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Girl Scouts Display Projects, ACLU Promotes Issues At State Capitol

On Monday, West Virginia’s Girl Scouts brought much more than those tasty cookies to the legislature.

For the 60 days of the regular legislative session, organizations from around the state set up displays in the Capitol Rotunda to advocate for their individual causes.

On Monday, West Virginia’s Girl Scouts brought much more than those tasty cookies to the legislature.

The girls from the Black Diamond Council hail from 48 West Virginia counties and are part of a four-state group of Girl Scout troops.

Founded in 1912, Girl Scouting strives to teach its young members leadership skills and being productive citizens with a passion for ingenuity — both outdoors and indoors.

Black Diamond Council CEO Beth Casey said the girls come to the capitol for two reasons: to see the legislature in action, and let the legislators see what they can accomplish.

“Part of being a Girl Scout is learning to advocate for yourself and using your voice to share your needs,” Casey said. “The second thing is for the legislators to see the amazing things that our Girl Scouts have done. They’ve showcased some of the trips, they’ve been on things like robotic competitions and are demonstrating a lot of their community service projects.”

Casey said in 2023, Girl Scouts are still selling cookies, teaching leadership skills and striving to make the world a better place.

ACLU
The American Civil Liberties Union of West Virginia was also at the capitol Tuesday to lobby lawmakers and educate the public on civil rights.

The ACLU’s Lobby Day brought advocates for criminal justice reform, LGBTQ rights and faith organizing to the heart of the state’s lawmaking process.

Eli Baumwell is the interim executive director of ACLU West Virginia. He said it’s important for his staff to make contact with legislators but also to educate and engage the public on their own civil rights and liberties.

“Because we cover such a large range of issues, sometimes they get lost in the day to day new shuffle,” he said. “But these are all really important issues. They affect basic civil rights and basic civil liberties, and we think it’s very important that the public is educated about them.”

Baumwell said the ACLU would like to see voting rights expanded to people on probation and parole this session, and will be following issues of capital punishment closely.

“The ACLU has a strong opposition to the death penalty,” he said. “That would be a horrible step backwards for the state. So we’re doing everything in our power to make sure that people understand the human cost and the fiscal cost of a policy like that.”

West Virginia Can Keep Transgender Sports Ban, Judge Says

A federal judge in West Virginia has ruled that the state’s ban on transgender athletes competing in female sports is constitutional and can remain in place.

West Virginia’s ban on transgender athletes competing in female school sports is constitutional and can remain in place, a federal judge ruled Thursday.

The American Civil Liberties Union and its West Virginia chapter filed the lawsuit in 2021 on behalf of an 11-year-old transgender girl who hoped to compete in middle school cross-country in Harrison County. The lawsuit named the state and Harrison County boards of education and their superintendents as defendants.

West Virginia Attorney General Patrick Morrisey applauded Thursday’s decision by U.S. District Court Judge Joseph Goodwin.

“This is not only about simple biology, but fairness for women’s sports, plain and simple,” the attorney general said. “Opportunities for girls and women on the field are precious and we must safeguard that future.”

The ACLU of West Virginia said Thursday that it is reviewing the decision with co-counsel to determine next steps. The ban applies to middle and high schools, as well as colleges.

Transgender athletes’ ability to compete in sports is the subject of a continuing national debate. More than a dozen states have passed laws banning or restricting transgender participation in sports based on the premise it gives them an unfair competitive advantage — despite the general lack of a problem to address.

A 2017 study by the Williams Institute at the UCLA law school used state-level, population-based surveys to estimate that West Virginia had the highest percentage (1.04 percent) of residents ages 13 to 17 among all states who identified as transgender. That equated to about 1,150 teens.

The West Virginia Secondary School Activities Commission, which oversees scholastic sports, said in 2021, when the lawsuit was filed, that it had not received any complaints about transgender athletes on girls teams.

Birth Certificate Changes Simpler For Transgender People After Lawsuit

The West Virginia Department of Health and Human Resources’ Vital Registration Office has introduced more accessible and safer policies for transgender people to make changes to their birth certificates and the ACLU has ended its lawsuit.

Previously, the Vital Registration Office required transgender applicants to produce a circuit court order directing the change. In 2020, the West Virginia Supreme Court of Appeals ended the court’s ability to order such amendments. But the registration office didn’t change its policy.

In August 2021, the ACLU, ACLU of West Virginia, and the Harvard Law School LGBTQ+ Advocacy Clinic brought a lawsuit. It demanded that the agency develop policies for transgender people to amend their gender marker and do it without having to disclose their transgender status on the amended birth certificate.

In April, the DHHR announced new birth certificate amendment policies.

Applicants, including transgender applicants, who are seeking to amend the gender marker on their West Virginia birth certificate, no longer need a court order. They need only provide a simple provider attestation form available from the West Virginia Vital Registration Office’s website.

Further, the new policies amend birth certificates in a manner that reduces the risk of outing transgender individuals who have had name and/or gender marker amendments by removing the previous information from the face of the newly amended birth certificate. These important policy implementations make birth certificate amendments more accessible and safer for transgender applicants.

