California Gov. Gavin Newsom spent the week of July Fourth vacationing with his family in Montana, where his wife’s parents own a ranch. This should be an entirely unremarkable fact.
But it generated news last week because Montana is on the long list of states to which California has banned state government-funded travel in protest against anti-LGBTQ state laws. Of course, Newsom was on a personal vacation, not government business, so the trip was not paid for by the state. But that didn’t stop critics from calling Newsom a hypocrite because he typically travels with a security detail whose expenses are paid with state funds.
This is a silly attack, but Democrats have themselves to blame. The Democratic-controlled Legislature exposed California leaders to such needless gotchas by passing the well-intentioned but foolish law in 2016 that prohibits state-funded travel to states that have laws discriminating against people based on gender identity or sexual orientation. It was signed by then-Gov. Jerry Brown.
