LA Board of Sups considers joining boycott of North Carolina discrimination law

The Los Angeles County Board of Supervisors will consider Tuesday joining a growing boycott of North Carolina in response to a law viewed by many as discriminatory against gays, lesbians and transgender people.

Board Chair Hilda Solis and Supervisor Sheila Kuehl will ask their colleagues to adopt a motion that would suspend all official county travel to the state of North Carolina "unless the chief executive officer determines
that the failure to authorize such travel would seriously harm the county's interests."

The motion also calls for the board members to sign a letter to the governor and legislators in North Carolina calling for the repeal of the law, known as HB2. Among other things, the law requires transgender people to use
bathrooms that match the sex designation on their birth certificate, and not the gender they identify with.

"Last October, this board voted unanimously to stand up for lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender and questioning youth in the Los Angeles County child welfare system by proactively training county workers to more fully
address the unique needs of these children," according to the motion by Solis and Kuehl. "HB2 requires us to stand up again, in solidarity with the LGBTQ community."

The motion also asks that its staff report back in 60 days on any county policies that could be in need of updating to reflect legal standards relating to gender identity or expression, "including the provision of all-gender restrooms."

The Los Angeles City Council voted earlier this month to boycott both North Carolina and Mississippi, where a law was recently passed that Councilman Mike Bonin said allows rental-car companies to turn away gay couples and allows suicide hotline counselors to refuse to help gay people.

The cities of New York, Atlanta, Boston, Chicago, Honolulu, Cincinnati, Santa Fe, Washington, D.C., and San Francisco, as well as the states of Connecticut, Minnesota, New York and Vermont, are among those that have also adopted boycotts of North Carolina.

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