California may end its travel ban to states with anti-LGBTQ+ laws

The California legislature has voted to repeal a 2016 law that bans publicly funded travel to 26 states with anti-LGBTQ+ laws. The repeal, Senate Bill 447, would create a fund to promote LGBTQ+-inclusive campaigns in these states instead.

The state Assembly voted 64-12 in support of the repeal on Monday, and the state Senate voted 31-6 in support of it on Tuesday. Gov. Gavin Newsom (D) now has until October 14 to decide whether to sign the repeal into law.

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The law is a direct rebuke to national efforts to erase LGBTQ+ identities from schools.

The repeal would create a fund known as the BRIDGE Project – BRIDGE being an acronym for “Building and Reinforcing Inclusive, Diverse, Gender-Supportive Equality.”

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The project would “create a fund that could be used to create non-partisan, inclusive messaging, discourage discrimination, and help members of the LGBTQ+ community feel less isolated,” the repeal says. This messaging would “raise public awareness and promote civil rights and antidiscrimination through education, advertising, and marketing activities,” the text states.

California began restricting travel to states with anti-LGBTQ+ laws in 2016 after North Carolina passed a law banning transgender people from using restrooms and other public facilities matching their gender identities. North Carolina partially repealed the bathroom bill in 2017 and fully repealed it in 2020.

However, last July, California Attorney General Rob Bonta (D) announced that the state would additionally restrict travel to Missouri, Nebraska, and Wyoming as a result of those states recently passing anti-LGBTQ+ laws — bringing the number of travel-banned states to 26.

The ban prevents California government workers, university professors, and elected officials from visiting over half of the country, making it difficult for them to conduct important out-of-state business. The law has also unintentionally isolated LGBTQ+ people in these red states, the repeal’s sponsors say, when California could do more to positively impact those states’ queer residents.

State Sen. Toni Atkins (D) said the travel ban was “the right thing to do” in 2016, according to The Hill, but now believes it’s no longer an effective or sustainable way to oppose the growing wave of anti-LGBTQ+ legislation.

“What we need is messaging that really goes to the heart of what regular people all across this country want, which is to live in peace,” said Atkins, the primary sponsor of the repeal who is also the first out queer legislator to serve as Senate president.

Gay state Assemblymember Rick Zbur (D), who previously served as executive director of the state LGBTQ+ advocacy group Equality California said in a Monday Assembly speech, “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.”

In 2019, LGBTQ Nation guest columnist Cyd Zeigler criticized the travel ban as “a political stunt to boost the appearance of Sacramento politicians’ support of the LGBTQ community.” Zeigler noted that many state-funded agencies use separate funds to pay for travel to the forbidden states, giving the appearance of queer solidarity while allowing California government business to continue in red states as usual.