photo by: W.Va. Legislative Photography

Del. Anitra Hamilton, D-Monongalia, urged fellow House Health Committee members to oppose eliminating all remaining exceptions for medical gender affirming care.

CHARLESTON — The West Virginia Legislature passed a bill last year prohibiting gender affirming care for children with certain exceptions, but a House of Delegates committee decided to re-open debate on the controversial issue and fully ban the care.

The House Health and Human Resources Committee recommended for passage Friday a committee substitute for House Bill 5297, sending the bill to the full House in order to get the bill on third reading by the Wednesday “Crossover Day” deadline.

HB 5297 would prohibit the use of pubertal modulating and hormonal therapy for severe gender dysphoria from prohibited practices. A similar bill passed the House last year.

Last year, the Legislature passed House Bill 2007, prohibiting physicians from providing irreversible gender reassignment surgery or medication for gender-affirming care, such as hormones or puberty blockers, to a person who is under 18 with certain exceptions.

HB 2007 included guardrails to limit use of medication gender affirming care to adolescents who have been diagnosed with severe gender dysphoria by multiple physicians in order to address psychological issues and prevent self-harm and as long as the medication is limited to the lowest doses necessary. But HB 5297 would completely ban medical gender affirming care.

Gender dysphoria is defined as a sense of unease that a person may have because of a mismatch between their biological sex and what they perceive to be their gender identity.

According to the Kaiser Family Foundation, 23 states have passed laws or enacted policies restricting access to gender affirming care for minors as of the beginning of 2024, up from four states in 2022. Of those 23 states, 17 have laws in effect, with four states having their laws blocked due to pending federal court cases.

Kentucky’s law is in full effect, while Ohio’s goes into effect in April. According to KFF, 38% of trans youth between the ages of 13 and 17 live in one of the 23 states that limit gender affirming care. According to Fairness West Virginia, an LGBTQ advocacy organization, approximately 2% of youth identify as transgender, and access to gender affirming care, such as hormone therapy, have 73% lower odds when considering self-harm and suicide.

“When we say that parental rights matter, that includes the right to fill your child’s prescriptions without 134 legislators standing in the way,” said Isabella Cortez, gender policy manager for Fairness West Virginia, in a statement following the committee vote. “Lawmakers have no business telling parents whether or not they can take their child to the doctor to receive medically-necessary, lifesaving treatment. This last-minute mad dash to eliminate this care is abhorrent.”

An amendment from Del. Mike Pushkin, D-Kanawha, would allow patients currently receiving these treatments to continue to receive the treatments. The amendment failed 11-8.

“I think this is a very important amendment,” Pushkin said. “If someone’s participating in this program, this would allow them to stay in it. For the government to come in and just kick somebody off of this and come in between them and their physician and their parents … it could be incredibly detrimental.”

No Republicans spoke in favor of HB 5297 and there was no testimony taken from supporters or opponents of the bill. But the bill’s lead sponsor – Del. Geoff Foster, R-Putnam – said the goal is to return to the bill passed by the House last year to end all exceptions.

“It’s already taken care of in how the bill is currently written,” Foster said. “The bill as it is currently written – as it passed the House (last year) already took care of any exceptions that were not specifically for the intention of changing one’s biological sex.”

Del. Anitra Hamilton, D-Monongalia, urged committee members to oppose the bill, raising concerns about increasing the chances of suicide and attempted suicide among transgender youth in the state.

“I just think it’s important for us to be able to support this population of adolescents in school,” Hamilton said. “There has been … a lot of data to show that being able to provide age-appropriate care is medically necessary. And I think our ultimate goal is the prevention of suicide.”

This is the second bill this session aimed at putting limits on the transgender community in West Virginia. Last week, the House passed House Bill 5243, creating the Women’s Bill of Rights Act.

That bill defines sex-based terms in State Code, stating that “woman,” “girl” and “mother” refer to biological females with certain exceptions. It also prohibits the unfair treatment of males and females and allows the provision of separate single-sex living facilities, locker rooms, bathrooms, domestic violence shelters and rape crisis centers based on biological sex.

House Bill 4233 prohibits the use of “non-binary” on birth certificates, requiring that a child’s sex at birth be listed as either male or female. The bill passed the House on Feb. 9 is on first reading in the state Senate Saturday.