WASHINGTON — Six states now prohibit their employees from taking nonessential work trips to states with laws that, in their view, discriminate against lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender people.
Both supporters and opponents of these travel bans say they are mostly symbolic. Nevertheless, the people charged with attracting visitors to the affected states say the repercussions are real: Canceled conventions and hotel bookings have cost cities and states millions.
The money state employees spend on business travel is minuscule compared to what out-of-state fans spend at major sports events, for example. The economic power of the latter was evident when North Carolina last spring scrapped its “bathroom law” after the NBA and NCAA pulled events out of the state in protest.
But conference and convention planners say there is a powerful stigma associated with the state bans that goes beyond government travel, scaring away visitors who aren’t state employees or who hail from states other than the one that issued the ban.