By TOM JOYCE | THE CENTER SQUARE
California is restricting state-funded travel to several states because its politicians disagree with political policies enacted by those states over the past several months.
California Attorney General Rob Bonta announced that the state is restricting state-funded travel to Arizona, Indiana, Louisiana and Utah because of what it refers to as “anti-LGBTQ+ legislation recently enacted in each state.” Most states were added because they passed laws preventing biological males from competing in women’s sports.
“Make no mistake: There is a coordinated, ongoing attack on transgender rights happening right now all across the country,” Bonta said in a news release. “Blanket legislation targeting transgender children is a ‘solution’ in search of a problem. It is detached from reality and directly undermines the well-being of our LGBTQ+ community. During this pride month and all year round, we’re committed to standing up against discrimination in all its forms. California is restricting state-funded travel to Arizona, Indiana, Louisiana, and Utah. As mandated under AB 1887, we’re putting our money where our values are.”
The restrictions are pursuant to AB 1887, a law California passed in 2016 that states, “California must take action to avoid supporting or financing discrimination against lesbian, gay, bisexual, and transgender people.”
Arizona Gov. Doug Ducey responded to the announcement with some attitude: “It’s unfortunate California state employees won’t be able to travel here and visit all the businesses that have fled their state,” he tweeted.
The Attorney General’s office says the four states passed laws banning biological males from competing in girls’ school sports. Additionally, there was one other reason why Arizona was on the list; it banned “gender-affirming care to minors,” according to the news release.
The travel restrictions will go into effect on July 1, 2022.
These new additions make 18 states are now on the “no fly” list that California government officials cannot visit for conferences, including Alabama, Arkansas, Florida, Idaho, Iowa, Kansas, Kentucky, Mississippi, Montana, North Carolina, North Dakota, Oklahoma, South Carolina, South Dakota, Tennessee, Texas, and West Virginia.
Alaska could also end up on California’s naughty list. Some lawmakers have been trying to place in statute protection for women and girls’ sports by making it clear that boys are not girls, when it comes to playing certain competitive sports, such as swimming, regardless of how they “identify.” Leftists in the Senate killed the bill, but it is bound to return next year.
Meanwhile, Gov. Gavin Newsom of California is buying TV ad space in Florida, where he is telling Floridians to flee that state for the “free state of California.” Newsom’s ad ran over the Fourth of July holiday, encouraging people in Florida to either fight for freedom or move to California to find freedom.
“Freedom, it’s under attack in your state. Republican leaders, they’re banning books, making it harder to vote, restricting speech in classrooms, even criminalizing women and doctors,” Newsom says in the ad, as images of Gov. Ron DeSantis and former President Donald Trump are shown to viewers.
It appeared to observers to be an early attempt at establishing his nationwide credentials for a run for president for Newsom.
As for Gov. DeSantis, his staff laughed off the ad:
“Gavin Newsom might as well light a pile of cash on fire,” DeSantis spokesman Dave Abrams told CNN, referring to the $105,000 that Newsom had just spent. “Pass the popcorn for his desperate attempt to win back the California refugees who fled the hellhole he created in his state to come to Florida.”
It may be that liberals in Florida relocate to California, where conservatives in California find their new home in the “free state of Florida,” as the state has become known across the country.
