Los Angeles City Council members voted unanimously to abstain from conducting business with North Carolina because of their law mandating that patrons of public bathrooms use only those that correspond with the gender in which they were born.
Moreover, the bill will apply to Mississippi, reports the Los Angeles Times, because of a new law that allows government employees to refuse issuance of marriage licenses or perform marriage ceremonies for same-sex couples. The law also allows private business to refuse housing, jobs and adoption services to people based on their sexual orientation.
Progressive city councilman Mike Bonin wrote the resolution, which claims the laws in both states forge a “climate of intolerance and a climate of violence.”
“I can guarantee you in these two states that hate crimes are going to increase and people are going to be beaten,” insists Bonin, who is gay and represents coastal neighborhoods in West Los Angeles.
“And I can guarantee,” he added, “in these two states that young kids struggling with their identity are going to be bullied and some of them will ponder suicide. That’s not what Los Angeles stands for.”
CBS reported on Friday that L.A. Mayor Eric Garcetti said he was proud to stand with the City Council banning travel for City employees to North Carolina and Mississippi. Garcetti maintains, “These bills are thinly veiled as actions to preserve religious freedom or protect against sexual violence, but will instead promote intolerance and discrimination against the LGBT community.”