WV Senate adopts legislation that says ‘men are men and women are women’
By Autumn Shelton, RealWV
CHARLESTON, W.Va. – On Monday, the West Virginia Senate passed a bill that legally defines the terms “male” and “female,” “woman” and “man,” and “girl” and “boy” in an attempt to preserve single-sex spaces, including restrooms and domestic violence shelters, throughout the state.
The committee substitute for Senate Bill 456 passed the Senate by a vote of 32-1, with Sen. Joey Garcia, D-Marion, being the lone vote against passage. The Senate’s only other Democratic member, Minority Leader Mike Woelfel of Cabell County, joined with Republicans to vote in favor of the bill.
In addition to defining the meaning of gender specific terms, the bill also sets forth legislation to “Preserve women’s restrooms, multiple occupancy restrooms or changing rooms, and sleeping quarters for women in facilities where women have been traditionally afforded privacy and safety from acts of abuse, harassment, sexual assault, and violence committed by men.”
SB 456 is a bill that was requested by Gov. Patrick Morrisey. A similar bill, HB 2006, is also working its way through the House.
According to Senator Mike Stuart, R-Kanawha, who discussed SB 456 prior to the vote, the bill seeks to define “men and women on the basis of biological differences.”
“A primary goal of this bill is preserving privacy for women in certain spaces, including restrooms,” Stuart said. “The legislation applies to domestic violence shelters, public schools, including colleges and universities, and correctional institutions, with very limited exceptions. It provides that sleeping quarters, multiple-occupancy restrooms and changing rooms would be designated for their exclusive use by either males or females.”
“This is good legislation that protects the women of West Virginia from the cultural war being declared on them,” Stuart said.
Garcia stated that his reason for a no vote is because his faith guides him to “lead with love.” He then discussed the parable of the Good Samaritan from the Gospel of Luke.
“When an individual is beaten and robbed on the street a priest passed by, a rabbi passed by – two people you thought would have helped – but the samaritan, the person that was shunned, the person that was considered the enemy – that’s the person that was moved with compassion to help that person,” Garcia explained.
“When I think about this, I think Jesus was saying, in response to who is our neighbor, everyone is our neighbor,” Garcia said. “So, that’s where I start when I think about this bill.”
Garcia said that whether we know it or not, this bill affects our neighbors.
“I’ve had people that have come up to me in the last couple of years about issues like this and I would have never known that that individual was in the position of being transgender or questioning or whatever it might be,” Garcia continued, adding that this divisive issue became the number one issue in political campaigns.
Garcia said that the bill has prohibitions that aren’t backed up with data.
“It’s this boogeyman story of what might happen, and it has real consequences,” Garcia said. “But, those people are our neighbors . . . and I may not understand what they are going through. But, I would like to think that we were called to have some compassion for them.”
After quoting from the novel “The Alchemist” by Paolo Coelho, a story of finding one’s purpose in life, Garcia said, “I believe that God made people who they are and that he does not make mistakes, and that every child is a child of God.”
Sen. Rollan Roberts, R-Raleigh, countered Garcia with another Biblical quote.
“Since we have invoked the Bible, we look at Genesis 1:27, where the Bible tells us so God created man in his own image. And the image of God . . . male and female created he them,” Roberts said. “Stating the facts as we see in the foundational book of the Bible, does not mean that there is a lack of love or compassion for anyone else on this earth, and I support the bill whole-heartedly.”
Sen. Stuart concluded that although the bill has received a lot of Biblical interpretations, it is about compassion – “compassion for our young women and women all across West Virginia.”
Senate Bill 456 is now headed before members of the House.
