A so-called Women’s Bill of Rights, according to Samuel Green, may be harmful to the transgender community in the state. (WV Legislative Photography provided the photo.)
CHARLESTON-Critics of the costs that purports to define women’s and girls ‘rights assert that the policy is actually intended to restrict the rights of transgender people in West Virginia.
During Thursday’s ground in the House of Delegates, behavior on House Bill 5243, which would have created a Women’s Bill of Rights, was delayed by one day. On Friday, the House will go through the second reading and act stages of the bill.
Stronger definitions of sex-based terms would be established in state code under HB 5243, also known as the “Women’s Bill of Rights Act,” such as stating that “woman,” “girl,” and “mother” relate to biological females with the exception of cases of evolutionary and biological anomalies or accidents.
According to the bill, a person’s biological sexual is predetermined from birth and is not subject to gender identity or other personal terms. Under the new concepts, any mention of “gender” in state code may be replaced with “intercourse.”
According to followers, the Women’s Bill of Rights may forbid harsh treatment of both sexes in certain circumstances, such as the provision of independent single-sex existing facilities, locker rooms, bathrooms, domestic violence shelters, and biologically based murder problems centers. Additionally, it may alter the definition of identical, stating that it does not refer to equality of the women as being “similar” or “identical.”
On Thursday, Nila Thompson urged legislators to help a bill that would protect and separate services based on sexual orientation, like locker rooms. (Photo by WV Legislative Photograph, courtesy)
The House Judiciary Committee held a common reading on HB 5243 on Thursday night in the House room. Twenty people opposed to the act and seven followers showed up at the public hearing.
In their support of the act, Shanna Thompson and her daughter Nila Thompson related a story in which men had occasionally enter the dance group of NiLA Thompson. In December, the Kanawha County Board of Education was consulted about these problems, but they were unsatisfied with the school system’s answer.
House Bill 5243 promises my rights, security, privacy, and security, but the university board made it clear that they are not valued, according to Nila Thompson. “I dropped the class and switched to one that didn’t expose me to the other sex in front of them.” Any plan that makes this kind of exposure mandatory is abuse and nothing less.
According to Shanna Thompson, “No woman of any time should have to put up with what my daughter Nila did in her school’s bag room.” According to the written language of “House Bill 5243,” both sexes ‘children and women of all ages are protected. There is no room for reimagining later and no misunderstanding about the description of a woman.
However, the majority of speakers agreed that the costs is a slap in the face of women and girls, giving them no more rights while also allowing for discrimination against groups that are marginalized, like the transgender community.
According to Samuel Green, it is absurd for this organization to act as though they have immediately invested in the welfare of women. By proposing policy that does nothing to help them, you are disrespecting what they have fought for, giving you yet another chance to harm the transgender community. People are not in danger from transgender people. Simply put, we’re just trying to survive.
According to Ash Orr, “House Bill 5243, which is connected to the West Virginia Women’s Bill of Rights, offers no real visible protections for cisgender women while attacking another marginalized community and attempting to remove those rights.” This bill is more about restricting the rights and identification of trans people than it is about establishing any protections for people at all.
Representatives from the ACLU-West Virginia, Planned Parenthood South Atlantic, reproductive freedom organization WV FREE, and LGBTQ+ lobbying group Fairness West Virginia opposed the bill.
According to Isabella Cortez, female policy director for Fairness West Virginia, “this so-called Women’s Bill of Rights is not about protecting people; it is about codifying your transphobia into state law, and we are not falling for it.” This act “does not provide any fresh protections for women, nor does it protect any present ones.”
We know how you feel about women, said Mollie Kennedy, group referral producer for the ACLU- WV, “no matter how many horrible resolutions you pass about your gratitude for women as incubators or what transparently phony titles you give bills like this one.” We understand how you’re feeling on this ground. It can be heard in the halls. When we meet with you in your agencies, we let each other know about it. You are introducing legislation known as the Women’s Bill of Rights, which is disgusting, insulting, and ridiculous.
You may contact Steven Allen Adams at sadams@newsandsentinel.com.
