California bans state-funded travel to North Dakota, citing new law as anti-LGBTQ – Bismarck Tribune

California Attorney General Rob Bonta on Monday announced that North Dakota, Montana and three other states will join a list of places where state-funded travel is prohibited under a 2016 California law that the state “must take action to avoid supporting or financing discrimination against lesbian, gay, bisexual, and transgender people.”

Bonta cited House Bill 1503, brought by Speaker Kim Koppelman, R-West Fargo, which the Republican-led Legislature passed and which Gov. Doug Burgum signed in April. It takes effect Aug. 1.

Supporters said the legislation enhances college students’ free speech protections. Opponents said the bill was unnecessary, overrode the State Board of Higher Education and the North Dakota University System, and involved no consultation from students or higher ed officials.

Bonta’s office said the new law “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. It also limits the ability of universities and colleges to sanction or discipline student-on-student harassment.”

The bill didn’t draw attention for anti-LGBTQ concerns as it moved through the Legislature.

It’s unclear how the bill came to California’s attention. The California attorney general’s office said, “Our legal team at the California Department of Justice reviews laws to determine whether they fall under the requirements set forth in” the travel prohibition law.

Koppelman called California’s actions “perplexing, indeed, as the bill does no such thing” as California’s attorney general described.

Koppelman said the bill “does two things. It guarantees free speech on college and university campuses and prevents discrimination.”

He called Bonta’s announcement “very unfortunate.”

“Not only does it hinge upon a ridiculous reading into the bill of what is clearly not there, it betrays a bullying policy to attempt to impose the views of California’s governing elites on other states,” Koppelman said in an email. “The people of North Dakota and those they elect to represent them are very capable of determining their own public policy without California’s condescending advice or approval.”

A provision of the new law states: “An institution may not deny student activity fee funding to a student organization based on the viewpoints the student organization advocates.”

The Washington, D.C.-based Human Rights Campaign in April cited the bill as anti-LGBTQ, saying “student organizations can now choose to turn away a range of potential members and leaders — from LGBTQ students to students of particular gender, race, or religious belief — and still receive state funding.”

House Minority Leader Josh Boschee, D-Fargo, the state’s only openly gay lawmaker, opposed the bill for a variety of issues, and said he didn’t recall during the session “any specific conversation related to impacting LGBT students, but I know, more universally, this impacting a broad range of students.”

Before being first elected in 2012, Boschee worked in higher education student activities for 10 years at North Dakota State University and Minnesota State University Moorhead.

He viewed the bill as unnecessary, seeing colleges and universities already having sufficient policies in place for campus free speech. He called California’s concerns legitimate, but small in likelihood.

LGBTQ groups didn’t have the bandwidth during the 2021 Legislature to oppose the bill parallel to another that would have restricted transgender girls in K-12 sports, according to Prairie Action Executive Director Amy Jacobson.

“This piece of legislation … comes from national organizations who have a very extreme ideology, and they are attempting to blanket the country, really, with their extreme policies,” she said. “They have legislative champions … who are involved in their work, and really what they’re doing is they have solutions in search of problems.”

She said the bill was similar to university free speech legislation originating from the American Legislative Exchange Council, an organization of conservative state lawmakers.

Boschee, the top House Democrat, has for years pointed out bills perceived as discriminatory being unwelcoming to LGBTQ people. He called California’s actions “an example of the negative impacts (of such bills) to our state and our economy.”

“If I were visiting with the decision makers out of California about this, I would encourage them to think differently and not boycott the state but come to the state and support the LGBT community here,” he said.

The California state law has exemptions for some trips, such as travel needed to enforce California law and to honor contracts signed before the states were added to the list. Travel to conferences or out-of-state training are examples of trips that can be blocked, according to The Associated Press.

It’s unclear what effect California’s travel ban will have, the AP reported. Bonta did not have information about how many state agencies have stopped sending state employees to the states on the list or the financial impact of California’s travel ban on those states.