Senate Bill 456, dubbed by many the Riley Gaines Act, has cleared both chambers.
The bill puts in state code that men and women will be defined based on the criteria for a person’s biological sex. The bill defines a female as someone who was born with the ability to produce ova, and a male as a person born with the ability to produce sperm.
The term gender is often used interchangeably with sex and while the two can correspond they are not synonymous. The Associated Press’s definition of “gender” is the internal and social identity of a person.
A transgender person would typically have a different gender than the sex they were assigned at birth, and Senate Bill 456 targets that difference by using the sex-based definitions.
Based on those definitions the bill lays out the spaces trans people can occupy or use. It bans trans people from accessing single-sex spaces that align with their gender like locker rooms or domestic violence shelters.
When the bill was in committee in both chambers a director of domestic violence shelters in Charleston said the bill could be deadly for trans women experiencing domestic violence. According to the National Library of Medicine, trans women are nearly twice as likely to experience domestic violence than cisgender women.
Due to federal court precedent SB 456 cannot limit access to gendered bathrooms. But if that court precedent is overturned, then the bill’s language would bar trans people from using those facilities as well.
Del. James Akers, R-Kanawha, said the bill is necessary due to changing gender norms in the country.
“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,” Akers said.
Democrats in both chambers have criticized bills that target transgender people in the state, saying they are a distraction from real problems that need to be addressed like skyrocketing energy costs, and access to clean drinking water.
Del. Mike Pushkin, D-Kanawha, said bills like SB 456 benefit politicians over their constituents. He questioned his party’s chair, Del. Sean Hornbuckle, D -Cabell, about his work as a wealth management and retirement planning advisor.
“How’s the stock market looking lately?” Pushkin asked.
“Not well, sir,” Hornbuckle said.
Pushkin said these culture war bills are a distraction tactic.
“It’s called distraction when you 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,” Pushkin said.
Pushkin also challenged Akers’ assertions that the bill simply clarified the definition of words.
“I wish I could say, though, that this was simply a do-nothing bill, and the only thing that this bill did was help re-elect people,” Pushkin said. “Unfortunately, that’s not true. This bill does have real consequences, and real people do get hurt, and unfortunately, it’s a very small subsection of our society that simply wants to exist and be left alone.”
Akers pushed back, accusing the argument of being “political gaslighting.”
“In reacting to that extremism, (the GOP) 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,” Akers said.
Then Akers said the “issue” is not completely new.
“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,” Akers said.
The House added an amendment on Thursday clarifying that the bill does not permit anyone, except a medical provider, to examine a minor’s genitalia to confirm their biological sex.
If the Senate agrees with the change, the bill will soon be on the governor’s desk.
