Mayor Caldwell bans public travel to North Carolina, Mississippi
JAMM AQUINO / FEB. 2016
Mayors from around the nation are forming a group called “Mayors Against Discrimination” in the wake of recent North Carolina and Mississippi laws they call discriminatory. Leaders from Honolulu, New York, Philadelphia, Washington, D.C., Tampa, Florida, and other cities are joining the effort.
Mayors from around the nation are forming a group called “Mayors Against Discrimination” in the wake of recent North Carolina and Mississippi laws they call discriminatory. Leaders from Honolulu, New York, Philadelphia, Washington, D.C., Tampa, Florida, and other cities are joining the effort.
The coalition plans to explore prohibitions on contracting and purchasing from companies in the two states in response to new laws, which critics say discriminate against gay, lesbian, bisexual and transgender people. They’ll also develop model resolutions that can be adopted by city councils and other legislative bodies, according to a news release.
“Some are trying to turn back the clock to a deeply flawed time in our history,” New York City Mayor Bill de Blasio said in the release. “We’ll keep doing everything we can to stand with the LGBT community, speaking out against discrimination and moving forward policies and laws like we have in New York City that allow LGBT individuals to live with the dignity and respect they deserve.”
Mississippi recently passed a law allowing religious groups and some private businesses to refuse service to gay couples. The North Carolina law prevents specific anti-discrimination rules for gay and transgender people for public accommodations and restroom use.
Supporters of the Mississippi law say it’s about protecting freedom of those who, for example, don’t want to perform same-sex weddings for religious reasons. Religious leaders and others have defended the North Carolina law, saying it protects women and children from men who use the law as a pretense to enter the wrong restroom.
Honolulu Mayor Kirk Caldwell announced late Thursday that the city joined a growing list of municipalities banning nonessential taxpayer-funded travel to the two states.
“Hopefully, common sense and our core American values of equality and tolerance will prevail in these states, allowing us to lift this moratorium,” Caldwell said.
Honolulu officials are likely to cancel an upcoming trip to the International Bus Roadeo, a transit conference held in North Carolina that city bus employees were planning attend in May, along with several other cities, said Jesse Broder Van Dyke, a spokesman for Caldwell. While Honolulu employees haven’t taken recent trips to Mississippi, they have taken 15 trips to North Carolina since July 2013, he said.
Hawaii state Rep. Bob McDermott called Caldwell’s announcement an empty political statement, saying the city and state don’t do a lot of business with Mississippi or North Carolina.
“You either think the way we do or we’re going to punish you economically,” McDermott said. “This is America. You’re allowed to have freedom of thought.”
107 responses to “Mayor Caldwell bans public travel to North Carolina, Mississippi”
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HOWEVER, IT’S O.K. TO DISCRIMINATE AGAINST “THE HOMELESS” IN HAWAII(?) (and PERSECUTE THEM)…
(HOW TRENDY “KIRK” (and, Oh so POLITICALLY CORRECT!)!
Liberalism means showing how tolerant you are in somebody else’s city.
PROVACATIVE! LOVE IT!!
JARP Caps Lock key stuck again.
Good one, a parallel to socialism being doing good with other peoples money.
It’s called being a society. You can whine all you want. It’s not going to change.
Yes, Kalastri, it is called being a society. The reason it might not change is because half of the society consists of unproductive people living on the federal dole who keep voting for liberals who will keep them on the dole and give them more free stuff with other peoples’ money. Welcome to Lyndon Johnson’s Great Society.
“It’s common sense – biological men should not be in women’s showers, locker rooms and bathrooms,”
Liberalism is a disease with no cure.
Right!?!? I don’t get allowing a male into a female bathroom. Without question some creep will dress as a woman and claim he “indentifies as”. Then what capt. Kirk? Oh and iam buying my tickets to North Carolina and Mississippi tomorrow. You’d better just hope that state stops buying tickets to Hawaii Mr. Caldwell.
Caldwell doing this to gain LGBT votes? Foolish man.
He’s also a man of principle.
