Last week, California added West Virginia to its list of places where state-funded travel is no longer permitted.
In 2016, California lawmakers passed a ban on non-essential state employee travel to states that have anti-LGBTQ+ laws on the books. That list of now 17 states includes West Virginia, Texas, Alabama, Idaho, Iowa, Oklahoma, South Carolina, South Dakota, Kentucky, North Carolina, Kansas, Mississippi, Tennessee, Florida, Arkansas, Montana and North Dakota.
This is the second announcement regarding the economic impact West Virginia’s new trans-athlete ban will have on the state. The NCAA has previously made clear that no state with discriminatory laws will be permitted to host NCAA-affiliated tournaments, and now California will not pay to send state employees to events located here in the Mountain State. In the case of California’s state-subsidized travel, employees can still come, but they’ll have to pay out of pocket for transportation, and that means they have less disposable income to spend when they get here.
Just think of all that lost revenue. If WVU could host a major tournament or any West Virginia city could host a national conference (unrelated to sports), we’d see hundreds if not thousands of people using our hotels and restaurants, as well as hopefully visiting our tourist destinations and patronizing our small businesses in their downtime. And all the money they would spend would generate thousands of dollars in tax revenue for the state.
Gov. Jim Justice brushed off California’s announcement as no big deal, but he fails to realize this is just the tip of the iceberg. As more states and corporations take a stand to support LGBTQ+ rights, West Virginia will see more and more potential revenue slip through its fingers for having discriminatory laws.
