Senate Bill 456, known as the Riley Gaines Act, is now West Virginia state law, and it defines a man and a woman based on biological sex.
Governor Patrick Morrissey claims that this protects women’s single-sex spaces, but others argue that it violates transgender people’s rights.
The law takes effect on July 9, 2025.
“This is an issue that has nearly universal support, yet the woke left is always digging their heels and trying to force the rest of the country to adhere to the radical gender ideology,” according to Morrisey. “Well, that won’t happen here. “That will not happen in West Virginia.”
Gabriella Kincaid claims that Senate Bill 456 endangers lives.
“Hate against people has changed. “As Americans, we’re supposed to be free to change and be ourselves,” said the Oak Hill resident. “We have the resources and the people to take action to make this a safer area for any and everybody.”
The new law strictly defines what it means to be a man or a woman, prohibiting transgender people from using restrooms that correspond to their gender identity in all state buildings.
“The DMV, the state capitol, schools, and universities,” Fairness WV’s Jack Jarvis explained. “Particularly concerning about this new law is that it directly conflicts with decisions at the Federal Fourth Circuit Court of Appeals.”
According to Delegate JB Akers (R-Kanawha County), the West Virginia Senate wants to preserve traditional single-sex spaces while also making accommodations for those who may require them.
“With the gender-neutral accommodations we allowed, we acknowledge that a small percentage of people may have a medical issue with their sexual development. “There are accommodations for that,” Akers explained.
Jarvis claims that there have been no safety incidents in areas where inclusive laws have been enacted to prohibit discrimination and make it easier to be openly LGBTQ.
“We all care about safety, and it’s already illegal to enter the restroom or locker room or any space like that with the intent to harm someone,” according to the communications manager.
Dalton Ruff, an Oak Hill resident, says Senate Bill 456 is a good thing.
“If someone comes into the bathroom with my sister, but they’re still attracted to girls and they’re a man — you never know what can happen in this day and age.” “It could go bad very quickly,” Ruff said.
Akers believes that housing biological male prisoners who self-identify as female in a female population is complicated.
“Being locked in a cell with a woman when some of these biological men are convicted sex offenders,” the delegate recalled. “I’m not saying that’s what the majority of trans people would do, but this has been reported in the mainstream media. “This has happened.”
Jarvis believes that putting someone in danger is not something anyone wants to do.
“When we force a transgender woman to go into the men’s restroom, we put her at greater safety risk,” he told me.
Sex-segregated areas are restricted to schools, domestic violence shelters, and correctional facilities. A school may provide a gender-neutral bathroom as an option.
“I think a gender-neutral accommodation is reasonable under most circumstances,” Akers told the crowd.
This bill will disproportionately harm victims of domestic and intimate partner violence.
“If we can’t give them a safe haven, if we can’t house trans women with other women as they are, the only option we’ll have left is to send them to a homeless shelter or put them out on the streets,” Jarvis told me. “That is just a death sentence.”
Akers says he will always believe that single-sex spaces are necessary in some places, such as a domestic violence shelter for women.
“I’m not being insensitive to someone who identifies as transgender, but if you’re still biologically male, I think some women maybe need some space from that for a while in that kind of setting,” the member of the 55th District’s delegation said.
According to Jarvis, this leaves us in the gray zone.
“I think more people are realizing how crazy a bill like this is, how it’s ineffective and doesn’t help people,” according to him. “I hope our lawmakers would reconsider it.”
