Just one day after California issued a hypocritical travel ban on red states that allegedly infringe on LGBT rights, a group of California politicians traveled to Texas, one of those banned states.
Perhaps Californians are taking a cue from the brave “hunger-strikers” at Yale University, viewing their travel ban as strictly “symbolic“?
On Thursday, California Attorney General Xavier Becerra “announced the state is extending its state-funded and state-sponsored travel ban to four more red states: Alabama, Kentucky, South Dakota and Texas, which join Kansas, Mississippi, North Carolina, and Tennessee in being targeted by AB 1887, which attacks states that it says have laws discriminating against the LGBTQ community,” reported The Daily Wire.
AB 1887, enacted in January, identifies California as “a leader in protecting civil rights and preventing discrimination” and says that the state will not support, financially or otherwise, “discrimination against lesbian, gay, bisexual, and transgender people.”
But their hypocritical stand only lasted about three seconds. According to the LA Times, California politicians were in Dallas on Friday, just one day after the issued ban, for an annual conference on immigration.
Among the crew of ban-breaking politicians is Democratic Senator Ricardo Lara, an openly gay man. “A spokesman said he is using his own money, not taxpayer funds. Lara voted for the bill that enacted the travel ban,” notes the Times.
A spokesman for Lara, Michael Soller explained to the Times: “Lara felt participating in a panel discussion on immigration was important amid debate over Gov. Greg Abbott’s signage of a controversial immigration law that bans ‘sanctuary cities’ for immigrants in the country illegally.”
“Texas just passed one of the nation’s most anti-immigrant laws with Senate Bill 4, and California went down this road with Proposition 187 more than 20 years ago,” said Lara in a statement. “With LGBT and immigrant rights under assault across the country, I thought it was important to join other Latino leaders and show California’s example.”
West Hollywood Mayor Pro Tem John Duran also attended the conference. He claims his breaking of the ban was acceptable since the conference was planned in advance.
“I don’t know about the LGBT laws in Texas or AG Becerra’s call for a boycott — I am not only LGBT but also Latino,” Duran told the LA Times. Ah, the Left’s “intersectionality” at work.
“I am here supporting my elected official colleagues in Texas from Austin, Houston, San Antonio and Dallas who are joining together to sue the state of Texas,” he continued. “Being a Californian who worked against Gov. Pete Wilson’s Prop 187 — I have experiences and strategies to share with them.”
So, not only does the state of California issue their own travel ban after opposing President Donald Trump’s travel ban, they aren’t even going to follow their own policy.
Do as I say, not as I do. Right, Cali?