OFFERING PROTECTION – House Judiciary Committee Chairman JB Akers said SB 456 would ensure the privacy of single-sex spaces, such as locker rooms. -- Contributed

CHARLESTON – Gov. Patrick Morrisey’s bill to define “male” and “female” in State Code and protect private spaces for biological men and women passed the House of Delegates Friday, taking one step closer to Morrisey’s desk.

Senate Bill 456, the Riley Gaines Act, passed the House Friday afternoon in an 87-9 vote. The bill now heads back to the state Senate for that body to either concur or reject amendments made to the bill by the House Thursday.

The Riley Gaines Act defines the terms “sex,” “male,” and “female” in State Code, basing those definitions on biological sex at birth. The bill also aims to limit spaces to biological males and females, prohibiting transgender individuals from using facilities based on the gender they identify as.

“This bill does something very simple but very important. It provides for clarification of single-sex spaces under the law due to the fact that we’re seeing those spaces changed not through the actions of this governing body here but by the actions of an activist class throughout the country,” said House Judiciary Committee Chairman JB Akers, R-Kanawha. “This law simply solidifies and cements what we’ve always known to be true, which is there is a necessity for single-sex spaces, especially for the girls and the women in our society.”

The bill includes a provision that acknowledges the 2020 ruling U.S. Fourth Circuit Court of Appeals in Grimm v. Gloucester School Board that a transgender student must be allowed to use the bathroom consistent with their gender identity. However, the bill also states that if the Grimm decision is overturned by the U.S. Supreme Court, the limitations on enforcement imposed by the reference to Grimm “shall be considered repealed.”

Morrisey announced the Riley Gaines Act during his State of the State address on Feb. 12 when the 2025 legislative session convened. Morrisey announced a partnership on his second day in office on Jan. 14 with the Legislature to pass a law setting legal definitions for gender in State Code.

The House of Delegates passed House Bill 5243, called the Women’s Bill of Rights, during the 2024 legislative session, but the bill was never taken up in the state Senate. That bill was supported by Gaines, a former University of Kentucky swim team member, who was in the state as an ambassador for Independent Women’s Voice, a conservative advocacy group.

Gaines first made headlines in 2022 after competing against Lia Thomas, a transgender woman who was on the University of Pennsylvania’s swim team. Gaines is one of several college athletes suing the NCAA over its policies regarding transgender athletes. Gaines campaigned with Morrisey during the 2024 GOP primary for governor.

Morrisey also joined Gaines at the White House when President Donald Trump signed an executive order banning transgender student-athletes from participating in sports with biological girls and women. As the state’s attorney general previously, Morrisey defended a similar state law barring transgender student-athletes from participating in girls’ and women’s sports.

House Minority Whip Shawn Fluharty, D-Ohio, called SB 456 a “do nothing” bill that does not address any of West Virginia’s pressing issues, such as improving education or growing the economy. Instead, Fluharty called the bill an effort to appease base Republican voters for the next election.

“This is the signature piece of legislation from the governor…and it blows my mind how many times we could recycle the same damn bill over and over again,” Fluharty said. “That’s what we’re doing: just recycle, wash, rinse, repeat do-nothing bills that do nothing for people of West Virginia; that only do something for the politicians in West Virginia.”

During debate on the bill, the Democratic minority pointed out that the bill includes no new criminal provisions and no enforcement mechanisms beyond filing grievances in civil court. Referring to the children in the chamber and in the galleries, Fluharty said the Riley Gaines Act does nothing to encourage young people to remain in West Virginia.

“All these young people, I wish they had dreams of staying, but the evidence says otherwise.

Because we would rather be number one in legislative bigotry,” Fluharty said.

Del. Mike Pushkin, D-Kanawha, said the bill was meant to distract the public while the prices of goods remain high and the stock market struggles following the on-again-off-again tariffs on Canada and Mexico by Trump.

“I can definitely understand why the governor and the ruling party in this country right now would rather us be discussing this type of legislation because, quite frankly, it’s the oldest trick in the book. It’s called distraction,” Pushkin said. “It’s to unite people against some perceived threat or some common enemy to distract them from the fact that the folks in charge don’t really know how to govern.”

In closing, Akers said the Republican supermajority did not create the circumstances that now requires them to define “male” and “female” in State Code and to protect single-sex spaces.

“What we’ve always considered to be norms in our society are being changed not by this body but by activists throughout this country,” Akers said. “It is, I’ll say politely, political gaslighting to say that this body in reacting to that extremism has somehow created the problem that we are addressing by having to define the sexes in single-sex spaces in the law, which is not something we ever had to do before.

“This issue which we’re addressing is frankly not new,” Akers continued. “The people who are affected by this on all sides should be treated with dignity and respect just as they always should have in the past. People who are transgender are not new in our society. They always have been and should be treated with dignity and respect with the recognition that single-sex spaces do exist and do matter for a reason.”

Fairness West Virginia, an LGBTQ advocacy organization, said in a statement Friday afternoon the bill was less about protecting women and more about discriminating against the transgender community.

“Today was a shameful day in the West Virginia Legislature,” said Andrew Schneider, executive director of Fairness West Virginia. “Delegates failed, once again, to protect the health and safety of women living in our state. Instead, they continued their all-out attack on transgender people. They pit cisgender women against transgender women as if the fight for safety and dignity is a zero-sum game. It is not.”

(Adams can be contacted at sadams@newsandsentinel.com)