communities' opposition to the bill and its effects on Mississippians, particularly LGBT Mississippians. The backlash is similar to what North Carolina experienced after passing the widely controversial "bathroom bill". As of December 2, 2016, the states of California, Connecticut, Minnesota, New York, Vermont, and Washington, the District of Columbia, the counties of Dane (Wisconsin), Franklin (Ohio), Montgomery (Maryland), and Multnomah (Oregon), and the cities of Baltimore, Berkeley, Cincinnati, Dayton, Honolulu, Long Beach, Los Angeles, Miami Beach, New York City, Oakland, Philadelphia, Portland (Maine), Portland (Oregon), Providence, Salt Lake City, San Francisco, San Jose, Santa Fe, Seattle, Tampa, West Palm Beach, and Wilton Manors have all issued travel bans in response to H.B. 1523, barring government employees from non-essential publicly funded travel to Mississippi. International response In April 2016, the British Foreign and Commonwealth Office issued a warning to LGBT travelers to North Carolina and Mississippi. The Human Rights Campaign responded that it was "both frightening and embarrassing that one of our nation's staunchest allies has warned its citizens of the risks." On May 12, 2016, the European Union released a statement condemning the Religious Liberty Accommodations Act in Mississippi and the Public Facilities Privacy & Security Act in North Carolina. Challenges to H.B. 1523 in the Courts Several different lawsuits have aimed to derail and overturn H.B. 1523. In June 2016 before H.B. 1523 was scheduled to originally go into effect, two lawsuits in U.S. District Court challenged the constitutionality of the bill: Barber v. Bryant and Campaign for Southern Equality v. Bryant. The two cases were consolidated for the preliminary injunction proceedings in U.S. District Court. Barber v. Bryant Barber v. Bryant was brought forward by Mississippi civil rights attorney Robert McDuff and the Mississippi Center for Justice. The plaintiffs of Barber v. Bryant were eleven individual Mississippians and The Joshua Generation Metropolitan Community Church of Hattiesburg, MS. When heard in District Court, the Campaign for Southern Equality v. Bryant case was consolidated under Barber v. Bryant. On June 27, 2016, U.S. District Judge Carlton W. Reeves entered a permanent injunction blocking HB 1523's provision allowing county clerks to recuse themselves from issuing marriage licenses. On June 30, 2016, hours before the law was to come into force, Judge Reeves issued a preliminary injunction blocking the rest of HB 1523. In a sixty-page opinion finding that the law violates the Equal Protection Clause and the Establishment Clause of the