UK warns tourists about NC transgender law

The United Kingdom this week warned its citizens about new controversial laws affecting gay and transgender people in North Carolina and Mississippi.

In an advisory Tuesday, the U.K.’s Foreign Office notified tourists that “attitudes towards LGBT people differ hugely across the country.

{mosads}“LGBT travellers may be affected by legislation passed recently in the states of North Carolina and Mississippi,” the Foreign Office said.

The governors of North Carolina and Mississippi have been on the defensive in recent weeks, following political outrage against the laws.

“It is both frightening and embarrassing that one of our nation’s staunchest allies has warned its citizens of the risks of traveling to North Carolina and Mississippi because of anti-LGBT laws passed by their elected officials,” Ty Cobb, the director of Human Rights Campaign’s global efforts, said in a statement following the U.K. advisory.

The North Carolina legislation bars cities from passing nondiscrimination laws and requires people to use bathrooms that correspond to their assigned sex at birth. The law in Mississippi, which passed this month, allows businesses to refuse service to homosexual couples on religious grounds.

The laws have sparked a wave of backlash and inspired popular musicians and entertainers to cancel appearances in the states. On Thursday, NBA Commissioner Adam Silver said the basketball league would relocate its 2017 All-Star Game out of North Carolina if the current law remains in place.  

Politics surrounding the North Carolina law have been injected into the Republican presidential race, after front-runner Donald Trump said Thursday that the state should reverse course to stop the economic backlash.  

“North Carolina, what they’re going through with all the business that is leaving and strife — and it’s on both sides — you leave it the way it is,” he said on NBC’s “Today.”

Trump’s rival, Ted Cruz, has tried to pillory Trump for his “politically correct” stance.