Lawmakers in California are taking a stand against other states it considers to be unfair, discriminatory and biased against LGBTQ citizens. California has compiled a list of U.S. states it is reluctant to do business with and has even compiled a list of places it refuses to pay state employees to travel to — a list that continues to grow.
On Monday, June 28, California state Attorney General Rob Bonta announced that Arkansas, Florida, Montana, North Dakota and West Virginia were added to California’s list of banned places for state workers to travel to. These five states join Alabama, Idaho, Iowa, Kansas, Kentucky, Mississippi, North Carolina, Oklahoma, South Carolina, South Dakota, Tennessee and Texas — bringing the list of banned states up to 17.
CNN’s Paul LeBlanc and Stella Chan have reported that Bonta’s ban is based around one very simple but important rule: “aligning our dollars with our values.” To do that, he says, California intends to single out the states he believes are enacting “dangerous” new laws that “directly work to ban transgender youth from playing sports, block access to life-saving care, or otherwise limit the rights of members of the LGBTQ+ community.”