Yeah right. Koolaide much ?
bwahaha…mean the koolaid
Which is more than Grabby Boy or any member of HART.
grabby is a true believer of LGBT principles. And so are the members of HART. That’s why the offer from the city and HART commission was a no-brainer for grabby. A lucrative offer to do what he does for a living in an ideal environment for his lifestyle. And a one-year salary buy out if he is canned. Similar to his former job in Boston transit. Ideal lifestyle environment with a buyout when he was canned there.
His PR guy figures this will give him an edge if Duke Aiona runs against him for Mayor. All Aiona has to do is publicly state he will run on governmnet accountability and keep his personal beliefs from his his everyday responsibilities as mayor and Aiona will easily defeat Kirk or Martin AND a PRP smear campaign to become mayor. When asked about the Oahu rail project he will first state is to have an immediate independent audit and then make decisons based on the audit. When the obvious truth of the rampant waste, graft, corruption and total incompetence becomes documented and released tomthe feds and the public, the rail will implode on itself with federal money taken back and will end once and for all. Yes the loss will approach 2 BILLION, but to go on they will spend 10 BILLION and they will not be able to get it to run reliably. The honest truth they had no intention of actually getting a running train to work on time and on budget, ONLY to steal BILLIONS in the process of pretending to build a working train and the REAL reason for the Oahu train was to bypass all current zoning regulations and build massive ultra rich skysraper in Kakaako and build the urban sprawl developments in Koa Ridge and Hoopili, Like the Black Friday sales which are loss leaders, the train does NOT benefit the local economy as almost all money is paid to mainland and foreign companies and workers. The problem now is they no longer can hide the real truth which they have know since Mufi and Yoshi where in charge and Kirk was Mufi’s managing director. He,the wife and daughter are laughing at accomplishing the hoodwink of the century for Hawaii. Even the hypocritical adult daughter, not only had to get stoned out of her mind, she had to add insult to injury by committing a criminal act of destroying Kirk’s political opponents sign and posting it for the world to see, knowing there would be NO negative consequences for her or her father.
The conspiracy is complete.
Inverse, means in reverse but into yourself. Keep comments to 500 words or less plz.
Uh, you do know how to exercise free will right? No one’s forcing you to read at gunpoint (and if someone is, just slap him in the wrist and sternly tell him to go away).
The city auditor found fault with the current way the toy choo-choo is being handled by grabby and HART. And the ultimate finding — absolutely no indication of how grabby and company will handle maintenance and support issues. It’s simply non-existent in any of HART’s fiscal planning. And this from the city’s auditor. That’s why council chair Martin came out with his letter demanding removal of grabby and the HART chair. Obviously got an advance copy like Hawaii News Now did.
Yup the prostitute mayor will do anything to get votes
If Caldwell wants to have LGBT lifestyles in his house (we new he had that tendency) that’s ok but I don’t agree he should shove it down our throats like he did the RAIL. Many & I think majority are sick people looking for ways to score on younger gullible people. So who gives him the right to choose who when and where. Caldwell is the worst Mayor ever to hit Honolulu and his views on gays are not the way the majority of the island people think. UN-Natural is not Natural- no matter how legal it is- Just can’t picture in my mind 2 fully grown men going at it YUK & more YUK now a couple of ladies!!!! now that photo stand out clearly How about it and wiliki no doubt is in the mayors camp doing what????? who knows????? YUK BRRRRRRR THE THOUGHT GIVES ME THE CHILLS
You do not understand what it means to be transgender and you are your little myopic appears you do not want to learn – so I will say, do you want to want into a restroom with a transgender person in the wrong bathroom that is required to use the wrong bathroom based on these ignorant laws just do a search for #justwanttopee on any social media plate form… Education is a POWERFUL TOOL
You’re right, education is indeed a powerful tool. Perhaps you should consider discovering it’s advantages.
This has almost nothing to do with transgenders, and I’m getting sick of these libs trying to bad mouth them by lumping them together with sexual predators. Most transgendered people are not sexual predators.
What people are worried about are straight male sexual predators who use the “I identify with…” excuse to gain access to female restrooms and locker rooms.
