West Virginia House committee advances bill targeting trans women on February 6, 2024

Also recommends bill prohibiting ‘non-binary’ from birth certificates
By Steven Allen Adams, The Parkersburg News and Sentinel
CHARLESTON, W.Va. — A bill touted by some last week as a “Women’s Bill of Rights” that would limit access to certain spaces by transgender women is on the move, along with another bill that would prohibit “non-binary” as a category on birth certificates.
The House Judiciary Committee met Monday afternoon to review several bills, including House Bill 5243, relating to the Women’s Bill of Rights.
HB 5243 would put in place stronger definitions in State Code for sex-based terms, such as stating that “woman,”“girl,” and “mother” refer to biological females except in cases of developmental and genetic anomalies or accidents.
The bill states 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.
The bill states that “equal” does not mean “same” or “identical,” but Democratic members of the committee were confused about what rights were being protected.
“I’m trying to figure out what exactly what rights we are providing because we have this fantastic title, the West Virginia Women’s Bill of Rights Act,” said House Minority Whip Shawn Fluharty, D-Ohio. “Who wouldn’t want to vote for that? But I mean, what actual rights are we guaranteeing here?
“I’m still perplexed on what exactly what rights are now being provided that aren’t currently being provided under the law,” Fluharty continued after asking several questions of the committee’s counsel presenting the committee substitute for HB 5243.