WV Eliminates Life Saving Exception in GAC Ban
When WV banned gender-affirming care for minors in 2023, they left in one exception for exceptionally at risk youth. Last week, they decided those children had it too good for too long.
by Alyssa Steinsiek
West Virginia’s governor, Patrick Morrisey, signed into law last week a bill that eliminates an important exception to the state’s existing ban on gender-affirming care.
In March of 2023, then Governor Jim Justice signed a blanket gender-affirming care ban for trans youth that disallowed the prescribing of cross-sex hormones and puberty blockers for under 18s in the state of West Virginia. Like most other state-level GAC bans, it also outlawed gender-affirming surgery for minors, something that almost never happens. Curiously, West Virginia’s GAC ban had one allowance that other bans did not: A minor could receive prescriptions for cross-sex hormones or puberty blockers with parental consent if they were diagnosed with “severe gender dysphoria,” meaning they were at risk for self-harm or suicide, as observed by two medical professionals, one of whom had to be a mental health professional.
For those of us who write about or keep up with these sorts of bans, this carveout was shocking to see, but certainly more welcome than the total bans with no exceptions that other states were passing at the time. It may have had something to do with the fact that a 2017 study by UCLA Law’s The Williams Institute estimated that West Virginia had the highest per capita rate of transgender youth in America, and data from the West Virginia Youth Risk Behavior Survey showed that suicidal ideation was three times higher among trans youth in the state versus all other young people.
Now Governor Morrisey has ended that exemption by signing into law SB 299, “Modifying WV Regulations on Pubertal Modulation, Hormonal Therapy, and Gender Reassignment.” SB 299 also states that, “Sex means the state of being either male or female as observed or clinically verified at birth. There are only two sexes, and every individual is either male or female: Provided, That individuals with congenital and medically verifiable DSD conditions (sometimes referred to as differences in sex development, disorders in sex development, or intersex conditions) are not members of a third sex and must be accommodated consistent with state and federal law.”
SB 299 also threatens to take away doctors’ license to practice medicine, saying, “If a physician provides either gender reassignment surgery or gender altering medication to a person who is under 18 years of age, the appropriate licensing board shall find the physician in violation of this section and shall immediately revoke the license of the physician.”
Despite having time to thank Donald Trump for “[supercharging] the coal and gas industry” and attempt to force his personal religious beliefs on his constituents, Governor Morrisey has been silent on social media about the passage of SB 299, and also about the passage of SB 154, a “don’t say gay” bill that bans discussions of sexual orientation and gender identity in West Virginia classrooms. While Governor Morrisey is happy to pray for West Virginia’s Christian communities, it seems he has no prayers to offer for queer West Virginians.
Jesus was, after all, notoriously unconcerned with the rights and welfare of marginalized people.
Alyssa Steinsiek is a trans woman journalist who reports on news relevant to the queer community and occasionally posts on BlueSky.
