The League of Women Voters supports equal rights for all under state and federal law regardless of race, color, gender, religion, national origin, age, sexual orientation, or disability.
HB 2006 chooses to divide its citizens and single out certain West Virginians for discrimination based on misinformation about human biology. Writing misinformation into law does not make it scientifically valid.
With HB 2006, the WV Legislature demonstrates it has yet to catch up. We OPPOSE this bill because it targets individuals who do not meet the bill sponsors’ narrow and inaccurate definition of sex.
This Legislature has many important policy decisions to make that affect our population at large — public employees, our entire public education system, thousands of children in foster care, families who need reliable and affordable childcare to enable workforce participation, a budget that needs to be balanced, to name just a few items. So, we are perplexed.
Why is this Legislature choosing to spend precious time on a bill designed expressly to harm vulnerable West Virginians? To discriminate?
Read our full testimony below.