For those acquainted with my previous work at the newspaper, today’s post may feel familiar. I’m taking a concept I pioneered there and giving it a new flavor for this blog: I’m ranking West Virginia legislation based on whether it benefits the state and its people (thumbs-up), harms the state and its people (thumbs-down), or is just plain stupid (face-palm).
As always seems to be the case, the legislation getting the most traction in Charleston right now are the ones that are least beneficial to anyone — in general, culture-war bills that are great for Republican campaigns but don’t address any of the problems West Virginians actually want solved. However, there are a handful of good bills that have been introduced; they’re just moving slower than their nasty counterparts.
Without further ado, here is a selection of bills and their ranking:
Thumbs-up: SB 8 — providing additional sites and devices for newborn safe surrender. This bill adds EMS facilities, police departments, and sheriff’s detachments to the existing list of locations approved for safe surrender, which currently consists of health care facilities and fire departments. In a state where abortion is effectively banned and where addiction is still an ongoing crisis, it’s more and more important to have options for parents who know they can’t raise a child to safely surrender their baby. EMS facilities are well-equipped to give any care a surrendered child might need. However, not every town (or even large swaths of individual counties) have EMS facilities, so the inclusion of police and sheriff departments offers a decent alternative. This bill has already passed the Senate and is being considered in the House of Delegates.
Thumbs-down: SB 460 — relating to vaccine requirements. I’ve already given my spiel on all the ways this is bad. See my post “Vaccine requirement rollbacks roll us back to a darker time.” Need any further proof? Texas just reported the U.S.’s first death from measles in a decade. The “school-aged” child was unvaccinated and died Tuesday. SB 460 passed the Senate and is now quickly moving through the House of Delegates.
Face-palm: SB 427 — permitting certain teenagers to work without obtaining a work permit. This bill would replace a work permit issued by the Superintendent of Schools with an age verification certificate issued by the State Commissioner of Labor so that 14- and 15-year-olds can work. Honestly, I have mixed feelings about this one. I don’t necessarily see an issue with allowing 14- and 15-year-olds to work, but experience has taught me that when you give an inch in this state, bad actors will take a mile. The Legislature is already doing everything it can to rollback oversight on charter and homeschooling; it would be too easy for families to pull their teens out of school altogether and force them to work instead. I have visions of children back in the coal mines or working other dangerous jobs. At the time of this writing, this bill is scheduled for third reading in the Senate on Friday (2/28).
Thumbs up: Honestly, there aren’t enough good bills getting traction right now, so I’ve got nothing here.
Thumbs-down: SB 299 — “modifying WV regulations on pubertal modulation, hormonal therapy, and gender reassignment.” When are we going to stop picking on transgender people? Despite the fearmongering certain politicians have engaged in — like saying kids go to school and come back with different genitalia — research has shown that gender affirming surgeries are incredibly rare for anyone under 18. One study showed there were no gender affirming surgeries performed on youth under age 12 and the rate of 15- to 17-year-olds who identified as transgender and received surgery was 2.1 per 100,000. In fact, most of the teens who received chest surgery were cisgender males (biologically male and identifies as male) getting a breast reduction — a staggering 97% of all chest surgeries. Besides all that: A survey of 90,000 transgender individuals found 79% were a lot more satisfied with their lives after transitioning and 15% were a little more satisfied. Only 3% said they were in any way dissatisfied with their lives after transitioning. Compare that to knee replacements, which are one of the most performed surgeries in America: a full 7%-10% are dissatisfied with their surgery results. At the time of this writing, SB 299 was up for passage in Senate Judiciary.
Face-palm: HB 2006 — “defining Men and Women.” I’ll just leave the link to this one because there is a lot going on here. But, in essence, this bill does a lot of attempting to define what makes a “woman” vs. what makes a “man” and to ensure that there is no place public for transgender individuals, ostensibly to prevent “women” from assault or harassment by “men” masquerading as women in order to enter single-sex spaces. This bill is on second reading in the House and a similar bill, SB 456, is on second reading in the Senate. You know, for all the Legislature is doing to “protect” women from the mythical harm of transgender women (male-to-female), lawmakers have done and are doing very little to protect women from the things that actually harm us. Besides, if a man wants to enter a women-only space to assault a woman, he doesn’t need to dress up as a woman to do it. Just ask Donald Trump.
Thumbs-up: Still got nothing.
Thumbs-down: HB 2400 — prohibiting the delivery of unsolicited absentee ballot applications to any person who has not specifically requested one from the county clerk. This is blatant voter suppression. It is not, as the WVGOP keeps saying, about preventing “abuse” of absentee ballots. They are not limiting absentee ballots, they are limiting the distribution of absentee ballot applications, which are a free document available on the internet. In fact, you can get it right here. West Virginia requires an excuse to vote absentee/by mail. So there is already a limited number of people who actually vote absentee. This measure is a direct shot aimed at civic organizations that help young people vote when they can’t get home for Election Day (“attendance at college” is listed on the application) and at long-term care/assisted living facilities that are required by federal law to help residents vote in whatever form they choose. So if a resident wants to vote absentee, the facility staff are required by law to get them an absentee ballot application and assist them in completing it (based on that specific resident’s capacity and ability). To reiterate: NO ONE IS HANDING OUT ABSENTEE BALLOTS. This bill forbids distributing the applications and aims to curb voter participation in our elections. HB 2400 is scheduled for second reading in the House of Delegates.
Face-palm: SB 490 — prohibiting ranked-choice voting in elections in West Virginia. The only people who really hate ranked choice voting are the ones who know that the majority of voters don’t like them. Right now, our primary election system tends to promote the more extreme ends of each party, especially when registered Independents are cut out of the primary process. Ranked choice voting is expressly designed to weed out the extremes; it allows more moderate candidates to rise to the top and gives voters a better choice than the binary of the “lesser of two evils.” In short: Instead of only voting for one candidate, you rank all the candidates on the ballot in order of your preference. In order to win the election, a candidate must receive a straight majority of the vote (50% plus 1). If no candidate gets a majority based on voters’ first choices, second choices start being counted. So on and so forth until a candidate gets a majority. If you want the full breakdown of pros and cons, visit rankedvote.co. This bill is on first reading in the Senate.
As always, reach out to your lawmakers and let them know what bills you do and do not want to see move through the Legislature. They are supposed to be accountable to us — the citizens and residents of West Virginia. Don’t let them forget that.
J. Nelson - Writer 