CUOMO RESTRICTS STATE GOVERNMENT TRAVEL TO NORTH CAROLINA AND MISSISSIPPI

Governor Cuomo has reacted to the passage of a North Carolina bill banning transsexuals from using restrooms that do not match their anatomy and a Mississippi bill allowing persons to decline to serve gay weddings by drafting an executive order banning non-essential state travel to both states. The order requires all New York State agencies, departments, boards and commissions to immediately review all requests for state funded or state sponsored travel to the state of North Carolina, and bar any such publicly funded travel that is not essential to the enforcement of state law or public health and safety.

In 2015, Governor Cuomo banned non-essential state travel to the state of Indiana after that state’s legislature passed a controversial religious freedom measure that did not prohibit discrimination against LGBT citizens. The Indiana measure was later amended to prevent it from being used to discriminate against LGBT residents and travelers in Indiana, and that travel ban was lifted.