ALBANY, NY — Gov. Andrew M. Cuomo on March 29 signed an executive order that bars state employees from traveling to North Carolina on state business unless such a trip is considered essential. The order requires all New York State agencies, departments, boards and commissions to immediately review all requests for travel to the state and prevent any travel that is not directly related to the public health and welfare.

The ban comes after lawmakers in North Carolina passed a law that prevents local governments in the state from passing local laws that protect lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender (LGBT) persons from discrimination. State lawmakers and Gov. Pat McCrory passed the legislation on March 23, weeks after the city of Charlotte passed a law protecting members of the LGBT community from being discriminated against.

The part of the state law that is drawing the most attention and heat is the requirement that transgender men, women, boys and girls use the bathroom of the sex identified on their birth certificates and not necessarily the sex they identify with.

In reacting to the law, Cuomo said, “In New York, we believe that all people—regardless of their gender identity or sexual orientation—deserve the same rights and protections under the law. From Stonewall to marriage equality, our state has been a beacon of hope and equality for the LGBT community, and we will not stand idly by as misguided legislation replicates the discrimination of the past. As long as there is a law in North Carolina that creates the grounds for discrimination against LGBT people, I am barring non-essential state travel to that state.”

The law has also sparked reaction from other quarters. The American Civil Liberties Union of North Carolina (NCACLU) and other plaintiffs have filed a lawsuit against the state, charging it violates the 14th Amendment of the U.S. Constitution, which guarantees due process and equal protection under the law. Chris Brooks, legal director for the NCACLU, said the law violates the constitution because “it discriminates on the basis of sex and sexual orientation, and because it is an invasion of privacy for transgender men and transgender women.”

McCrory, a Republican who is running again for office, has called the opposition to the law “political theater.” He defends the requirement that transgender people use public restrooms that match the gender listed on their birth certificates a matter of “etiquette” that has been in place for decades.

North Carolina’s attorney general, Democrat Roy Cooper, who is running against McCrory, said on March 29 he won’t defend the new law in court, calling it a “national embarrassment,” and agreeing that it is discriminatory.