SACRAMENTO, Calif. — The attorney general of California announced on Monday that the State has banned government-funded travel to Idaho over two new laws surrounding transgenderism — one prohibiting boys who identify as girls from playing on girls’ sports teams and another requiring birth certificates to reflect residents’ biological sex. Idaho becomes the 12th state to be placed on California’s official travel ban list.
“Where states legislate discrimination, California unambiguously speaks out,” Attorney General Xavier Becerra said in a statement. “The State of Idaho has taken drastic steps to undermine the rights of the transgender community, preventing people from playing sports in school or having documentation that reflects their identity.
“Let’s not beat around the bush: these laws are plain and simple discrimination,” he remarked.
As previously reported, in February, Rep. Barbara Ehardt, R-Idaho Falls, proposed the “Fairness in Women’s Sports Act,” House Bill 500, which expressly prohibits biological males from joining women’s athletic teams.
“Athletic teams or sports designated for females, women, or girls shall not be open to students of the male sex,” the legislation reads in part.
It states that puberty blockers and cross-sex hormones do not resolve concerns about fairness, pointing to a 2019 study that concluded that males who ingested the hormones over a 12-month period still “had an absolute advantage” over their female competitors.
The measure passed both Houses of legislature along party lines in March and was signed into law by Gov. Brad Little.
House Bill 509, sponsored by Rep. Julianne Young, R-Blackfoot, passed the Senate the same month and the House in February, likewise being signed by Little.
“Allowing individuals to alter their vital records, including birth certificates, based upon subjective feelings or experiences undermines
the government’s interest in having accurate vital records,” the measure reads in part.
Both bills go into effect on July 1.
Little defended his decision to sign the legislation into law, stating, “I think that the issue is the girls’ right to participate without having to be concerned about who they’re competing with,” and “My view is your birth certificate is in fact your birth certificate. And you know, people change their names, people get married, but the birth certificate [stays the same].”
But California Attorney General Becerra opined in his press release this week that the bills “take active steps to enforce discriminatory regimes against transgender Idahoans” and “directly authorize discrimination against the transgender community.”
Besides Idaho, Alabama, Iowa, Kansas, Kentucky, Mississippi, North Carolina, South Carolina, Oklahoma, South Dakota, Tennessee and Texas are on California’s no state-funded travel list.
The ban is authorized under the 2016 Assembly Bill 1887, which states in part, “A state agency, department, board, authority, or commission, including an agency, department, board, authority, or commission of the University of California, the Board of Regents of the University of California, or the California State University, and the legislature shall not … approve a request for state-funded or state-sponsored travel to a state that … has enacted a law that authorizes or requires discrimination against same-sex couples or their families or on the basis of sexual orientation, gender identity.”
“California must take action to avoid supporting or financing discrimination against lesbian, gay, bisexual, and transgender people,” the bill also says. “The exercise of religious freedom should not be a justification for discrimination.”
As previously reported, Christians believe that transgenderism isn’t just a medical or mental condition but primarily a spiritual issue — one that stems from the same predicament all men everywhere face without Christ.
The Bible teaches that all are born with the Adamic sin nature, having various inherent feelings and inclinations that are contrary to the law of God, and being utterly incapable of changing by themselves.
It is why Jesus came: to “save His people from their sins” (Matthew 1:21).
Scripture outlines that Jesus came to be the propitiation for men’s sins (1 John 2:2; 1 John 4:10), a doctrine in Christianity known as substitutionary atonement, and to save men from the wrath of God for their violations against His law (Romans 4:25, Romans 5:9, Romans 5:16), a doctrine known as justification.
The Bible also teaches about regeneration, as in addition to sparing guilty men from eternal punishment, Christ sent his Holy Spirit to make those who would repent and believe the gospel new creatures in the here and now, with new desires and an ability to do what is pleasing in the sight of God by His indwelling and empowerment (Ezekiel 11:19, 2 Corinthians 5:17, Titus 3:5).
Romans 8:3-8 says, “For what the law could not do, in that it was weak through the flesh, God sending his own Son in the likeness of sinful flesh, and for sin, condemned sin in the flesh that the righteousness of the law might be fulfilled in us, who walk not after the flesh but after the Spirit.”
“For they that are after the flesh do mind the things of the flesh, but they that are after the Spirit the things of the Spirit. For to be carnally minded is death, but to be spiritually minded is life and peace. Because the carnal mind is enmity against God, for it is not subject to the law of God, neither indeed can be. So then they that are in the flesh cannot please God.”
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