WV Senate Votes To Ban Local LGBTQ Rights Laws

The Wheeling News-Register reports:

The West Virginia Senate approved a bill that would rip out non-discrimination ordinances adopted by 20 cities across West Virginia protecting members of the LGBTQ community from being fired or evicted simply for their sexual orientation or gender identity.

SB 579, which was recommended for passage by the Senate Judiciary Committee last week, would amend State Code creating the Municipal Home Rule Program to make all municipal non-discrimination ordinances that recognize additional classes of persons not already listed for protection within the state Human Rights Act void and unenforceable.

“The purpose of Senate Bill 579 is to prohibit municipalities participating in the Home Rule program from establishing additional protected classes of persons beyond what is designated in state statute today,” said Senate Judiciary Committee Chairman Mike Stuart [photo], R-Kanawha.

OF NOTE: Stuart’s 2023 appearance here:

A bill that would have prohibited minors from getting married in West Virginia was defeated Wednesday night in a legislative committee. The Republican-dominated Senate Judiciary Committee rejected the bill on a 9-8 vote, a week after it passed the House of Delegates.

Some of the bill’s opponents have argued that teenage marriages are a part of life in West Virginia.

Kanawha County Republican Sen. Mike Stuart, a former federal prosecutor who sided with the majority, said his vote “wasn’t a vote against women.” He said his mother was married when she was 16, and “six months later, I came along. I’m the luckiest guy in the world.”

Last year Stuart ran for West Virginia Attorney General, losing the Republican primary by ten points. In 2016, he was West Virginia’s Trump campaign chairman.