Maryland – Baltimore mayor stops travel to Mississippi, North Carolina

Due to new transgender laws in Mississippi and North Carolina, Baltimore Mayor Stephanie Rawlings-Blake has suspended all city-sponsored travel to those two states. Rawlings-Blake announced the suspension in a letter to city officials Tuesday, saying city officials shouldn’t request to travel to the two states. Mississippi passed a law allowing workers to deny service based on their own religious beliefs while North Carolina now requires government agencies and public schools to provide bathrooms based on people’s genders at birth. Mayor Rawlings-Blake said she will not authorize travel to those states “until the situation changes” and hoped it would encourage the states to change their policies.