Regarded as one of California/s most liberal attorney generals, Bonta, who still needs to run for re-election in 2022, has a progressive agenda: pursuing corporate accountability, standing up for workers, punishing big polluters, and fighting for racial injustice, criminal justice reform, banning private prisons and detention facilities in California.
Just a week ago, Bonta, joined a coalition of twenty-five Attorney Generals encouraging Congress to pass the Equality Act, legislation that will provide long overdue federal civil rights protections to LGBTQ+ and their families while strengthening some key civil rights laws for people of color, women, people with disabilities, and people of faith.
Formerly, Bonta, a lawyer worked for nine years as Deputy City Attorney in San Francisco. He worked to further the rights of working Californians, such as immigrant families, renters.
What Bonta Is NOT Going to Do
While college teams have used private funds to continue travelling to banned states for athletics despite the restrictions for transgender athletes to join those teams, Bonta insists that California will not spend its state’s money to send state employees to enforce state laws, participate in litigation or protect public heath in states that have passed laws that discriminate against LGBTQ+ people. These laws such as ones in North Carolina have required people to use public bathrooms based on their sex shown on their birth certificates, not their identity, and the state has outlawed trans athletes from participating in athletics that align with their identity.
Said AG Bonta “we’re in the midst of an unprecedented wave of bigotry and discrimination in this country and the state of California is not going to support it.” The Assembly Bill 1887, enacted in 2016, was created to “align our dollars with our values.”
What AB 1887 Means
The California Legislature, in creating AB 1887, determined that Ca. must take measures to avoid supporting or financing discrimination against LGBT Americans. To that end, the law restricts a state agency, department or commission from authorizing state-funded commission from authorizing state-funded travel to a state that after June 26,2015 has enacted a law authorizing or repealing existing protections against discrimination on the basis of sexual orientation, gender identity or gender expression.
Each Ca. applicable California agency is responsible for consulting the AB 1887 list created by California Department of Justice to comply with travel and funding restrictions imposed by law.
Last Monday, June 28, 2021, five more states were added to AB 1887 the original twelve states of Alabama, Idaho, Kansas, Kentucky, Mississippi, North Carolina, Oklahoma, South Carolina, South Dakota, Tennessee, and Texas. The five states that were added to California’s state’s state-funded travel restriction list are: Arkansas, Florida, Montana, North Dakota and West Virginia.
Arkansas: Senate Bill 354, Senate Bill 289 and House Bill 1570. Effective 7-29-21.
Florida: Senate Bill 1028 prevents transgender women and girls from participating in school sports consistent with their gender identity. Starts 7-1-21.
Montana: Same as Florida.
North Dakota: House Bill 1503. Signed into law on April 16. House Bill 1503, repeals existing protections at some North Dakota public universities by permitting certain publicly-funded student organizations to openly discriminate against LGBTQ+ students by restricting participation in those organizations. Effective August 1, 21.
West Viriginia: House Bill 3293. Signed Into law on April 28, House Bill 3293 prevents transgender women and girls from participating in school sports consistent with their gender identity. Effective: July 8, 2021.
Source:https://ooag.ca.gov/ab/887
When Your Child Is Gay: What You Need To Know
For more detailed advice, see book, co-authored with a mother of a gay son and a psychiatrist, Jonathan L. Tobkes, M.D.
