"New York City instituting non-essential travel ban to North Carolina for city employees"

capitalnewyork.com

"Mayor Bill de Blasio said Monday he is instituting a ban on 'non-essential travel' by New York City employees to the state of North Carolina following the passage of a law there that overturns anti-discrimination protections for lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender people.

De Blasio said he would also order a similar ban on non-essential travel to Georgia if the state's Legislature votes to override a veto by Gov. Nathan Deal of a bill seen by some as allowing discrimination against gay and lesbian people in Georgia. 

'Yes, we’ve initiated a non-essential travel ban for North Carolina as of today, and in the event that the governor’s veto in Georgia is overridden, we will do so for Georgia as well,' de Blasio said Monday afternoon at an unrelated press conference.

'I think it’s quite clear that voices of conscience all over the country are expressing outrage at these decisions which are reinstituting discrimination against the LGBT community,' he said, adding, 'My hope is that both these states will relent, but we certainly are not going to have any non-essential travel to those states if these laws do continue in effect.'

Later Monday, Gov. Andrew Cuomo issued a statement saying he had signed an executive order banning non-essential state travel to North Carolina. 'As long as there is a law in North Carolina that creates the grounds for discrimination against LGBT people, I am barring non-essential state travel to that state,' Cuomo said in the statement.

In March of 2015, both de Blasio and Gov. Andrew Cuomo instituted a similar ban on non-essential travel by city and state employees to the state of Indiana, in protest of the Religious Freedom Restoration Act, a law seen as legalizing discrimination against gays and lesbians."