A college rugby team may miss its championship match in North Carolina due to California state regulations preventing state-funded travel to states that they deem to have laws discriminating against the LGBT community.
The California State University, Chico ,men’s rugby team is scrambling to find about $40,000 for funds to allow the team to travel.
“We knew that state dollars would not be able to help our team get to where they needed to go,” Chico State’s Director of Recreational Sports, Kendall Ross, told Fox40.
“Because of the location, those dollars just cannot be used for travel,” Ross added.
The California law, Assembly Bill 1887, went into effect in 2017. The law states that California is “a leader in protecting civil rights and preventing discrimination” and should not support or finance “discrimination against lesbian, gay, bisexual, and transgender people,” The Daily Wire previously reported.
The travel ban targets Alabama, Kansas, Kentucky, Mississippi, North Carolina, Oklahoma, South Dakota, Tennessee, and Texas. The ban applies to California “state agencies, departments, boards, authorities, and commissions, including an agency, department, board, authority, or commission of the University of California, the Board of Regents of the University of California, and the California State University.”
North Carolina was added onto the list due to its controversial “bathroom bill,” despite the law being repealed in 2017. In a statement, California Attorney General Xavier Becerra said that the repeal “does not cure the infirmity of this type of discrimination.”
The Men’s D1AA championship will take place on May 4 in Matthews, North Carolina. The Chico Wildcats will have the opportunity to face the current champion, Dartmouth College.
The team’s head coach, Lucas Bradbury, said that they were having a difficult time organizing travel plans in a short amount of time.
“We have an extremely short amount of time to organize 32 people on a plane, to get enough to house in a hotel, to get ground transport,” Bradbury said.
The university only partially funds the team due to it being a club team and claims they missed out on about $15,000 for the travel expenses.
Bradbury said that donations are coming in from supporters in the rugby community all over the world.
“We do actually have some people in Australia who have donated and people from London who have donated and people from South Africa,” Bradbury said.
In a Facebook post on the team’s page, the club asked for help.
“Please donate to our National Play-off in North Carolina,” the team wrote. “California State law says, no state funding can be spent in a ‘restricted state’ North Carolina, is a restricted state, therefore the Club had access to roughly $15,000, but now doesn’t. The club itself will hit the $39,000 mark that is needed to travel, but not without you. Players will be working hard in our community, doing fundraising drives and begging if need be.”
Next Tuesday, the team will hold a fundraiser at Parkside Tap House where 15% of net sales will be donated to the team, the group posted on a Facebook event page.
“Come help send your Chico State Wildcats to Nationals!” the team wrote. “Come for a fun, family-friendly evening filled with good food and great times for a worthy cause! Starting at 5:30, 15% of net sales will be donated to Chico State Men’s Rugby to help send them to the D1AA Spring Championship in North Carolina on May 4th.”
According to the fundraising page, the team has raised $35,000 so far.