A new and controversial gender-related bill has surfaced in the West Virginia House of Delegates. This bill, if passed, will designate public school bathrooms and locker rooms based on biological sex.
This means that students in West Virginia public schools can only use any facilities that align with their biological sexes. Biological males can only use male bathrooms, and biological females can only use female bathrooms.
The name of this bill is House Bill 4806. Its official description reads, “The purpose of this bill is to assign the use of bathrooms and multi-person common changing rooms by gender…”
The bill, which is a significant challenge to the trans community, will also “prohibit the usage of a designated room under this section by a person of the opposite sex.”
Also Read: US Supreme Court Rejects Transgender Student Bathroom Case
Del. Dave Foggin (R – Wood, 014) was the bill’s sponsor. The bill’s co-sponsors were Deputy Speaker Matthew Rohrbach (R – Cabell, 026), Asst. Maj. Whip Scot Heckert (R – Wood, 013), Del. Laura Kimble (R – Harisson, 071), and six other members.
If the bill scales through legislative scrutiny, which many believe it will, it will be illegal for a man to enter or use a facility that is allocated to women. The bill, however, featured an exception – “family members, rendering medical or other assistance.”
The bill also directs schools to provide reasonable accommodation to students who are “unwilling and unable to use a multiple occupancy restroom or changing area designated for the individual’s sex.”
The reasonable accommodation could be a single occupancy restroom or changing area. The bill further clarified that reasonable accommodation doesn’t include restrooms or changing areas reserved for the opposite sex while members of the opposite sex are present.
POLL—Should Laws Be Enacted To Protect LGBTQ+ Individuals From Workplace Discrimination?
Also spelled out in the bill are penalties for violation. School authorities are to submit formal complaints of violations to the state Board of Education. The board will then look into the allegations and punish confirmed offenders.
The bill prescribes a minimum fine of $500 plus any other additional punishment the board may wish to hand out. The bill will likely also go through a public hearing before the House will sit to consider its merits.
It is one of several bills that will receive the focus of the house for the first 15 days of its 60-day session. Political watchers say that the bills under focus are aimed at appeasing social conservatives who are worried about the survival of conservative values in the Educational arena.
Also Read: Trans Woman Murdered Days After Hosting a Holiday Dinner for Lonely Queers
Bills in this category include one that, if passed, will mandate schools to display “In God We Trust” in every classroom.
Another bill will further empower the discussion of intelligent design in public schools.
Another bill scheduled for deliberation will allow the teaching of courses in pregnancy and human development. These courses will be available for students in the right and tenth grades.
The courses will require students to watch ultrasound videos of early fetal development. One of these videos is from Live Action, a pro-life advocacy group notorious for secretly filming the activities of Planned Parenthood facilities.
You Might Also Like:
Copies of Colorado Town Newspapers Go Missing From Stands After Publishing a Rape Report
OSHA Blames Mississippi Slaughterhouse for the Death of Migrant Teen Sucked Into Machinery
Woman Bans Sister-in-Law From Her House for Not Calling Daughters by Their Names
California Family Sues School Officials for Suspending 8th-Grader Over Game “Blackface” Appearance
Virginia Man Faces Charges for Fatally Stabbing a Dog