You do not understand what it means to be transgender and with your myopic view of the world it appears you do not want to learn!
So I will ask you this – do you want to walk into a public restroom with a transgender person in the wrong bathroom but they are forced to use it based on these ignorant law? Not sure then just do a search for #justwanttopee on any social media platform… Education is a POWERFUL TOOL
Ige and Cadwell welcomes the ISIS immigrants from Syria with Aloha and open arms. Something wrong with this being Politically Correct. The US is falling apart if not the World
agree…
Only the ISIS Transgender immigrants would be banned.
I’ll respect Mayor Caldwells wishes to boycott… just as soon as he takes down all the “MEN” & “WOMEN” signs on all the bathrooms so any body can go to any bathroom any time they want to. Especially the high schools. That should make for some interesting gym classes, yea Kirk? LOL. (smells like the Marijuana store selection meetings were held in Honolulu Hale)
Good one. Love to see that play out here.
Did not know Kirky boy was a Brucey boy fan.
Good chance he is a closet. He has been known to enjoy his bike lane in bright colored smugglers
Are you suggesting that the wanna-be vendors handed out free, generous samples of their product to commission members? With a little extra to be shared with cladwell and council?
Politicians-anyway the wind blows—
Attentional all homeless people…please feel free to use the bathrooms of the opposite sex at Honolulu Hale…just tell them that Kirk said it was OK.
Eh! What about those of us who aren’t Homeless? The offices on our “floor” are presently overcrowded and there are far more men than women. So, I frequently use the “Women’s” bathroom. OBSERVATION: The “Women’s Bathroom” is always FILTHY, SMELLY, AND UNSANITARY… Apparently, Men have better bathroom hygiene than women… (Maybe “MOMMA’S” spend more time teaching their boys than their girls?) (LADIES–PLEASE–“USED “TP”” does not belong on the floor and learn to “FLUSH”. AND, what’s all that “FALLOUT” in the Washbasins? PILAU! I now grab a paper-towel to grasp the door-handle, upon exiting… YIKES!
Is that you, allie? Yikes!
Hey Kirk, perhaps if you and your administration spent more time and effort on real issues back here in Honolulu where you were elected Mayor (uh, yea, your constituents HERE!), we might not be living and working in a city and county that is literally falling apart. Your beloved rail fiasco is costing us billions with no end (ever) in sight. Our roads are a joke, water pipes break daily, and sewage system is under the watchful eyes of the feds because your administration is incapable of running the system themselves. Meanwhile, you jump on every political hi profile bandwagon that comes along that has no real substantive relevance to the overwhelmingly vast majority of the people living on Oahu. Stop being a “politician” and start making an effort at being a manager of a company (a large city) that clearly so far, you are incapable of running. Nobody truly cares about your vote gathering efforts.
pilot16 well said, + 1000.
Ain’t gonna happen , PILOT16 , being a politician is much like being an alcoholic. Say what you think they want to hear , anything , just give me a dollar so I can have another drink.
“I’ll gladly tax you Tuesday, for a train system today”.
Kirk is getting bad political advice. The job of mayor is supposed to be non-partisan…focusing on the needs and problems of the residents of the city of Honolulu. By grandstanding for ultra liberal politics, and trying to compete with morons like de Blasio, Kirk has shown that he’s more interested in headlines in San Francisco that accomplishing his job here at home.
Agreed!!
Caldwell panders to the LGBT mafia to garner their votes for his re-election campaign. What useless political stunt!
Agreed!!
The North Carolina law says if you are born with a penis you must use the male restroom and if born with a vagina you must use the female restroom. Exactly how does that discriminate against anyone? How about some tolerance for the majority of people who are straight and do not want someone of the opposite sex in their restrooms? Liberals, progressives or whatever you want to call them have gone nuts.
^^^^^+1000^^^^^
Ronin006, you should run for office! Rare finding in a person with common sense these days! You’re one of those few!!
BINGO!!!
