For the first time in history, Global Affairs Canada — the bailiwick of Foreign Affairs Minister Melanie Joly — has issued a travel advisory to Canada’s “2SLGBTQI+” community regarding heading south to, of all places, the United States.
On its “Travel advice and advisories by destination” page, Canada still gives the USA a green checkmark (its best rating), indicating “Take normal security precautions.”
What is new, however, is that Canada has updated its travel advisory for the USA “specifically advising people to check state and local laws before visiting” and that this update is in response to “some U.S. states targeting the LGBTQ2 community.”
While Global Affairs Canada did not directly address what laws or states Canadians should take note of when traveling, the department told the Toronto Star via email that since the beginning of 2023, “certain states in the U.S. have passed laws banning drag shows and restricting the transgender community from access to gender affirming care and from participation in sporting events.”
Speaking at a press conference on Tuesday, Deputy Prime Minister Chrystia Freeland was typically vague on specifics and did not address whether the federal government even had a conversation with the White House on the issue.
“We have 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,” she said.
“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 every single group of Canadians.”
The move comes after at least 18 U.S. states passed laws that limit or ban certain things relevant to the community, including gender-affirming medical care for minors and teaching about sexual orientation in schools.
In a written statement on the issue, U.S. Ambassador David Cohen also did not directly address the new travel warning but said his country “stands for equality and equal treatment for all.”
“The United States is committed to promoting tolerance, inclusion, justice and dignity while helping to advance equality for the LGBTQI+ community,” he wrote.
“We all must continue to do this work with our like-minded partners not only in the United States, not only in Canada, but throughout the world.”
The U.S. Department of Homeland Security also warned in May that threats of violence against the LGBTQ+ community were becoming more frequent and intense.
That month, the NAACP and the Human Rights Campaign, a U.S.-based LGBTQ+ advocacy group, were among several civil rights groups issuing their own travel advisories specifically for Florida.
That came after Gov. Ron DeSantis, who is running for the Republican presidential nomination, signed into law restrictions on drag shows, the use of bathrooms and the use of preferred pronouns in schools.
Florida teachers are also now required to teach that sex is “an immutable biological trait,” and that students must only use the pronoun of the sex on a person’s birth certificate.
They also cannot teach anything about gender identity or sexual orientation until high school, a law critics have dubbed the “Don’t Say Gay” bill.
The groups said their advice wasn’t to avoid Florida at all costs.
But they said if people still chose to travel there, they should use the opportunity to speak out against the laws, and if they chose not to, they should be clear about the reason why.
It’s a complex issue, for sure.
But definitely it’s also a subject of the year.
