Canada Issues US Travel Advisory Over State Anti-LGBTQ Laws

A new travel advisory issued by Global Affairs Canada warns LGBTQ+ Canadians against visiting the United States based on anti-queer and trans legislation currently pushed in multiple state legislatures. On the newly updated page for U.S. travel advice, the foreign relations department cautions that “Some states have enacted laws and policies that may affect 2SLGBTQI+ persons. Check relevant state and local laws.” A government web page linked under the advisory outlines general safety precautions for Two-Spirit, lesbian, gay, bisexual, queer, and intersex Canadians (as well as those outside these labels) and potential “barriers and risks” they may face when abroad.

This news comes as multiple legislative attacks against queer and trans people go into effect or are barely held back by the tireless work of protestors and activists. Multiple bills banning gender-affirming care are now in effect this week in Texas and Missouri. So-called “drag bans” pushed through in Montana and seemingly everything coming out of Florida are already serving their intended purpose, to remove queer and trans individuals from public spaces and out of public life as a whole. In response to the legislative onslaught, some states and cities are declaring themselves as sanctuaries for trans folks. The Supreme Court has gone so far as to federally sanction queer discrimination in their ruling earlier this year, siding with a homophobic website designer (even though the couple cited in this case seemingly never existed in the first place).

The anti-2SLGBTQI+ rhetoric used here is certainly not exclusive to the United States, as anti-queer protests are similarly on the rise in Canada as well. However, with the American Civil Liberties Union currently tracking 496 anti-queer and trans bills across 47 states, there’s no mistaking where the talking points are coming from. Speaking to the press on Tuesday regarding the LGBTQ+ travel advisory, Deputy Prime Minister Chrystia Freeland commented “Every Canadian government, very much including our government, needs to put at the centre of everything we do the interests and the safety of every single Canadian, and of every single group of Canadians. That’s what we’re doing now. That’s what we’re always going to do.”

(via CBC, featured image: Ted Eytan/Flickr)