SALT LAKE CITY — Mayor Jackie Biskupski has issued an executive order, banning city-sponsored travel to North Carolina and Mississippi in protest of their anti-LGBT legislation.

The mayor and the city council also issued a joint letter, urging businesses to consider moving from those states to Salt Lake City. The open letter highlights last year’s legislation that provides non-discrimination in housing and employment for LGBT people — a compromise between the gay community and The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints.

“In Salt Lake City, economic strength is intrinsically tied to treating all people with dignity and respect. Like you, we recognize that our economic success depends on inclusion and protection for everyone,” the letter reads. “So, in light of North Carolina and Mississippi’s recent actions, we’d like to invite you to consider doing business in our beautiful and welcoming city.”

Among the companies the mayor and council targeted in their letter — PayPal, which threatened to pull planned business from North Carolina over its law.

Biskupski, who is the first openly-gay mayor of Utah’s capitol city, also issued a memo to city staffers banning travel to Mississippi or North Carolina — unless it was absolutely necessary.

Read the mayor’s memo here:

The action against states whose legislatures passed bills condemned as anti-gay came on the same day the Salt Lake City Council was expected to take up another pro-LGBT issue: the council will consider renaming a portion of 900 South to Harvey Milk Boulevard, after the California gay rights leader who was assassinated in 1978.

Read the mayor and council’s letter to NC and MS businesses: