Republicans quote the Bible and Democrats quote Orwell’s 1984 while again debating the ‘Women’s Bill of Rights’
By Matthew Young, RealWV
CHARLESTON, W.Va. – The debate surrounding the “Women’s Bill of Rights” reached its crescendo in the House of Delegates on Wednesday, as Democrats expressed their last gasp of opposition to the proposed legislation.
“I don’t know if we’re going to have a real healthy debate, or if we’re just going to air our opposition to the bill today,” said Del. Mike Pushkin, D-Kanawha. “I’m not going to get too far in the weeds on policy because I really don’t think there’s a whole lot about this bill that has much to do with policy – it has everything to do with election-year politics, and that’s really sad.”
“It does do some harm,” Pushkin continued. “It was mentioned […] ‘equal’ does not mean the same. We’re going to redefine ‘equal.’ […] It was mentioned that this bill might have been copied and pasted from some anti-trans website. When I read ‘equal does not mean the same,’ I thought it was copied and pasted from 1984 – I thought maybe George Orwell was the ghostwriter of this bill.”
“I was rereading the book (1984) over the weekend,” Pushkin noted. “I read about ‘doublethink’ – how to distract people from the real issues. Make them think the opposite is true. War is peace, slavery is freedom – equal is not the same. Sounds awfully familiar to me.”
“Another tactic that Big Brother used in that book was creating this perceived threat,” Pushkin added. “As long as we have that perceived threat to distract people from the fact that we’re not doing our job here, everything will be nice and calm.”
Pushkin said West Virginians should be afraid of their legislators, before further questioning the motives of House Republicans.
“People who don’t think like you, people who don’t look like you, people who don’t love like you, people who don’t pray like you – getting them to leave the state, is that the goal?” Pushkin asked.
Introduced by lead-sponsor Del. Kathie Hess Crouse, R-Putnam, the “Women’s Bill of Rights” – otherwise recorded as HB 5243 – seeks to legally define the terms “men,” “women,” “boys,” and “girls,” and adds the caveat, “There are only two sexes, and every individual is either male or female.” An amendment introduced Friday by Del. Brandon Steele, R-Raleigh, would also make sexual assault amongst marital-partners illegal within the state.
Speaking in support of HB 5243 was Del. James Akers, R-Kanawha, who expressed his belief that “many more women will vote in favor of this bill than against it.”
Also rising in defense of the bill was Crouse herself.
“Rarely do I quote the Bible,” Crouse began. “This time however, it feels appropriate. Take us back to the beginning – back to Genesis One. It is written, ‘God created mankind in his own image. In the image of God he created them male and female.’”
“Everyday Americans know that a ‘woman’ is an adult human female,” Crouse noted. “I know this, you know this, your constituents know this. Everyday Americans also understand, intuitively, that laws that prohibit sex discrimination are intended to stop employers or schools from treating women or men unfairly because of an immutable characteristic – sex.”
“Americans know that it is unjust to discriminate against someone because of how they were born,” Crouse continued. “Our civil rights laws are premised on this basic idea. And yet today a powerful group of activists seek to convince judges and bureaucrats that these laws guarantee men who identify as women access to women’s private spaces. […] Thankfully we don’t stand for sex-discrimination in West Virginia. […] This bill enshrines, in law, the original public meaning of basic sex-based words.”
“When passed, the ‘Women’s Bill of Rights’ will do three important things, Crouse added. “It defines words, such as ‘female’ and ‘women,’ which are used hundreds-of-times in state code. Second, it ensures the accuracy of publicly-collected data regarding public health, crime, civil rights, education, and economic status of women. And third, it clarifies that the state has an important interest in protecting single-sex spaces.”
The House passed HB 5243 by a vote of 87 to 12. All Democrats voted against passage, as did Del. Diana Winzenreid, R-Ohio. Akers’ belief was also proven to be correct, as only three of the 13 female House members voted against the bill.
As a final act of protest, and, as he explained, to eliminate “doublethink,” Pushkin proposed an amendment to change the bill’s name to the “Women’s Bill of Wrongs,’ an amendment which Del. Tom Fast, R-Fayette, called “ridiculous.” Unsurprisingly, Pushkin’s proposal was rejected.
HB 5243 will now be reported to the Senate for further consideration. RealWV will provide updates regarding the status of the bill as additional information is made available.