You do not understand what it means to be transgender and you are your little myopic groupies appear do not want to learn – so I will say, do you want to want into a restroom with a transgender person in the wrong bathroom that is required to use the wrong bathroom based on these ignorant laws just do a search for #justwanttopee on any social media plate form… Education is a POWERFUL TOOL
So you are saying the vast majority of people must change their norms and behavior, such as using restrooms based on biological sex, because of how some people feel about themselves. A transgender with a penis in a female rest room and one with a vagina in a male rest room are in the wrong rest rooms. Why is that so hard to understand? With regard to education being a power tool, you might want to rewrite your comment.
http://www.dailywire.com/news/330/university-toronto-dumps-transgender-bathrooms-pardes-seleh?utm_source=facebook&utm_medium=social&utm_content=010616-news&utm_campaign=dwbrand.
This mayor is a wimp…..
Does “Capt Kirk “realize this law was implemented to protect Religious freedom ? Which has been constantly under attack since the beginning of this administration?? WHAT ABOUT OUR RELIGIOUS rights Mr.Mayor?Where’s the “Tolerance” for that?? What is this ??? Some kind of Political Correctness attack!! You’re shooting yourself in the feet Mr. Mayor!!Don’t make the same mistake Uncle Neil made!!
“Religious leaders and others have defended the North Carolina law,saying it protects women and children from men who use the law as a pretense to enter the wrong restroom”.
Hell Yeah!! Just like the “Unisex restrooms” the city was proposing.(Which got shot down!Thank God!) This just opens the door to sexual Predators,Perves,who’ll be waiting in those restrooms for an unsuspecting prey.SIC,SIC,SIC!!! What are you guys thinking!!!!
I commend N. Carolina and Mississipipi to holding firm to the religious beliefs such as Marriage. Which is defined :Between a MAN and a WOMAN!! All this LGBT stuff??……. Is just “Make Believe”.
If the LGBT want to get married?? I don’t have a problem with that! Maybe they should go to or create a LGBT Church or a restaurant or whatever!! Yep! With all the Political correctness ,The United States of America today has now become The Divided States of America.We are more divided then ever!! And Capt Kirt?? You’re not helping! Indeed,We can all thank this famous quote. “Hope and Change”……..8months and counting! IMUA
So you want to live in a theocracy – but only if it’s the religion you choose. Got it. That makes about as much sense as anything else you write here.
You seem to be stuck in a time warp of some kind that placed you in 1950. Have fun marinating there in your hate, bigotry and ignorance.
Great post klastri. There are enough theocracies in the middle East.
Using the “Homophobic” Card again! Huh Klastri?? How delightful and and sadly…… repetitious.I stand with GOD any day of the week!!
Ignorance?? Indeed!Your word not mine!
Ignorance?? Your description, not his.
Nice rant, by the way. You’ve probably managed to put most of your prejudice and most of your ignorance in one place. I guess you’re saving the racism for the next post.
You can believe in whatever fairy tales you want to. I choose to live with thought and reason. Obviously not two of your strong suits.
I see you got all the buzz words and phrases all lined nicely. Gimme a break. There’s no hate just a fight for values. You liberal or progressives bring that up all the time; really I think because that is what you are filled with.
….but the rest of us can still travel to N. Carolina, and Mississippi.
Have you ever been to either state? It ain’t worth the trip. The people there are about as weird as they come. And don’t leave anything out in your hotel room because it won’t be there when you get back.
As usual, you have absolutely no clue, and a willingness to continually prove it.
Mr Mililani, do you realize there’s a huge chance the persons who cleaned your hotel rooms in either state were black? Care to rephrase what you wrote? If you want to let it stand well, then, a good day to you too.
stereotyping or a sad reminder of class stratification and KKK mentality?
It’s called demographics – might want to look up what the word means.
You’ve never been to the Outer Banks.
Bans public travel – Does that mean I can’t go. What would happen if they ban public travel to Hawaii.
No, what he said was nonessential tax payer paid travel–NOW, IF IT’S NONESSENTIAL TAXPAYER PAID TRAVEL—WHY IS IT AUTHORIZED?? This is not the Big Island Mayor’s account, you know!!!
