In early September, California Attorney General Xavier Becerra banned state-funded or sponsored travel to the state of Iowa. The reason given was a recent state Supreme Court decision banning the use of Medicaid funds for certain transgender surgical procedures. Left-wing activists often demand the blacklisting of states that pass conservative legislation, and California has gone all-in. It even passed a law in 2016 allowing Golden Staters to impose travel bans on states with insufficiently “woke” laws on the books.

Iowa’s sin was similar to that of other states on California’s naughty list. Those include Texas, Mississippi, North Carolina, Oklahoma, and Kentucky. Readers with a keen eye will recognize that there is a common theme of banning taxpayer-funded travel to decidedly red states.