Canada is warning LGBT community members traveling to the United States to check state laws regarding how they could affect their visit.
Global Affairs Canada updated its travel advisory on Tuesday morning. “Some states have enacted laws and policies that may affect 2SLGBTQI+ persons. Check relevant state and local laws.” Overall, the United States still ranks among a safe risk level.
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Deputy Prime Minister Chrystia Freeland told the press that “travel advisories are done very professionally,” adding there are “professionals in the government whose job is to look carefully around the world and to monitor whether there are particular dangers to particular groups of Canadians, that’s their job.” Freeland said the travel advisory is “the right thing to do.”
Canada’s government advisory does not clarify which states specifically LGBT travelers need to take precautions in, but several conservative-led states have enacted LGBT-related laws this year. Republican lawmakers in Florida, Alabama, Missouri, Texas, and other red states have legislation on transgender issues, including bathroom laws and bans on hormone treatments and surgeries.
In June, the Human Rights Campaign, America’s largest LGBT advocacy organization, declared its first national state of emergency, releasing a guideline for LGBT community members “traveling through some of the most hostile regions of the country,” providing safety information and resources.
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Freeland emphasized that the Canadian government works hard to maintain its relationship with America “regardless of the choices the people of the United States make” by working with all levels of government in the states, but Canadian citizens’ safety needs to be considered.
“Even as we work hard on that government-to-government relationship, every Canadian government very much including our government needs to put at the center of everything we do, the interests and the safety of every single Canadian and of every single group of Canadians,” Freeland said.
