Photo Courtesy/WV Legislative Photography
A lone citizen watches the House of Delegates Friday as it works through its agenda the day before the 2025 legislative session ends.
CHARLESTON — After a lengthy floor session with many bills being read in their entirety causing delays, the West Virginia House of Delegates passed one of several social bills dealing with discussion of transgender topics in schools and requiring teachers to report transgender students to their parents.
The House passed Senate Bill 154, prohibiting sexual orientation instruction in public schools, in an 82-17 vote Friday evening, sending it back to the Senate to concur with changes to the bill after the House adopted a strike-and-insert amendment offered by the House Education Committee.
SB 154 would restrict public school instruction on sexual orientation and gender identity. It would also prohibit schools from providing false information about a student’s gender identity or transition to a parent and/or guardian. It mandates that schools inform parents if a student requests accommodations affirming a gender identity different from their biological sex, such as using different names or pronouns.
The legislation outlines procedures for complaints, potential disciplinary actions for violations and requires the state Board of Education to create rules for implementation, with the attorney general having enforcement power. Certain exceptions exist, such as answering student questions or referencing these topics in historical or disciplinary contexts.
“The committee substitute of Senate Bill 154 creates a new section of code which prohibits a public school from providing instruction related to sexual orientation or gender identity,” said Del. Elias Coop-Gonzalez, R-Randolph. “The bill clarifies, however, that this prohibition cannot be construed to prohibit a teacher responding to student questions during class regarding sexual orientation and gender identity as it relates to any topic of instruction.”
House Minority Leader Pro Tempore Kayla Young, D-Kanawha, offered an unsuccessful amendment to remove the provisions of the bill requiring schools to inform parents if the student is asking to be called by pronouns different than their sex assigned at birth or go by a different name based on the gender by which they’re identifying.
“The reason why I’m removing that section is because there’s a whole lot of kids that don’t go by the name that their parents gave them,” Young said. “It has absolutely nothing to do with their gender. … I don’t want to put kids through this. And I think it just puts up a really weird process where kids go by different names all the time.”
“I disagree that it’s just a teeny tiny little tweak,” Coop-Gonzalez said in response to Young’s amendment. “It’s actually a very huge tweak.”
While the bill passed overwhelmingly, both Democratic and Republican members voted against it.
“I’m not sure what the problem is that we’re trying to address here,” said Del. Mike Pushkin, D-Kanawha. “I guess this bill is based on some perceived notion that teachers are somehow corrupting their students. This is a personal issue that should be between parents and their children, and we should leave the schools and the teachers out of it.”
“I’m just asking to think about the situations that sometimes that we’re put in that some people don’t realize, and these kids come to you and confide in you, and they just open up to you sometimes,” said Del. Jeffrey Stephens, R-Marshall, a teacher. “Somebody’s got to be a trusted adult in that kid’s life. I don’t know what the happy medium is.”
Action on two other social bills — including Senate Bill 299, modifying state regulations on pubertal modulation, hormonal therapy and gender reassignment; and Senate Bill 474, ending diversity, equity, and inclusion (DEI) programs — were postponed until Saturday, the final day of the 2025 legislative session.