Jackson Free Press

SEATTLE (AP) — Seattle's mayor has barred the use of city funds for employee travel to Mississippi after their governor signed a law allowing religious groups and some private businesses to refuse service to gay couples based on beliefs.

Mayor Ed Murray signed the executive order Tuesday. He signed a similar order last week banning travel to North Carolina and said he'd continue to act if other states go this route.

Murray says the city of Seattle will not stand by idly while discriminatory laws are enacted because such laws stand to threaten equity victories in Seattle and elsewhere.

The Mississippi measure's stated intention is to protect those who believe that marriage should be between one man and one woman, that sexual relations should only take place inside such marriages, and that male and female genders are unchangeable.