Gov. Jim Justice joined May Mailman, left, director of the Independent Women’s Law Center, and Riley Gaines, right, ambassador for the Independent Women’s Forum, to encourage lawmakers to support House Bill 5234, the Women’s Bill of Rights Act. (Photo courtesy of the WV Governor’s Office)
CHARLESTON — A bill to make it clear in West Virginia law that references to women and girls means biological women and girls and not transgender women and girls has the support of Gov. Jim Justice.
House Bill 5243, creating the West Virginia Women’s Bill of Rights Act, was introduced Friday in the House of Delegates. The bill’s lead sponsor is Del. Kathy Hess Crouse, R-Putnam.
“What we are saying is that women are women, and women are really important,” Justice said Monday afternoon in a press conference in the Governor’s Reception Room. “I am really proud of our House and our Senate, and as soon as it gets to me, you’ll see me sign it with a great big smile on my face and it won’t take me seconds.”
HB 5243 would put in place stronger definitions in State Code for sex-based terms. The bill states that references to “woman,” “girl,” and “mother” in code refer to biological females except in cases of developmental and genetic anomalies or accidents. The bill defines “male” as someone born as a biological male.
The bill states that “equal” does not mean “same” or “identical,” that a person’s biological sex is set at birth, and does not include gender identity or other terms for sex the bill identifies as subjective. Any reference to “gender” in State Code would be changed to “sex” under the new definitions.
The bill goes on to prohibit unfair treatment of females and males in certain situations, including the providing of separate single-sex living facilities, locker rooms, bathrooms, domestic violence shelters, and rape crisis centers based on biological sex.
During his press conference, Justice — the head coach of Greenbrier East High School’s girls basketball team — said the bill was important to protect girls and women from unfair competition in athletics by transgender female athletes.
“It really started over the unfairness in sports,” Justice said. “Who would have ever thunk it, that we as a people could think that is right or fair after we’ve done all this incredible work in women’s athletics … and literally in just one move try to snuff it all away. Then it got even worse, so we do need a women’s bill of rights.”
If the West Virginia Legislature passed the bill, the state would become the fifth to codify a women’s bill of rights. Other states include Kansas, Tennessee, Oklahoma, and Nebraska. The bill is the project of several conservative groups, including the Independent Women’s Forum and Independent Women’s Law Center, and the Women’s Liberation Front.
“Where state laws, regulations, or policies say ‘woman,’ that means ‘woman,’ — an adult and female,” said May Mailman, director of the Independent Women’s Law Center. “West Virginians deserve truth and transparency and not flimsy terms that can be altered by a judge.”
Riley Gaines is a former swimmer with the University of Kentucky and ambassador for the Independent Women’s Forum. During her career as a swimmer, Gaines competed against Lia Thomas, a transgender woman, who won an NCAA Division 1 national championship in 2022.
“We were not forewarned that we would have to change in front of this 6 foot 4 fully intact naked male,” Gaines said. “They did not ask for our consent and we did not give our consent. There were feelings of, of course, utter violation, betrayal, and we — as female athletes — watched on the side of the pool as this mediocre male swam to a national title, beating out the most impressive and accomplished females this nation and this world even have seen.”
Gaines was honored Monday in the House with a standing ovation during introductions at the start of the House floor session, and she was honored with a resolution in the state Senate.
Justice signed House Bill 3293 following the 2021 legislative session. That bill prohibited transgender girls and women from playing secondary school and collegiate girls and women’s sports. Becky Pepper Jackson, a 12-year-old transgender girl, sued the state and local school system challenging the law in federal court. She won that case and it is now being appealed to the 4th Circuit Court of Appeals. She is represented by several groups, including the ACLU-WV.
“West Virginia lawmakers have repeatedly made it clear they don’t actually care about women’s rights,” said Mollie Kennedy, community outreach director for the ACLU-WV. “This so-called ‘Women’s Bill of Rights’ is bad for women — cis and trans. The Legislature is making explicit that they don’t have to treat women the same way they treat men, and in doing so, saying West Virginia women are both separate and unequal.”
Isabella Cortez, the gender policy manager for LGBTQ advocacy group Fairness West Virginia, said HB 5243 was just another attempt by the Republican supermajority in the Legislature to harass transgender people.
“Let’s be clear — this is really just a bill to ban transgender people from using the correct restrooms in government buildings,” Cortez said. “There is no evidence that allowing transgender people to use restrooms that align with their gender identity increases safety risk. All of us, including transgender people like myself, care about safety and privacy in restrooms and locker rooms. Which is why it’s important to know that it is already illegal for anyone to enter these facilities to harm or harass someone or to invade someone’s privacy.”
Margaret Chapman Pomponio, executive director of reproductive rights organization WV Free, said it was insulting to call the bill a “women’s bill of rights.”
“What kind of cruel irony is this,” Pomponio asked. “A real women’s bill of rights would include solving the childcare crisis, restoring the right to abortion, addressing the problem of racial disparities in maternal mortality, and the rapidly growing maternity care deserts in our state, to name just a few things.”
“This is a slap to the women of West Virginia,” Pomponio continued. “I would call this political theater, but that would trivialize this attack on our trans community. If this is what the governor calls rights, we don’t want them.”
Steven Allen Adams can be reached at sadams@newsandsentinel.com
