A new bill in West Virginia, Senate Bill 194, would enact a total ban on gender-affirming care for trans individuals up to 21 years old and mandates that all therapists and social workers in the state attempt to “cure” being transgender. The bill, filed by Senators Mike Azinger, Laura Chapman, and Chandler Swope, would impose the most draconian restrictions on gender-affirming care in the United States. It would also force all social workers and therapists in the state to become conversion therapists. This would build on West Virginia’s under-18 ban on gender affirming care passed in 2023, which included exceptions that allowed some transgender youth to continue receiving care. The bill, identified as one of the most dangerous this cycle in West Virginia by leading state organizers, is one of 9 anti-trans bills released yesterday in West Virginia.
The bill is broken into sections to target different aspects of transgender care. One section defines being transgender as “sexual deviation” and places it alongside “pedophilia, exhibitionism, masochism, sadomasochism, fetishism,” and more. Another defines minors for the purposes of this bill as being anyone under 21 years of age, expanding the definition to include transgender adults. The bill then would ban gender affirming care for anyone under this age while also banning the usage of state funds for gender affirming care.
The most jarring provision in the bill, not........