By Erin Reed | Charleston, W. Va. – Senate Bill 194 in West Virginia has completely outlawed gender-affirming treatment for transgender people up to the age of 21 and requires all therapists and social workers in the position to make an effort to “solution” their gender identity.
Lawmakers Mike Azinger, Laura Chapman, and Chandler Swope filed the bill, which would implement the strictest limitations on gender-affirming treatment in the US. Additionally, it may mandate that all social workers and professionals in the express practice conversion therapy.
This may expand upon West Virginia’s 2023 under-18 ban on gender-affirming care, which included instances that allowed some transgender children to keep receiving treatment. The act is one of 9 anti-trans bills released yesterday in West Virginia, and it has been named by prominent state organizers as among the most hazardous this cycle in the state.
The act is divided into sections to address various facets of transgender attention. Being transgender is defined in one area as a “sexual variation” and is grouped with other crimes like pedophilia, exhibitionism, neurosis, sadomasochism, and fetishism.
For the purposes of this act, minors are defined as anyone under the age of 21, with the concept being expanded to include trans adults. The bill would next outlaw the use of state money for gender-affirming care as well as the provision of gender affirmation care for people under this age.
The bill’s most startling clause, which hasn’t been found in any other gender-affirming care ban bill to date, is the one that applies to all social workers, counselors, psychological professionals, psychiatrists, and therapists. According to the act, all mental health professionals must refrain from “exacerbating sex dysphoria” in children under the age of 21 by “continuing for condition, hallucination, or disorder with no intention of cure or cure-pursuing recovery.”
Gender dysphoria would be required of therapists to “cure” it, as doing so would constitute “continuing such condition, delusion, or disorder” for their transgender patients.
Check out this clause:
According to the Movement Advancement Project, conversion therapy is a process that is now outlawed in 27 states. This clause may require therapists and social workers in the condition to practice it.
There is no proof that being transgender has a “solution.” In the meantime, there is a lot of proof that trans people are harmed by alteration therapy. The risk of suicide is more than twice as high for transgender people who are forced to undergo conversion therapy, and it is the same for attempts at “secular” and “religious” conversion therapies.
In a conversation with Erin In The Morning, eminent West Virginia administrator Ash Orr, who goes by the pronoun he/they, declared the bill to be one of the most dangerous in the 2023–2024 congressional period, saying, “Senate Bills 194 and 195 are the two charges I’m most anxious about.”
When asked what the bill would mean for transgender people in West Virginia, he responded, “Trans people know they are; there is nothing to “cure.” The truth is that trans people of all ages are leading fulfilling, happy life, which goes against the false tale that extremist politicians have fabricated about our community. This piece of legislation, which is based on deceptive or even outright fake thoughts, violates our most fundamental principles of privacy and self-control.
One of several bills has been put forth in West Virginia this time. Senate Bill 195, a different bill, had categorized trans people as “obscene” and forbid any slight from being exposed, performed, or displayed as such.
This might have the effect of preventing trans people from existing in public because it would be challenging for a small to avoid identifying them as such. ” This is a blatant attempt to prosecute and remove the transgender community of West Virginia,” Orr said in reference to this act.
Given the intense interest shown by Republican presidential candidates this year, West Virginia may soon start referring bills to appropriate committees. These bills will be closely monitored. As Governor Jim Justice spins for his Senate work in West Virginia, a number of Republican candidates will also be seeking the governor’s office.
Republicans who would not otherwise aid anti-trans policy have been concerned about Republican primaries. In the first 11 weeks of 2024, there were nearly 200 anti-trans legislation bills introduced in West Virginia, bringing the total number nationwide to that level.
When questioned about the surge in anti-trans legislation in West Virginia, Ash offers a hopeful response, saying, “The increase in parliamentary attacks aimed at our society is concerning, but it shows the anguish of politicians and fanatics who are against transgender rights.”
