California athletes and students could be affected by travel ban on anti-LGBT states

Athletes and students in California could be forced to cancel some trips due to a new law that bars travel to states that have laws deemed to be discriminatory against the LGBT community.

The new law, which went into effect on Jan. 1, bans state-funded travel to Tennessee, Kansas, North Carolina and Mississippi due to their laws that discriminate on the basis of sexual orientation, gender identity or gender expression.

While police, public health workers and lawmakers are exempted from the ban, the law prohibits all other "state agencies, departments, boards, authorities and commissions" from spending state money to travel to the four states, Independent reported.

Preliminary talks about a men's basketball series between the UC Berkeley and the University of Kansas have already been canceled following the implementation of the new law.

Kansas was included in the list because of a law that allows campus religious groups to exclude LGBT students and faculty from membership.

Meanwhile, a trip for 18 students from UC Davis, UC Santa Barbara and Cal State Long Beach to a conference in Memphis, Tennessee is now under reconsideration. The Council on Undergraduate Research conference, which will showcase the work of more than 3,000 undergraduates, will be taking place at the University of Memphis in April. The organizers of the conference are now contemplating on raising the funds for travel through private means.

Acacia Keith, a political science student at UC Davis, has decided not to attend despite having prepared for the conference for more than nine months.

"I don't want any funding on my behalf from the state, my parents or grandparents to go to a state like Tennessee that discriminates against LGBT people," Keith said.

But Mark Rivera, a UC Davis senior majoring in religious studies and cognitive science, said he still wants to attend the event if he can raise the funds.

"The law is a juvenile but well-intended reaction to a real problem," Rivera said. "Instead of discouraging travel to supposedly backward places, we should encourage travel; otherwise, campuses will become more insular and make the problem worse," he continued.

The law provides exceptions in cases when visits are required by grants, litigation or contracts signed before Jan. 1.

UCLA's football team has a previously scheduled game at Memphis this coming fall, but it will not schedule anymore trips to any of the banned states.

UCLA spokeswoman Terri Carbaugh said that the university intends to comply with the law. However, she said that keeping up with the law could prove challenging as activities are sometimes planned more than a year in advance, and a new state could join the blacklist after travel arrangements have been made.