County Supervisor Seeks to Ban Employee Travel to North Carolina Over Transgender Bathroom Bill

LOS ANGELES, CA - Supervisor Hilda Solis called today for the suspension of all non-essential travel by Los Angeles County employees to North Carolina.

The proposal -- set to be considered at the board's next meeting on April 26 -- comes in response to North Carolina's recent legislation barring transgender people from bathrooms that don't match the gender on their birth certificates.

"HB2 (the North Carolina law) requires us to stand up again in solidarity with the LGBTQ community," Solis told her colleagues.

In addition to requiring transgender individuals to use bathrooms and locker rooms corresponding to the gender on their birth certificate, House Bill 2 prohibits municipalities from enacting their own anti-discrimination legislation.

The bill was passed in reaction to a city of Charlotte ordinance that prohibited discrimination based on sexual orientation or gender identity and allowed transgender people to use bathrooms based on their gender identity.

Since HB2 was passed, Atlanta, Salt Lake City, Connecticut and New York State have instituted a travel ban like the one Solis has proposed.

PayPal has scrapped plans to build a major operations center in the state and Bruce Springsteen has canceled a concert there. A&E and FOX, which have started production on new television shows in North Carolina, indicated any future production would be at risk.

Some federal officials have suggested that the state may lose federal aid.

City News Service