NY student denied travel to North Carolina over bathroom bill

A student from the University of Buffalo has been prevented from traveling to North Carolina to participate in a pharmacy program due to New York Gov. Andrew Cuomo's travel ban to the state.

In March 2016, Cuomo issued an executive order banning all non-essential state-funded travel to North Carolina following the enactment of a law that bars transgender people from using bathrooms according to their gender identity.

Christine Piccione, a third-year pharmacy student, wanted to do her rotations at UNC Chapel Hill, which she considers as the best pharmacy program in the country. Additionally, she said that there are certain laws in North Carolina that would allow her to do more than what is allowed in New York.

Piccione was not allowed to travel to North Carolina because her plan fell under the "state sponsored" category of Cuomo's order, even though students pay for their own travel expenses.

She has since emailed the governor, faxed the state's education counsel, and even had 117 students write letters on her behalf to appeal the travel ban. However, a counselor from the State University of New York (SUNY) said they could not petition the governor.

"I definitely think it does put me at a disadvantage. I'm going to be competing against the top students in the country for jobs, and I just don't think it's fair that I don't get that opportunity when we can travel anywhere else in the country, anywhere else in the world even, and I can't travel to one state in my own country," said Piccione, as reported by WGRZ.

Cuomo had also imposed a travel ban in Indiana in 2015 over a religious freedom measure that did not prohibit discrimination against LGBT citizens. The ban was lifted after the Indiana measure was amended to prevent it from being used against LGBT individuals.

According to the governor's website, the travel ban will remain until North Carolina's bathroom law is repealed.

"As long as there is a law in North Carolina that creates the grounds for discrimination against LGBT people, I am barring non-essential state travel to that state," Cuomo said when he issued the executive order.