CA Senate leader Atkins moves to end state’s LGBTQ travel ban

by Matthew S. Bajko

Despite LGBTQ rights coming under attack in statehouses across the country, lesbian California Senate President pro Tempore Toni G. Atkins (D-San Diego) is moving to end the Golden State’s ban on using taxpayer money for travel to 23 states that have passed anti-LGBTQ legislation over the past eight years. It comes as San Francisco leaders are also expected to lift the city’s similar travel ban policy.

But it is in contrast to the stance the author of the state’s travel ban policy, gay Assemblymember Evan Low (D-Cupertino), had taken earlier in March. He had told the Bay Area Reporter at the time that he remained convinced his Assembly Bill 1887 establishing the ban on all but emergency travel to states on the “no-fly list” remained effective policy.

“We don’t have any intentions of backing down and changing our position on the statefunded travel ban,” Low had told the B.A.R.

Atkins on Wednesday announced her Senate Bill 447 called the BRIDGE Act, which stands for Building and Reinforcing Inclusive, Diverse, Gender-Supportive Equality. It would scrap the travel ban policy for a marketing program in those states attacking LGBTQ rights that Atkins said would “encourage acceptance of the LGBTQ+ community.”

How much money would be allocated toward the marketing effort is to be determined, according to Atkins’ office. In a statement provided to the B.A.R. ahead of its official release late Wednesday afternoon, the 60-year-old Atkins noted how “the idea of being accepted as a lesbian was a foreign concept” when she was growing up in rural Virginia.

“Times have changed, but for so many in the LGBTQ+ community, the feelings of isolation

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