Thumbs-up: SB 240 — updating the crime of sexual extortion. This is an important one, because it covers the gaps in existing state law. The current extortion law covers someone who “threatens injury” to a person’s character, person (body) or property or their spouse’s/child’s character, person (body), or character. SB 240 clarifies “threatens” by adding “by direct threat, indirect threat, or innuendo” and includes “any other thing of value” among a person’s possessions that can be protected by those threats. More importantly, though, SB 240 adds an entire section to state code to protect people specifically from sexual extortion: “A person commits the offense of sexual extortion if he or she knowingly and intentionally discloses, causes to disclose, or threatens to disclose a private image of another person in order to compel or attempt to compel the victim, or his or her spouse or child, to do any act or refrain from doing any act against his or her will, with the intent to obtain additional private images, anything of value, or other consideration.” SB 240 passed the Senate and is scheduled for second reading, special calendar, in the House of Delegates on Friday.
Thumbs-down: HB 2382 — a camping ban on certain public property. Don’t you just love that Delegate Geno Chiarelli, who represents Monongalia County, looked at the massive opposition to Morgantown’s camping ban and said to himself, “I’m going to take this ordinance to the statehouse, make it worse, and convince my fellow Republicans to force it upon the entire state over local objections”? There’s a lot to say about why the camping ban is bad, particularly that HB 2382 allows the penalties to be enforced even if there is no available shelter space. If you’d like to know more about homelessness, the issues and obstacles surrounding it, and possible solutions, The League of Women Voters Morgantown-Monongalia County put together an entire website: https://lwvmmhomeless.wixsite.com/home. HB 2382 is scheduled for first reading, special calendar, in the House of Delegates on Friday.
Face-palm: SB 280 — displaying the official U.S. motto, “In God We Trust,” in public schools. This bill failed last year. If you search the internet for news stories about “In God We Trust bills” or “US motto bills,” you’ll find a slew of articles about how other states have passed a similar law and ended up in myriad court battles for violating the separation of church and state. Not only is this bill useless — as it neither fixes an existing problem nor improves West Virginians’ quality of life — but it also sets the state up to have to spend countless tax dollars defending its stupidity in court. SB 280 was up for consideration in the Senate Education Committee.
Thumbs-up (maybe?): HB 2354 — banning certain products from food in West Virginia. The bill bans products that contain certain additives and dyes, and specifically prohibits any foods containing those ingredients from being used in school meals. I’m not opposed to eliminating dyes and additives, especially as there is increasing research connecting them to medical condition and poorer health outcomes. But experience leaves me wary of the Legislature, so I guess we’ll have to see how this goes. HB 2354 passed both chambers, but the House needs to concur with Senate changes before it can proceed to the governor’s desk.
Thumbs-down: SB 154 — prohibiting sexual orientation instruction in public schools, with a hidden clause to mandate teachers and school administration notify parents if a child has indicated in any way that they may identify differently from their biological sex. There’s definitely a fight to be had over the acceptability of discussing LGBTQ+ matters in school (if we can talk about anything heteronormative, why can’t we talk about anything non-heteronormative?), but for now we need to focus on the most dangerous aspect of this bill: outing kids to their families. The West Virginia GOP does a lot of crowing about protecting kids, but now they want to implement a law that is likely to get a lot of gender queer and gender questioning kids beaten or worse — killed. And you know what happens when a family gets caught abusing their kid? The kid gets removed and put into foster care. You know what’s already overwhelmed practically to the brink of collapse? West Virginia’s foster care and child welfare system. And you know what’s also on the table? A bill (HB 2033) to prevent the Department of Human Services from taking into consideration a foster family’s anti-LGBTQ+ beliefs when placing a child with them. And while a foster family won’t beat an LGBTQ+ child, being forced to live in an anti-LGBTQ+ home could be horribly psychologically damaging to that child. SB 154 passed the Senate and has been ordered to the House.
Face-palm: SB 474 — ending diversity, equity, and inclusion programs (companion bill HB 2005). Opponents of DEI frame it as a return to a meritocracy, where no longer will an under-performing person of color get a job that should have gone to an over-performing white man. In reality, though, diversity, equity, and inclusion initiatives include more than just people of color and they protect the meritocracy. For decades (I would say “centuries,” but for most of Western history, women were not allowed to work in professional occupations and people of color were slave labor), women, people of color, non-heterosexual people, non-cisgender people, and people with disabilities struggled to get hired and then struggled even more to advance simply because they were a woman, a person of color, non-heterosexual person, non-cisgender person, or a person with a disability, regardless of their other qualifications. (Just to be extra clear: DEI protects white women, too.) Diversity, equity, and inclusion upholds the meritocracy by eliminating (or minimizing) discriminatory policies and procedures that put certain minorities at a disadvantage. And that meant that, finally, the best could rise to the top. But then “the best” was no longer all white and all male, and that seems to be a problem for some people. SB 474 was on the Senate Judiciary’s agenda for today.
A recap of last week’s bills:
Thumbs-up: SB 8 — providing additional sites and devices for newborn safe surrender.
Thumbs-down: SB 460 — relating to vaccine requirements.
Face-palm: SB 427 — permitting certain teenagers to work without obtaining a work permit.
Thumbs-down: SB 299 — “modifying WV regulations on pubertal modulation, hormonal therapy, and gender reassignment.” This bill passed the Senate and has been ordered to the House of Delegates.
Face-palm: HB 2006 — “defining Men and Women.” This version of the legislation is moving much slower that its Senate counterpart, but was on second reading earlier this week. Companion bill SB 456 passed the Senate and is scheduled for third reading, special calendar, in the House of Delegates Friday, which means it is very likely to pass and become law.
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. It’s still on second reading in the House and has been since March 1.
Face-palm: SB 490 — prohibiting ranked-choice voting in elections in West Virginia. As of this writing, SB 490 is scheduled for third reading, special calendar, in the House of Delegates tomorrow (Friday, 3/7), which means it is very likely to pass and become law. Its companion bills are HB 2408, HB 2683, SB 133, and SB 226.
J. Nelson - Writer 