West Palm Beach Mayor Jeri Muoio has become the first mayor in Florida to place a travel ban on city-funded trips to North Carolina.
A new law, HB2, passed by the North Carolina General Assembly and signed by Gov. Pat McCrory last week caused a lot of controversy and nullified local ordinances around the state that would have protected gay or transgender people from being fired for their sexual orientation or identity.
"For more than two decades, West Palm Beach has been in the forefront, protecting the civil rights and ensuring equality for the LGBT community," said Muoio. "Until North Carolina's discriminatory law is amended or repealed, West Palm Beach taxpayers will not subsidize legally-sanctioned discrimination against LGBT people," said Muoio.
Mayor Muoio took this action at the request of the Palm Beach County Human Rights Council, a local civil rights organization dedicated to ending discrimination based on sexual orientation, gender identity and gender expression.
"North Carolina's leaders have struck down local LGBT-inclusive discrimination ordinances and have prohibited the enactment of similar laws forever," said retired judge Rand Hoch, President and Founder of the Human Rights Council. "We commend Mayor Muoio for putting her strong beliefs against bigotry into action by prohibiting taxpayer dollars being used in North Carolina."
Last year, Muoio announced a similar travel ban to the state of Indiana, following the wake of Indiana's passage of the Religious Freedom Restoration Act.
A similar travel ban has been put into place by the mayor of San Francisco.
#WestPalmBeach Mayor @jmuoio Issues North Carolina Travel Ban: https://t.co/WplVmOTHTQ #NC #HB2 #LGBT @PatMcCroryNC pic.twitter.com/UY7ivKm36j
— wwwWPBnews (@wwwWPBnews) March 28, 2016