West Virginia Legislature
The West Virginia Legislature is the state's bicameral legislature, made up of the Senate and the House of Delegates. Entries naming it record bills it passed on school instruction and on requirements placed on educators, generally alongside the governor who signed them.
2025 Events (4)
West Virginia Gov. Morrisey signed SB154 restricting school LGBTQ instruction and requiring staff to disclose students' gender identity to parents
On April 30, 2025, West Virginia Gov. Patrick Morrisey signed Senate Bill 154 into law, prohibiting public schools from providing instruction related to sexual orientation or gender identity and requiring school employees to report any student's request for recognition of a gender identity differing from their birth-certificate sex to administrators, who must then notify the student's parent or guardian. The law, codified at W.Va. Code 18-5-29, took effect July 11, 2025 and empowers the state Attorney General to enforce it, with violating school personnel subject to discipline or dismissal.
West Virginia Gov. Morrisey signed SB299, closing the suicide-risk exception in the state's ban on gender-affirming care for minors
On April 30, 2025, West Virginia Gov. Patrick Morrisey signed Senate Bill 299, which amends the state's 2023 ban on gender-affirming care for minors by removing its narrow exception permitting hormone therapy and puberty blockers for transgender minors at documented risk of self-harm. The law imposes a near-total ban on such treatment for minors, with carve-outs only for intersex conditions or patients already receiving care, and takes effect July 11, 2025.
West Virginia Gov. Patrick Morrisey signed SB474, ending DEI programs statewide and shielding school staff who refuse transgender students' pronouns
On April 30, 2025, West Virginia Gov. Patrick Morrisey signed Senate Bill 474 into law, eliminating diversity, equity, and inclusion programs, offices, trainings, and personnel across the state's executive branch, K-12 schools, and public colleges. The act also bars county boards and public charter schools from requiring teachers to use a transgender student's preferred pronoun when it differs from the student's sex at birth, and shields employees who refuse from civil liability or adverse employment action. The state Senate had passed the measure 32-2.
West Virginia Gov. Patrick Morrisey signed SB456, defining sex by birth and barring transgender people from single-sex spaces
On March 12, 2025, West Virginia Gov. Patrick Morrisey signed Senate Bill 456, the "Riley Gaines Act," into law, adding a new article to state code that defines "man" and "woman" by sex assigned at birth. The law requires bathrooms, locker rooms, domestic-violence shelters, rape crisis centers, dormitories, and correctional facilities to be designated by that birth-sex definition. The Legislature passed it by wide margins and it took effect June 9, 2025.
2024 Events (1)
West Virginia Gov. Jim Justice signed HB4233, barring "non-binary" sex designation on birth certificates
On March 27, 2024, West Virginia Gov. Jim Justice signed House Bill 4233 into law, amending the state's vital-statistics code to require that birth certificates list a child's sex as male or female and to prohibit the use of "non-binary" as a sex designation. The measure, passed by the West Virginia Legislature, was enacted as Chapter 217 of the 2024 Acts and took effect on May 29, 2024.
2023 Events (1)
West Virginia Gov. Jim Justice signed HB2007, banning gender-affirming care for transgender minors
On March 29, 2023, West Virginia Republican Gov. Jim Justice signed House Bill 2007 into law, prohibiting physicians from providing hormone therapy, puberty blockers, or gender-reassignment surgery to anyone under 18 for the purpose of gender transition. The law included a narrow exception permitting puberty blockers and hormone therapy for minors diagnosed with severe gender dysphoria by two providers and assessed to be at risk of self-harm, with parental consent. It was set to take effect in January 2024.
2021 Events (1)
West Virginia Gov. Jim Justice signed HB3293, banning transgender girls and women from school sports teams
On April 28, 2021, West Virginia Gov. Jim Justice signed House Bill 3293 into law, barring transgender girls and women from competing on public school and collegiate sports teams designated for female athletes, based on "biological sex" determined at birth. West Virginia was among a wave of Republican-led states enacting similar sports restrictions that year, following South Dakota, Mississippi, Arkansas, and Tennessee.