Legislator is behind ban on state-funded trips to Florida
Low has been fighting for LGBT rights for years
California has banned taxpayerfunded travel to five states that recently adopted measures viewed by Democratic leaders as discriminatory against transgender Americans.
California’s power to restrict travel to certain states comes from a 2016 law written by the current leader of the Legislative LGBT Caucus, Assemblyman Evan Low, DCampbell.
He wrote it in response to socalled religious freedom laws that allowed organizations to deny services to same-sex couples or restrict the civil rights of LGBT people in some way. Altogether, 17 states now are on California’s “no-fly” list.
A wave of bathroom bills and restrictions against transgender youth athletes are making their way through state legislatures across the country this year at record numbers, more than 120 directly targeting the transgender community this year alone, according to the Human Rights Campaign. As chair of the California legislature’s LGBT Caucus, Low and other lawmakers are trying to turn that tide.
The Sacramento Bee spoke with Low about his past LGBT legislative efforts and what’s ahead for the caucus this year. Questions and answers have been edited for length and clarity.
Q
What do you see as the importance of the travel ban bill?
A
With bipartisan support, the Legislature said that this is public taxpayer dollars, and we do not want to subject public employees to any type of discrimination. And while mostly symbolic, we’re actually following what the private sector has already stated and what they’ve done. Apple, Facebook, Google, Nike, United Airlines, Coca Cola, all of these
major corporations are saying the same thing: that we will not expand, nor will we host conferences, and that has actually had an impact to their pocketbooks. You saw significant change, they’ve actually backtracked and said, ‘OK, we’re going to withdraw that legislation.’ So that works, and that’s the beauty of what we’re hoping to create.
QOne initiative you’ve taken on is fighting against conversion therapy. In 2018 you wrote AB 2943, which would make conversion therapy a fraudulent business practice under the Consumer Legal Remedies Act, but you withdrew that bill before it reached the governor’s desk. Can you talk more about that legislation and what led to the decision?
ADuring AB 2943, we would see buses and buses of people lined outside the Capitol, bused from the evangelical community. There was so much misinformation at the time, accusations that the bill would ban the Bible. Sometimes things take a life on its own, especially with respect to the media, and how individuals get their information or lack thereof. I did not meet one evangelical leader who said they would support conversion therapy, not one. And yet, they said, ‘But is this bill the best way to getting what you want accomplished?’ So part of that conversation was to find some type of compromise to which they as evangelicals can state that they don’t support conversion
therapy and they also believe it’s harmful, and then I could find some room to say, ‘OK, there needs to be some allowance of recognizing that individuals of faith could not necessarily be fully accepting of members of the LGBT community yet, so is there a middle ground?’ Democrats versus Republicans and evangelicals versus LGBT community, there’s much more here that we all want the same thing. I think that happens through understanding, through grace and through as much empathy as possible.
Q
How do you see your identity as an Asian American man and as a gay man intersecting with one another, particularly in a year with increased hate crimes against the API community?
A
Well, it wasn’t easy growing up, because the Asian Pacific Islander community traditionally did not accept the LGBT community. It was taboo, and you didn’t talk about it. You didn’t see prominent role models who were API and LGBT. Even as a politician or as a candidate, I would have members of the API community saying I’m no longer going to support you because I didn’t know you were gay. And of course, the key essence to it is I can’t change who I am. Just as I’m openly Asian, I’m openly LGBT. The Asian Pacific Islander community feels vulnerable and victimized. You can say the same thing and just remove Asian Pacific Islander and put LGBT, it’s the exact same thing, that we should stop the Asian hate, we should stop the hate towards the LGBT community, one in the same. I think that provides a lens to be able to show that whether it’s API or LGBT or Latino or Black, we’re all striving for the same thing.
Q
You’ve been in Assembly since the end of 2014. Over that period of time, how do you think your approach and the Legislature’s approach to LGBTQ issues has evolved? A
When I first served as the mayor of Campbell , I could officiate a wedding, but I couldn’t get married myself. When you think about all these different issues, we’ve come a long way. But you can still see the demonization and how targeted the community is, how vulnerable individuals in our community are, which is why we need laws on the books like cultural competency with policing, that trans, Black and Latino people are disproportionately targeted in vulnerable communities. That intersectionality is very important.
Q
What are the biggest goals that you have for the future in terms of legislative gains for the LGBTQ community?
A
There’s still much work to be done in ensuring that those who are not seen are getting support, and that is specifically with our trans community and making sure we do everything we possibly can. The rates that we see the trans community impacted by homelessness, on the issue of housing, access to health care, criminal justice, those who are incarcerated, how do we make sure we support them as much as possible? We cannot lose sight of the T in LGBT.