West Virginia Governor Patrick Morrisey (R) has signed legislation expanding the state’s gender-affirming care ban for trans youth.
While a 2023 law already banned the safe and lifesaving practice for most trans minors, there was an exception in place for those at risk of suicide or self-harm. The new law removes that exception.
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The report blatantly mischaracterizes gender-affirming healthcare as “surgical and chemical mutilation” and “experimentation” on children.
The original ban went into effect in January 2024 and allowed doctors to prescribe puberty blockers and hormone therapy to teens who were considered at risk for self-harm or suicide.
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Such teens had to get parental consent as well as a diagnosis of severe gender dysphoria from two doctors, one of whom was a mental health care provider. From there, any medication had to be prescribed at the lowest possible dose necessary to “treat the psychiatric condition and not for purposes of gender alteration.”
The American Principles Project – a conservative organization purporting to be on a mission to “save the family” – celebrated on social media that the new legislation has closed “a loophole” in the original ban and claimed that now the “most vulnerable” kids will be protected.
In reality, every major American medical association and leading world health authority has endorsed gender-affirming care as evidence-based, safe, and in some cases lifesaving for transgender youth. Numerous studies have shown that a lack of access to gender-affirming care contributes to high rates of
S.B. 299 says any medical professional who provides gender-affirming care to someone under 18 will have their license revoked. It also allows patients to sue medical professionals for up to two years after “an actual or threatened violation.”
The law also clarifies the state’s legal definition of sex, which it says “means the state of being either male or female as observed or clinically verified at birth,” and emphasizes “there are only two sexes, and every individual is either male or female.” It also directly mentions intersex people, saying they are “not members of a third sex and must be accommodated consistent with state and federal law.”
The law passed overwhelmingly in both the state Senate and House, with votes of 32-2 and 86-12, respectively. The state Senate is made up of thirty-two Republicans and 2 Democrats, while the House of Delegates has 9 Democrats and ninety-one Republicans.
In March, Morrisey declared that West Virginia would not “bow down to radical gender ideology” while signing a bill defining “man” and “woman” based on reproductive biology and erasing nonbinary and trans identities into law.
“It’s common sense that women’s spaces, like bathrooms, locker rooms, domestic violence shelters, and rape crisis centers should be kept private for women only,” he said, even though the bill would result in excluding one class of women from those facilities while allowing a class of men – trans men – to use them.
Morrisey won the Republican nomination for governor last year in a race filled with anti-trans rhetoric. An ad from a pro-Morrisey PAC accused millionaire third-place finisher Chris Miller of having “protected they/them, not us.”
Around that time, Morrisey also filed a brief in support of four female middle school students who protested their trans classmate’s inclusion in a track and field competition on April 18.
Editor’s note: If you or someone you know is struggling or in crisis, help is available. Call or text 988 or chat at 988lifeline.org. The Trans Lifeline (1-877-565-8860) is staffed by trans people and will not contact law enforcement. The Trevor Project provides a safe, judgement-free place to talk for youth via chat, text (678-678), or phone (1-866-488-7386). Help is available at all three resources in English and Spanish.
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