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Iowa has joined nearly a dozen other states to which California state employees are banned from traveling on official government business. Beginning October 4, California state employees and officials will not be allowed to make taxpayer-funded trips to Iowa, which joins Alabama, Kansas, Kentucky, Mississippi, North Carolina, Oklahoma, South Carolina, South Dakota, Tennessee, and Texas as forbidden destinations for California government employees.
As with all the other states, the ban is tied to Iowa’s supposed discrimination against “transgender” individuals. In March of this year, the Iowa Supreme Court ruled that gender transition surgeries must be covered under Medicaid, citing the state’s nearly decade-old Civil Rights Act that prohibits Iowa businesses and entities from refusing service to individuals based on their gender identity. Iowa’s state legislature responded to the court ruling by passing a measure excluding gender transition surgeries from Medicaid coverage, which was quickly passed by Iowa’s Republican governor, Kim Reynolds.
That move ran afoul of California’s own 2016 legislation (Assembly Bill 1887), which bans funded travel to states that supposedly discriminate against individuals based on sexual orientation or gender identity.
In announcing the latest ban, California Attorney General Xavier Becerra declared that “the Iowa legislature has reversed course on what was settled law under the Iowa Civil Rights Act, repealing protections for those seeking gender-affirming healthcare. California has taken an unambiguous stand against discrimination and government actions that would enable it.”
The Blaze noted that the ban “is technically supposed to prevent public colleges and universities from participating in events in locations on the no-travel list, but this is enforced on a discretionary basis, particularly when it comes to college athletics programs, which continue to compete in banned states.”
The Los Angeles Times noted that some California college sports teams have skirted the ban by turning to private sources for travel funds, such as school boosters and corporate sponsors. Reported the Times: “When the Cal State Long Beach men’s basketball team was invited in November to play in a tournament in Starkville, Miss., it asked the company that staged the tournament to cover its travel and hotel costs.”
Additionally, “Track stars were able to participate in the NCAA Track and Field National Championships this year because of private funds raised from supporters, said Andy Fee, the university’s athletic director.”
The Times observed that the travel ban was “pushed by Democratic lawmakers but opposed by Republicans, who say it has proved to be an empty gesture.” Assembly Republican leader Marie Waldron called the ban “virtue-signaling at its worst,” recalling that last April the state’s Democrat governor, Gavin Newsom, took a “fact-finding” trip to El Salvador, supposedly to find out why so many immigrants are trying to make it to the United States.”
“El Salvador doesn’t allow same-sex couples to marry or adopt children and discrimination is rampant,” Waldron pointed out. “Where was the outrage from legislative Democrats when Gov. Newsom traveled there?”
Photo: KLH49 / iStock / Getty Images Plus