Thank you, Mr. Mayor.
N. Carolina, and Mississippi should ban travel to Hawaii. Lgbt will soon feel the backlash. Nothing wrong with the 1950’s many good years.
Great years. Segregated washrooms, water fountains, restaurants, theaters, schools. Restrictions on bus seats. Cross burnings, school bombings. What went wrong?
It’s a sad comment and perhaps forever will be an asterisk appended to the “Greatest Generation.”
Right. The good old days.
Our Mayor and all these other Mayors should focus on their own city and state. Aren’t there enough problems within your own cities than to interfere with others?
Census Estimates 8 million adults in the US who identify as LBGT. That comprises 3.5% of the adult population. This represents a sizable voting population during an election year.
Don’t know what the numbers in Hawaii are, however you want to get them on your side. “2nd lieutenant Kirk” will need as many possible votes this election year as he can muster.
Public travel in this context is defined as travel on taxpayers dime by public sector employees (city or state employees).
Discrimination by age, sex, gender, or sexual orientation cannot be tolerated in any shape or form.
Which goes further: There must be separation of church and state. People should not be allowed to push their beliefs on others.
A lesson MUST be taught: the federal government must go a step further and cut off ALL federal funds to those states, or to any state who chooses to or plans to pass any kind of law that discriminates against.
“People should not be allowed to push their beliefs on others.”….so, get out of my way and let me “push” my way into your daughter’s bathroom because I “believe” I’m a little girl.
Hawaii001, your desire is to severely impact the poor, sick and infirm? Are they to be cast aside as mere “collateral damage” to achieve a more nobler goal in your opinion? I’m simply taking what you wrote in your fourth paragraph at face value.
Should the federal government also cut off aid to cities that openly violate immigration law?
Yes.
If you want to know what your gender is, stand in front of a mirror and pull down your pants/skirt/dress. That is the real science.
The rest are fabricated categories, the sorts of things you find in the social sciences.
Freud knew that we are all on a continuum, in multiple dimensions. Sexual orientation and gender identity categories are made up constructions that do not exist in the real world.
When you label yourself with one of these terms, you are squeezing yourself into a crude abstraction. But you are lot more than that, and doing this to yourself can lead to a form of insanity.
Pretending that these categories are real in the way that biological gender is real, is delusional.
MAHALO NUI LOA – Hawaii001!
It is sad that we still have not learned. Even within the Bible, Jesus taught love and tolerance. He made it clear that we should not be like the Pharisees who only took literal meanings and twisted the Word to fit their own limited understandings. For example, the Bible states that no woman shall divorce her husband. To do so shall incur the punishment of stoning to death. Children who do not obey their parents must also be stoned to death. Do Christians still follow these rules? How about the rule against the consumption of pork? And the list goes on. To deny certain people due to their sexual identity is to deny them their right to dignity. As for those that state that it puts people in jeopardy when using a public restroom, it belittles the real reason for those who are transgender and who identify with those of the opposite sex. These transgenders who identify as females, for example, are left with a humiliating option of having to use the men’s restroom. There is no economically feasible method to solve this predicament as creating a unisex restroom is often beyond the means of many businesses and counties. Further, for a business, that proclaims itself “Christian”, and then deny a same-sex couple the dignity of purchasing a wedding cake from their establishment is not of love. As Jesus has taught His disciples and all those who will listen, God is foremost, LOVE. For whatever you do, however you do, choose LOVE. To deny others dignity because of their sexuality does not come from love but from hatred. Mr. McDermott could learn a thing or two about tolerance and dignity. I do not think that Jesus would treat these people the way these “Christians” are. It just does not come from love and does not come from Jesus. I do not expect churches to wed same-sex couple against their beliefs. But I do not believe for one second that it is okay to deny equal rights to those who are of a different sexual identity as long as it does not hurt others. I am sure that I will get a stoning from all the posters here for my comment. But then Jesus would probably get a stoning from these religious right people who have spoken their “truth”. They have a right to their beliefs as I do. But what kind of a message do these “Christians” put out in their hate mongering diatribes against their brothers and sisters who are simply born different? Further, this is the United States of American, a great country that I have fought for and stand for. This country stands for equality. At one dark period of our great nation, we as a nation fought among ourselves over the right to equality of blacks. Brother fought against brothers because of this. Many died. And in the end, what was right prevailed. Today, blacks can vote. At one time, too, women could not vote. We stand here all equals. Anyone who shall deny any group of peoples, citizens of this great country of ours, stands against our Forefathers when they proclaimed that we as a nation stand for EQUALITY. No religion shall stand before this tenet. And even Jesus, would proclaim those who stand against dignity for all, Pharisees.