“This is an incredible policy change not only for our clients but all transgender people with West Virginia birth certificates who require amendments,” said Taylor Brown, lead counsel and Staff Attorney with the ACLU LGBTQ & HIV Project. “West Virginia’s new policies restore a greater degree of autonomy and self-determination for transgender people in West Virginia. In today’s climate, it is more important than ever for the government to leave personal decisions of these kinds where they belong, between an individual and their provider. Not a court, legislators, or administrative bodies. This is an important win for those reasons alone.”

ACLU-WV Executive Director Joseph Cohen agreed. “This is a major victory for the thousands of transgender West Virginians who will now be able to obtain accurate birth certificates to help them navigate their lives more safely,” he said. “But we know our work is not yet finished. Nonbinary West Virginians are still unable to obtain a birth certificate that accurately reflects their gender. Since April of this year, U.S. citizens have been able to select an X gender marker on passport applications. We will continue to work with our partners to update West Virginia’s policies so that all West Virginians can have the accurate identity documents they need.”

Judge Denies Injunction To Halt W.Va. Senate From Restricting Gallery Recordings

The question of whether the state Senate can restrict recording of meetings is still open after a court hearing on Thursday.

Kanawha Circuit Judge Carrie Webster refused to issue an injunction against the Senate that would have limited its authority to control chamber proceedings.

When Tiffani Morgan Walton tried to video record a heated July 29th Senate debate on the abortion bill from the gallery, she was threatened with arrest by the Capitol Police.

The ACLU of West Virginia filed legal actions, on Walton’s behalf, in state and federal courts against the West Virginia Senate, Senate President Craig Blair and the Capitol Police. They requested an injunction from Webster claiming the move violated their client’s first amendment rights and was a violation of an open meeting “sunshine” law, the West Virginia Open Governmental Meeting Act.

An attorney in the case said the act did not apply directly to the Senate or the House of Delegates. The attorney said the law applies to boards and committees, but not to the full Senate or House.

“The Senate has the power to control its galleries,” Senate attorney Michael Hissam said in court.

The attorney said Webster noted that language in the act shows the legislature may have exempted itself from the law.

Senate President Craig Blair said it’s his understanding that the rules on recording restriction options are the same for the U.S. House and Senate. He said the gallery rules on recording are posted and there’s full transparency.

“We are not trying to keep anybody from being aware of what’s going on and I can prove it,” Blair said. “Everything is available online. it’s archived for historical purposes, you can see everything that takes place.”

However, Blair said with the subject matter of abortion being passionately debated on the Senate floor, the gallery became out of control, forcing him to clear the gallery and shut off all recording cameras.

“When I put the Senate in recess and had the sergeant arms clear the gallery, what you couldn’t see or hear was all the profanities being shouted from the galleries by these people,” Blair said. “It was an embarrassing moment and there may be recordings of that out there, I have no idea. But I’m pretty certain that the Senate recording system, whenever I put us into recess for 15 minutes, our cameras were turned off.”

Webster asked both sides to research if the open meetings law applies to the Senate, prepare new briefs and then return to court later in the fall.

Weekend Rally Planned By Reproductive Rights Groups

Prominent reproductive rights advocates like the American Civil Liberties Union, Planned Parenthood, West Virginia Free, and the Women’s Health Center of West Virginia are planning a rally for abortion rights this Saturday at the state capitol.

The rally comes two weeks after the same groups organized vigils in cities across West Virginia the night after the U.S. Supreme Court’s decision to overturn Roe v. Wade.

Kaylen Barker from the Women’s Health Center of West Virginia says the intention is to send a message to state legislators.

“People seem to think that West Virginia is a strictly pro life state. And that’s just not the case,” Barker said. “Polling has shown clearly that West Virginians support access to abortion, and we just want to make sure that our voices are heard.”

More than 4,000 people have responded to the rally’s Facebook page signifying interest. Barker notes many reasons why interest is high, calling a potential abortion ban in West Virginia an “intersectional issue” that could disproportionately affect some communities.

“Abortion bans impact people of color, people in in rural areas, people that already deal with low incomes,” Barker said. “They’re being forced to miss work, pay hundreds of extra dollars for gas, lodging, childcare.”

The event page says the rally is scheduled from 2 p.m. to 4 p.m. this Saturday and will take place on the Kanawha Blvd. steps of the capitol building.

ACLU Files Lawsuit Challenging 19th Century State Abortion Ban

The ACLU filed a lawsuit in Kanawha County Circuit Court Wednesday challenging the state’s 1882 ban on abortion.

The West Virginia ACLU is taking a page from other states and challenging West Virginia’s abortion ban in court.

The ACLU filed a lawsuit in Kanawha County Circuit Court Wednesday challenging the state’s 1882 ban on abortion.

The law resurfaced after last week’s U.S. Supreme Court decision overturning Roe v. Wade, which returned the abortion question to the states.

According to the ACLU, the law should be voided because the state has passed newer, conflicting laws.

Abortion rights supporters in other states, including Kentucky, have gone to court to protect reproductive rights now that no protections exist at the federal level.

Attorney General Patrick Morrisey was part of a 24-state brief in support of overturning Roe. He said last week he’d advise the legislature on how to proceed with the issue.