This week, Canada updated its international travel advisory to warn travelers of “laws and policies that may affect 2SLGBTQI+ persons” in the United States.
The acronym “2SLGBTQI+” stands for “two-spirit, lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender, queer, questioning, intersex and more.” Canada’s advisory warns that the laws in other countries “can be very different from those in Canada.” This includes facing issues with using a passport with an “X” gender marker instead of “male” or “female.”
The advisory did not name which U.S. states specifically that have restrictions surrounding LGBT+ people. Many states in recent years have enacted laws prohibiting irreversible, experimental care for minors and do not allow biological males who believe they are women from playing on women’s sports teams or in their restrooms.
Reuters reported that Deputy Prime Minister Chrystia Freeland said that the guidance was updated after the Canadian government employed experts "to look carefully around the world and to monitor whether there are particular dangers to particular groups of Canadians."
"Every Canadian government...needs to put at the centre of everything we do the interest and the safety of every single Canadian and every single group of Canadians. That's what we're doing now,” Freeland reportedly added.
A Global Affairs Canada spokesperson told CBS News that laws passed in the U.S. banning drag shows, restricting transgender care, and blocking trans athletes from women’s sports resulted in updating the country’s travel guidance.
A U.S.State Department spokesperson told the outlet that “the United States is committed to promoting tolerance, inclusion, justice, and dignity while helping to advance the equality and human rights of LGBTQI+ persons. 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."
In recent months, the Human Rights Campaign (HRC) issued its own travel advisory for LGBT+ travelers to Florida. HRC later declared a “state of emergency” for this group of people throughout the country.
"A woman should not be in a locker room having to worry about someone from the opposite sex being in their locker room," DeSantis said in remarks specifically about Florida’s legislation this year.
“As the world goes mad, Florida represents a refuge of sanity and a citadel of normalcy.”
Public bathrooms, changing rooms, and locker rooms in Florida will have separate facilities based on biological sex.
— Ron DeSantis (@GovRonDeSantis) May 18, 2023
Our wives and daughters deserve protections from woke ideology run amok. pic.twitter.com/PHKPCVORRl