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- The Human Rights Campaign, which advocates for equal rights for the LGBT community.
- The ACLU, which fights for civil liberties everywhere, and you can report instances of discriminations at their site.
- The Trans United Fund, the first advocacy organization for the transgender community.
- The Victory Institute, which trains LGBT leaders.
- The Gay Straight Alliance, which provides safety and community for LGBT youth
- The Sylvia Rivera Law Project provides free legal representation for the trans community
- More organizations that support the LGBT community can be found at the Daily Dot.)
The Bay Area News Group is reporting that a Cal women’s basketball home-and-home was taken off the books against Kansas due to the state’s discriminatory law against the LGBT community. The state of California had law AB 1887 go into effect on January 1st that prohibits state funds or state-sponsored legislation to go to travel to states that have laws that discriminate against the LGBT community.
This will apply to our baby brothers UCLA as well, along with any athletic programs in the UC and CSU system (Fresno State, San Diego State, San Jose State in the Mountain West, UC Irvine, UC Davis, UC Riverside, UC Santa Barbara, Cal Poly, Long Beach State in the Big West are all affected).
All scheduling events that took place before January 1st will not be affected, so Cal football’s games at North Carolina this season and Ole Miss in 2019 are still (for the moment) going ahead as planned.
The ban could also extend into the academic realm as well.
The hoped-for series between UC-Berkeley and KU is the only athletics event that has been affected so far, according to KU officials. Larry Keating, special assistant to the KU athletics director, told the Journal-World Friday that there are no major sports games scheduled between KU and any California team, and if any games do come up, he said they would be the result of contracts that were signed before Jan. 1 when the law took effect.
But the California travel ban could have far-reaching implications for other kinds of travel, including academic conferences, government agency conferences and other types of travel.
The law in question is Kansas is Senate Bill 175, signed into law by governor Sam Brownback. SB 175 reportedly is titled the Campus Religious Freedom Bill. It prohibits schools from denying funds to groups that are allowed to practice religious discrimination on campus.
Say a student is Muslim, or Jewish or gay. A Christian group would be free to reject them if they do not subscribe to their particular beliefs, and not incur punishment from anyone in the education system.
“The new law jeopardizes nondiscrimination policies that are already in place at many of Kansas’ educational institutions, including the Kansas Board of Regents and the University of Kansas,” an email to HRC supporters Wednesday read. “These policies require that student organizations which receive financial and other support from the school do not discriminate against students based on race, sex, religion, sexual orientation or gender identity. SB 175 blows a hole right through them — and allows discrimination against any of these groups if one cites a ‘religious belief’ as a justification.”
This law also prohibits Cal from scheduling future contests in the states of North Carolina, Tennessee and Mississippi due to similar discrimination laws, which particularly target the LGBT community.
North Carolina’s House Bill 2 law (which you might know as the “bathroom bill”) eliminates anti-discrimination protections for the LGBT community at government buildings (one can only use restrooms and changing facilities that correspond to the sex on their birth certificates).
There are several lawsuits underway to try and repeal the legislation. The new governor of North Carolina has also pledged to repeal HB2, but was unable to do so in December.
California passed AB 1887 in response to North Carolina’s HB2 law.
“California has said clearly, our taxpayer dollars will not help fund bigotry and hatred,” Low stated in a press release. “If other states try and pass similar laws, we will work to stop them. Our zero-tolerance policy says there is no room for discrimination of any kind in California, and AB 1887 ensures that discrimination will not be tolerated beyond our borders.”
As a result of AB 1887, any state that passes laws that repeal LGBT protections, attacks the rights of same-sex couples or LGBT families, or creates exemptions for these families in existing antidiscriminatory laws will be added to the list of states subject to the travel ban.
Tennessee governor Bill Haslam signed House Bill 1840 into law last April, which allows licensed counselors and psychologists to turn away LGBT patients that suffer from mental health problems.
Mississippi signed House Bill 1523 into law last April, which is the most draconian of all these laws. It allows businesses, individuals, and religiously affiliated organizations to deny service to LGBT people, single mothers, and (most insidiously) people who offend an individual’s “sincerely held religious belief.” It also refuses to acknowledge transgender residents by claiming that the sex of birth is the only one that will be recognized by the state.
Because the games were scheduled before the legislation passed, Cal football’s road trip to North Carolina this season will still be going ahead as planned. I imagine if Cal planned on changing their home-and-home series with North Carolina, it would’ve been done by now—AB 1887 was signed into law last September. Also it’s extremely difficult to reschedule college football games a year out due to the nature of the scheduling environment
Their scheduled trip to Ole Miss in 2019 is still on the books as well. I’d imagine that game might be in more serious danger of being taken off the books due to the nature of House Bill 1523.