Baltimore Mayor Stephanie Rawlings-Blake on Tuesday suspended all nonessential government travel to North Carolina and Mississippi over laws in those states barring people from using the public restrooms of the opposite sex.
Ms. Rawlings-Blake said in a statement to cabinet members that she cannot “authorize any city-sponsored travel to those states while the current discriminatory situation exists.”
“All city agencies should not bring any North Carolina or Mississippi travel requests to the Board of Estimates until the situation changes,” she said.
Several other municipalities have banned travel to states with similar laws, calling them discriminatory to the LGBT community.
The U.S. Department of Justice on Monday sued North Carolina over its bathroom law, comparing it to Jim Crow race codes adopted after the Civil War.
North Carolina Gov. Pat McCrory and the Republican legislator said the law is aimed at protecting women and children from predatory men, who may subjectively self-identify as the opposite gender in order to gain access to potential victims.
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