California officials on Wednesday
announced that a policy that restricts government workers from
traveling to North Carolina will remain in place.
The ban was enacted to protest passage
of House Bill 2, which blocked cities from enacting LGBT protections
and prohibited transgender people from using the bathroom of their
choice in many buildings.
Earlier this month, lawmakers repealed
the law and replaced it with House Bill 142. But California Attorney
General Xavier Becerra said that the changes didn't go far enough.
“California’s law was enacted to
ensure that, with limited exceptions, our taxpayer resources are not
spent in states that authorize discrimination on the basis of sexual
orientation, gender identity, or gender expression,” Becerra said
in a statement. “North Carolina’s new law does not cure the
infirmity of this type of discrimination.”
The new law leaves bathroom regulation
to the state and enacts a moratorium on local LGBT protections until
December 1, 2020.
California is the second state after
Minnesota to announce it will keep its travel ban in place. Other
states, including Vermont, New York and Connecticut, have yet to
react to the repeal.