Gov. Patrick Morrisey’s priority bill defining “men” and “women” will head to his desk for signature, but the Senate first amended it to clarify that it can’t be construed as authorization for someone to examine a child’s genitals for the purposes of determining the child’s biological sex.
The legislation, Senate Bill 456, also restricts transgender individuals’ access to spaces like bathrooms or locker rooms that align with their gender identity. The House of Delegates amended the legislation March 7, at the request of Del. J.B. Akers, R-Kanawha, to include that only a health care provider could visually or physically examine a minor child for the purpose of verifying their “biological sex” without the “consent of the child’s parent, guardian, or custodian.”
The West Virginia Democratic Party called on senators, who needed to approve the House’s changes to the bill, to remove what they called a harmful and intrusive “Child Genital Inspection Amendment,” saying it was an outrageous violation of both privacy and parental rights.
Senate Majority Leader Patrick Martin introduced an amendment Tuesday that removed much of Aker’s amendment about examining a minor. The amendment says that nothing in the bill could “be construed as authorizing an examination of a minor for purposes of determining the minor’s biological sex. A minor’s sex would be verified using their birth certificate, according to the amendment.”
“Biological sex of a minor would be determined at the time of the minor’s birth,” said Martin, R-Lewis.
The Senate then signed off on the legislation, punting it back to the House, where Del. Mike Pushkin, D-Kanawha, said he approved Martin’s amendment.
“I would agree with the Senate. That’s a dangerous amendment that passed out of here,” said Pushkin, adding that the House’s version would have permitted a school nurse to examine a child’s genitals without a parent’s permission. “You’re passing flawed legislation that puts children at risk when you’re trying to score political points.”
House Democrats said that the bill is reflective of “Republicans’ misplaced priorities” this session. “They are more focused on genitals than jobs,” said Del. Shawn Fluharty, D-Ohio in a news release.
The House approved the Senate’s changes, and the bill will now go to the governor’s desk for approval. Morrisey requested the legislation after the Republican-led legislature failed to pass a similar bill last year.
The measure, for the first time, defines “men” and “women” in state code by tying the terms to a person’s sex; it does not recognize the existence of nonbinary people or those who do not identify as “male” or “female,” though it does require that accommodations be made for people who are intersex or who are born with similar conditions. It applies to adults and minors.
This is the first of Morrisey’s policy priority bills to pass the House and Senate this session.
“I am thrilled that the West Virginia Legislature has definitively stood with women with the passage of this legislation,” said Del. Kathie Hess Crouse, R-Putnam, in a news release from Independent Women’s Voice, a conservative nonprofit, praising the bill’s passage. “This year, I look forward to celebrating Gov. Morrisey signing this legislation into law quickly, ensuring the sex-based rights of the nearly 900,000 women and girls in West Virginia are finally safeguarded under state law.”
Akers added, “This is a common sense bill that, until now, was unnecessary. Now, however, activists are forcing judges into the role of policymakers on the question of what is a man and a woman … Some spaces belong to girls and women, and we will make sure it stays that way.”
In a statement Tuesday, Andrew Schneider, director of the statewide LGBTQ advocacy organization Fairness West Virginia, said, “The fact that our lawmakers have spent so much time debating this bill shows how out of touch the Republican supermajority is with the voters of this state.”
“Although the brunt of this bill focuses on bathrooms, I hope we all don’t lose sight of the many other harms this bill could cause,” he said. “This bill explicitly prohibits domestic violence shelters from providing a true safe haven to transgender victims. This bill seeks to force shelters to house transgender women in the men’s shelter. And as advocates for these victims have pointed out, denying service to transgender victims could be a death sentence.
“When lawmakers police who is and isn’t a woman, when they dictate what bodies are acceptable, when they decide who gets to be safe, we all lose. We have seen this before, in every era when those in power tried to control women’s bodies and silence their voices. We cannot let them divide us. We cannot let them use fear to weaken our collective power.”
This article originally appeared on West Virginia Watch.
“West Virginia Watch is part of States Newsroom, a nonprofit news network supported by grants and a coalition of donors as a 501c(3) public charity. West Virginia Watch maintains editorial independence. Contact Editor Leann Ray for questions: info@westvirginiawatch.com.”
