By Veronica Stracqualursi | CNN
In a tit-for-tat feud between states, a 2018 move by California to ban some official travel to Oklahoma over what officials there say are discriminatory LGBTQ policies has led the Sooner State’s Republican governor to issue a similar ban against the Golden State.
Oklahoma’s Republican governor, Kevin Stitt, issued an executive order Thursday that prohibits state employees from “all non-essential travel” to California, with exceptions for Department of Commerce employees traveling for business recruiting. He was responding to California’s ban two years ago of state-funded and state-sponsored travel, with exceptions, to Oklahoma after the state passed a law that critics said allows adoption and foster agencies to deny children be placed with same-sex parents based on religious or moral grounds.
“California and its elected officials over the past few years have banned travel to the State of Oklahoma in an effort to politically threaten and intimidate Oklahomans for their personal values. Enough is enough,” Stitt said in a statement.