Mayor Edwin Lee of San Francisco, California, has banned any publicly funded travel to North Carolina after its governor, Pat McCrory, signed a law on March 23 that mandates local education boards to have bathroom or changing facilities that are to be used by students based on their biological sex.
House Bill 2, or the Public Facilities Privacy and Security Act, also orders places of public accommodation to have bathrooms that are to be used only by persons based on their biological sex.
The law was passed to override the LGBT non-discrimination ordinance passed by the city of Charlotte set to take effect on April 1. The ordinance would have allowed transgender men and women to use restrooms that correspond to their gender identity.
In signing the law, McCrory said, "The basic expectation of privacy in the most personal of settings, a restroom or locker room, for each gender was violated by government overreach and intrusion by the mayor and city council of Charlotte."
"This radical breach of trust and security under the false argument of equal access not only impacts the citizens of Charlotte but people who come to Charlotte to work, visit or play. This new government regulation defies common sense and basic community norms by allowing, for example, a man to use a woman's bathroom, shower or locker room," he said.
But Mayor Lee is condemning the law, saying it is discriminatory.
"We are standing united as San Franciscans to condemn North Carolina's new discriminatory law that turns back the clock on protecting the rights of all Americans including lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender individuals," he said.
He announced on Friday that "effective immediately, I am directing City Departments under my authority to bar any publicly funded City employee travel to the State of North Carolina that is not absolutely essential to public health and safety."
Lee said he believes "strongly that we should be adding more protections to prevent discrimination against lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender communities in the United States, not taking them away."
McCrory said Charlotte's "mayor and the city council took action far out of its core responsibilities."
He said he signed the law "to stop this breach of basic privacy and etiquette which was to go into effect April 1. Although other items included in this bill should have waited until regular session, this bill does not change existing rights under state or federal law."
Lee warned that while other states like Georgia are on the verge of passing discriminatory laws, "let me be clear that San Francisco taxpayers will not subsidise legally-sanctioned discrimination against lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender people in any City or State."
Last year, Lee barred publicly funded travel to Indiana after Gov. Mike Pence signed the Religious Freedom Restoration Act. The ban was lifted after Indiana amended the law.
