OTTAWA: The Canadian government is warning LGBTQ+ travelers to the United States that they may be affected by a series of recently enacted state laws that restrict transgender and other gay people.
Global Affairs Canada, the foreign affairs department, added a brief notice Tuesday to a long list of travel warnings involving the United States that had already included cautions about gun violence and terrorism.
“Some states have enacted laws and policies that may affect 2SLGBTQI+ persons,” the notice reads. “Check relevant state and local laws.”
Jeremie Berube, a spokesperson for the department, said in a statement that the change was made because “certain states in the US have passed laws banning drag shows and restricting the transgender community from access to gender-affirming care and from participation in sporting events” since the beginning of this year. The warning did not name specific states.
He added that, like all travel advisories, this one had followed a “thorough analysis of various information sources, including consular trends observed by Canadian diplomats in the field.”
Berube did not respond to a question about whether any Canadian travelers had sought help from Canadian diplomats because of recent state legislation pertaining to LGBTQ+ people.
Moves by state lawmakers, particularly in Florida, to curtail LGBTQ+ rights have received prominent attention in the Canadian news media, as has a rise in hate crimes directed toward that community. Human Rights Campaign has calculated that 520 pieces of legislation that would limit or remove the rights of LGBTQ+ people have been introduced this year in state legislatures, with 70 of them enacted.
Helen Kennedy, the executive director of Egale Canada, an LGBTQ+ rights group in Toronto, said that while her organization had not heard of Canadians being affected by the state measures, she anticipated that some would inevitably be caught up in them.
“We applaud our government for taking this step,” she said. “It sends a clear message that even our closest neighbor can potentially be a hostile force toward our community.”
There has been far less political momentum in Canada to roll back LGBTQ+ rights, which have strong court protection.
For almost two years, the Atlantic province of New Brunswick had a policy that required teachers to use the names and pronouns their students use. Premier Blaine Higgs has changed it to require that teachers obtain the permission of parents if the child is younger than 16. But the move has not had wide support. Several members of the Legislature, including some Cabinet ministers, quit Higgs’ Progressive Conservative caucus in protest. Despite that backlash, other conservative politicians have suggested that they will follow New Brunswick’s lead.
While the overall threat assessment for travel to the United States remains at the lowest level, the country now joins many others that the Canadian government warns LGBTQ+ travelers about, most in language far stronger than the new advisory for the US The caution includes a link to a page of general safety guidance for the community regarding international travel.
Florida and some of the other states that have enacted anti-LGBTQ+ laws and policies are popular tourist destinations for Canadians. Kennedy said that the legislation was increasingly causing LGBTQ+ Canadians making travel plans to ask, “Is this the best place to spend my money?”
Global Affairs Canada, the foreign affairs department, added a brief notice Tuesday to a long list of travel warnings involving the United States that had already included cautions about gun violence and terrorism.
“Some states have enacted laws and policies that may affect 2SLGBTQI+ persons,” the notice reads. “Check relevant state and local laws.”
Jeremie Berube, a spokesperson for the department, said in a statement that the change was made because “certain states in the US have passed laws banning drag shows and restricting the transgender community from access to gender-affirming care and from participation in sporting events” since the beginning of this year. The warning did not name specific states.
He added that, like all travel advisories, this one had followed a “thorough analysis of various information sources, including consular trends observed by Canadian diplomats in the field.”
Berube did not respond to a question about whether any Canadian travelers had sought help from Canadian diplomats because of recent state legislation pertaining to LGBTQ+ people.
Moves by state lawmakers, particularly in Florida, to curtail LGBTQ+ rights have received prominent attention in the Canadian news media, as has a rise in hate crimes directed toward that community. Human Rights Campaign has calculated that 520 pieces of legislation that would limit or remove the rights of LGBTQ+ people have been introduced this year in state legislatures, with 70 of them enacted.
Helen Kennedy, the executive director of Egale Canada, an LGBTQ+ rights group in Toronto, said that while her organization had not heard of Canadians being affected by the state measures, she anticipated that some would inevitably be caught up in them.
“We applaud our government for taking this step,” she said. “It sends a clear message that even our closest neighbor can potentially be a hostile force toward our community.”
There has been far less political momentum in Canada to roll back LGBTQ+ rights, which have strong court protection.
For almost two years, the Atlantic province of New Brunswick had a policy that required teachers to use the names and pronouns their students use. Premier Blaine Higgs has changed it to require that teachers obtain the permission of parents if the child is younger than 16. But the move has not had wide support. Several members of the Legislature, including some Cabinet ministers, quit Higgs’ Progressive Conservative caucus in protest. Despite that backlash, other conservative politicians have suggested that they will follow New Brunswick’s lead.
While the overall threat assessment for travel to the United States remains at the lowest level, the country now joins many others that the Canadian government warns LGBTQ+ travelers about, most in language far stronger than the new advisory for the US The caution includes a link to a page of general safety guidance for the community regarding international travel.
Florida and some of the other states that have enacted anti-LGBTQ+ laws and policies are popular tourist destinations for Canadians. Kennedy said that the legislation was increasingly causing LGBTQ+ Canadians making travel plans to ask, “Is this the best place to spend my money?”
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