Yesterday afternoon Senate Bill 238 was approved by the Senate Judiciary Committee.

Regrettably, protections for our Transgender brothers and sisters were removed from this bill. The bill originally defined the Transgender community in this bill as “Gender Identity-Actual or Perceived.”

Senate regulations require SB238 to be read on the Senate floor on three consecutive days before a vote. Therefore, the vote should take place sometime Thursday.

We encourage you to call your elected official in the Senate and encourage the passage of any bill that moves the GLBT community forward in West Virginia. You can find a list of Senators at http://www.legis.state.wv.us.

What’s next? Once this bill is passed by the Senate it then moves to the House of Delegates and it will be assigned to a committee. We assume that it will move to the Judiciary committee. Please take the initiative to contact your legislators in the House as well.

Thank you for being a part of the community and taking the courage to come forward and help.