The city of Boston is joining a furious national backlash to a new North Carolina law that bars transgender persons from using bathrooms that match their preferred gender identity.
 
On Wednesday, the Boston City Council voted to ban city-funded travel to North Carolina—though there are a few exceptions, including trips required for public-health and public-safety purposes.
 
About three hours later, Mayor Marty Walsh signed the Boston ban into law.
 
The ban was initially proposed by Councilor Josh Zakim, who says his constituents feel passionately about this issue.

 “Talking with folks in the neighborhoods I represent across the city—advocates, friends, neighbors—overwhelmingly, the response was, ‘We’re Bostonians, we don’t believe in this. You’re speaking for us. We don’t want our tax dollars going toward this,” Zakim said.
 
“If we have an opportunity to improve the situation in North Carolina,” he added, “that’s what we want to do.”
 
The lone note of skepticism came from councilor Bill Linehan, who urged his colleagues to proceed with caution, and noted that there are “numerous injustices” in the U.S. and overseas.
 
Linehan also pointed out that he and any other councilor could have used a procedural maneuver to block the council’s vote on the ban Wednesday. But in the end, he didn’t.
 
In a statement released after he signed the ban into law, Walsh thanked Zakim for his advocacy on this issue, and said: “In Boston, we believe that all individuals should be treated equally.”