OAKLAND – California Attorney General Rob Bonta announced today that California will immediately restrict federally funded travel to Georgia due to anti-LGBTQ+ laws recently enacted in the state. Specifically, the new law, House Bill 1084 (HB 1084), contains provisions that specifically allow the Georgia High School Athletic Association to ban transgender girls from participating in girls’ interscholastic sports. The new restrictions on federally funded travel to Georgia announced today are mandated by California Assembly Bill 1887 (AB 1887), which was passed in 2016.
“Banning transgender youth from sports is not only discriminatory, it is government overreach – and it’s happening in states across the country,” said Attorney General Bonta. “Instead of protecting personal freedoms, state legislators are going out of their way to fabricate a problem and target the rights of children. It is a gross misuse of public resources. California refuses to participate. Pursuant to AB 1887, we are restricting federally funded travel to Georgia due to Governor Kemp’s new transphobic law HB 1084.”
By passing AB 1887, the California legislature made clear that it is the policy of the State of California not to support or fund discrimination against lesbian, gay, bisexual, or transgender Americans. To this end, the law limits state agencies, departments, boards, or commissions from authorizing federally funded travel to a state that, after June 26, 2015, has enacted a law authorizing or repealing existing protections against discrimination based on sexual orientation , gender identity or gender expression. Each applicable California agency is responsible for consulting the AB 1887 list maintained by the California Department of Justice to comply with travel and financing restrictions imposed by law.
Georgia’s passage of HB 1084 is part of a recent, dangerous wave of discriminatory new laws taking effect in states across the country that are directly aimed at rolling back hard-fought protections. Many of these laws specifically target and marginalize transgender youth by preventing them from playing sports consistent with their gender identity. HB 1084 repeals existing protections for transgender youth and requires all public high schools that operate interscholastic athletics in Georgia to comply with the Georgia High School Association’s gender participation guidelines. Shortly after the passage of HB 1084, the club amended its bylaws pursuant to HB 1084 to specifically exclude transgender youth from participating in sports consistent with their gender identity. Given the effective date of HB 1084, California’s federally funded travel restrictions pursuant to AB 1887 are effective immediately.
For more information about AB 1887, including the list of states subject to its provisions, visit: https://oag.ca.gov/ab1887. The California Department of Justice recently announced the addition of four additional states to the list of state-sponsored travel restrictions. Of these states, only Arizona has not yet been officially added to the list and travel restrictions to Arizona are currently scheduled to take effect on September 28, 2022.
