Gov. Kate Brown is taking heat on social media after being spotted maskless at an event in Washington, D.C., while maintaining her controversial indoor mask mandate at home.
Brown was in the nation’s capital Saturday for the 30th anniversary gala of the Victory Fund, a national organization dedicated to electing LGBTQ candidates to public office. Brown, a bisexual and the first openly LGBTQ governor, was inducted into the organization’s hall of fame at the event.
Several photographs of Brown posing for pictures and speaking with other attendees while maskless circulated on Twitter, and numerous commenters, including Oregon’s Senate Republicans, jumped on to point out the apparent hypocrisy of Brown’s maintaining an indoor mask mandate across the state when she chose not to wear a mask herself at a large indoor event in D.C.
“The same rules that apply in Washington DC should apply here in Oregon,” said one of several tweets from Senate Republicans, who have consistently criticized the governor’s masking policies.
“Apparently COVID-19 only exists in Oregon schools and offices and not in ballrooms in Washington, D.C. at swanky fund raisers,” Oregon Senate Minority Leader Tim Knopp, R-Bend, said in an email Monday.
Chris Pair, a political adviser to Brown, said in an email that all attendees were required to show proof of vaccination against COVID-19 and that there is no indoor mask mandate in the capital. The D.C. mayor ended the indoor masking requirement Nov. 22.
“Regardless of the local rules, Governor Brown went further and remained masked during the event except when giving her acceptance speech, eating, or taking pictures with attendees,” Pair wrote in an email.
At least one photo showed Brown in the background, seated at a table and conversing maskless with another attendee seated at a neighboring table.
Pair insisted that the photo clearly showed Brown “seated at her table where she had been eating and drinking.”
Oregon is one of six states that require people to wear masks indoors in public spaces regardless of their vaccination status. Brown last month lifted the state’s outdoor mask mandate.