What happened to the ban on ” non essential” travel by City and County officials.
Maybe it resides in the same dustbin as the “ban” on nonessential City and County employees/officials.
FYI – non-essential is a legalize term that unless it is an emergency there shall be NO travel to these states…
“Is this trip really necessairy” an old WWII statement that needs to be followed by Kirk and not just to xertain destinations. But ALL trips, eh Kirk. Me thinks you travel on our Dime way too much!
Capt Kirk being politically correct again. People in our country have the right of freedom of religion and to excercise their religious beliefs. In Capt Kirks world, that is not
the case.
Grandstanding as usual for this weak mayor….want to really impress me? Ban city travel everywhere including yourself. Plenty screwed up right here to keep you and your team busy
Really, mister mayor? “Hopefully, common sense and our core American values of equality and tolerance will prevail in these states, allowing us to lift this moratorium,” Caldwell said. How about a little equality and tolerance for those believe differently than the “PC” crowd. All these laws are saying is that I don’t have to provide services to someone who’s beliefs I can’t agree with. They can still get service, they aren’t being inconvenienced.
I think Rep. Bob McDermott is a bigot.
A law like this one simply wouldn’t matter in Honolulu. Why? Because there are no functioning or moderately clean bathrooms available to use anywhere without getting a key from someone.
Anyone that is opposed to this travel ban – doesn’t understand or get it since these laws were not targeting them. Guess what – we as a country have already discussed this and one cannot decide who sits at the lunch counter and who receives services.
Why do you continue to equate transgendered people with sexual predators? Show them some respect.
What are you talking about? I am not equating transgenders to with sexual predators! The laws that were just passed in North Carolina and Mississippi are targeting the LGBT community!
North Carolina’s law merely requires people to use public, multi-occupancy bathrooms that correspond with their biological sex. Caldwell, apparently, thinks this is horrible. To put it bluntly, Caldwell’s position endorses involuntarily exposing women and girls to male nudity as a condition of going to the bathroom. This used to be called sexual harassment and indecent exposure. Now it’s called social justice. Go figure.
What are you talking about? You appear to have NO IDEA what this is about – so please EDUCATE yourself before posting on ANY topic.
Liberals love to shout How tolerant they are, yet the situation in reverse is called being Racist or a Bigot ..I would not be looking for many arrivals from North Carolina or Mississippi in the future. I suppose now,just being Caucasian,Christian and Gun owning is considered a terrorist. Silly Liberal’s.
One term Mayor.
If Caldwell really expects to serve only one term, it could explain a “What, me worry?” attitude as his term nears its end.
Honolulu officials are likely to cancel an upcoming trip to the International Bus Roadeo, a transit conference held in North Carolina that city bus employees were planning attend in May. Why were they going in the first place? The International Bus Roadeo is a fun and games event; sort of the Olympics of Bus Operators. Nothing essential about it.
Caldwell needs to get his head out of the orifice in his back side and do something meaningful like banning travel to San Francisco, Los Angeles, Seattle, New York, Washington, D.C. and other sanctuary cities that refuse to enforce or follow US immigration laws.
Everyone that supports North Carolina & Mississippi laws need to read this article – http://www.advocate.com/politics/transgender/2015/03/14/trans-folks-respond-bathroom-bills-wejustneedtopee-selfies
From The Advocate? I’m sure there’s no bias there.
Don’t they advocate suing rather than just going somewhere else that wants your business, like adults would do?