to Mississippi, North Carolina, and Tennessee due to those states having anti-LGBT laws on their books. More states are expected to be included when the official list is posted online Sunday, January 1 by the AG's office, which is responsible for compiling the list of banned states.

"AB 1887's travel prohibition will continue as long as any other state has such a discriminatory law in effect," noted Angela Sierra, senior assistant attorney general, in her letter to Gillihan dated November 17.

San Francisco is expected to follow suit and ban its municipal employees from traveling to the states on the AG's list, and perhaps others, as of Valentine's Day, February 14, when the city's travel ban goes into effect. The local legislation also bans city agencies from entering into new contracts with businesses headquartered in the banned states, making San Francisco the first city to adopt such a policy.

The city administrator, who is tasked with overseeing the list, has been working with the city attorney's office to compile it and lay out the reasoning for why each individual state is covered by the travel ban policy.

"We are actively working on it," said Bill Barnes, a project manager for the city administrator. "Obviously, it is a changing landscape everyday as states are either adopting or appealing anti-LGBT laws."

Officials in Santa Clara and Santa Cruz counties were the first in California to enact travel bans to states with anti-LGBT laws. And the cities of Santa Cruz and Watsonville have both imposed their own travel bans.

Public officials in the three northern California counties are already barred from using taxpayer funds to travel to North Carolina due to that state's House Bill 2, which restricts cities in the state from enacting local non-discrimination laws and requires transgender people to use public restrooms based on the gender they were assigned at birth. An effort to repeal the law just prior to Christmas failed, leaving the travel bans intact for now.

County supervisors in Santa Clara and Santa Cruz earlier this year also banned non-essential county-funded travel to Mississippi after lawmakers in the state enacted the Protecting Freedom of Conscience from Government Discrimination Act, which allows individuals, businesses, and religious organizations to refuse service to LGBT people based on their religious beliefs.

Santa Clara also bans most taxpayer-funded travel to Arkansas and Tennessee for having anti-LGBT laws on the books.

The state's travel ban covers not only government agencies but also applies to both the University of California and California State University systems. Travel necessary for the enforcement of California law, to meet prior contractual obligations, or for the protection of public health, welfare, or safety is exempted from the policy.

The Sacramento Bee reported last week that neither the Board of Equalization nor the Franchise Tax Board would be asked to reduce employees' travel to the banned states since their work often requires them to examine financial documents in person.

But many sports teams at the state's public universities would likely no longer be able to schedule away games in states on the banned list, the paper reported. And private sponsors would not be able to pay to have experts from California colleges speak at conferences, according to the Bee, citing a Human Resources memo informing state employees they cannot accept money from third party groups to pay for travel to the banned states.

List of Banned States to Grow

More states will likely join the travel ban lists later in 2017 should their legislatures and governors enact anti-LGBT laws of their own. Already lawmakers in Alabama, Georgia, Iowa, Texas, and West Virginia have signaled they intend to push discriminatory bills in the new year.

"There are a range of things we think will happen at the federal and local levels, but the flavor of the month here are religious freedom exemption bills," James Esseks, director of the ACLU LGBT Project, told reporters during a recent media briefing.

Following the November election, with the number of statehouses controlled solely by Republicans now up by two to number 24, LGBT advocates are bracing for multiple legislative fights over LGBT rights, especially in the South and Midwest. The onslaught of anti-LGBT bills is expected to be so vast that the ACLU will be launching a dedicated website to track the homophobic and transphobic legislation.

"This kind of political landscape does give us a sense of what we may anticipate," said Eunice Rho, the ACLU's advocacy and policy counsel. "In 2016 we had over 200 anti-gay bills. I won't be surprised if we go over that in 2017."