By Steven Allen Adams, The Parkersburg News and Sentinel
CHARLESTON, W.Va. — A bill meant to protect girls and women from the transgender community passed the West Virginia House of Delegates on Valentine’s Day, the irony of which was not lost on the Democratic minority in the House, who called the bill an insult to women.
House Bill 5243, creating the Women’s Bill of Rights Act, passed the House in a 87-12 vote Wednesday afternoon, with the bill now heading to the state Senate.
The bill was up for passage Monday, but the House Rules Committee – made up of the leaders of the House’s major committees and the leadership of the House Democratic caucus – placed the bill on the House’s inactive calendar where it sat until the Rules Committee moved the bill back to the active calendar prior to Wednesday’s floor session.
HB 5243 – which was rolled out to great fanfare by Gov. Jim Justice and other lawmakers at the end of January – would create a “Women’s Bill of Rights” by defining sex-based terms in State Code for “woman,” “girl” and “mother” to refer to biological females except in cases of developmental and genetic anomalies or accidents.
The bill requires a person’s biological sex be set at birth, and changes references to “gender” to “sex.” It prohibits use of the term “gender identity,” and other subjective terms. It would change the definition of equal, stating that it does not mean “same” or “identical” when it comes to equality of the sexes.
