When Max Varney was growing up in Mingo County, he had it rough.
Assigned female at birth, Varney said he was always too masculine to fit in. But when he came out as a transgender person, identifying as a male, he was too feminine.
“I couldn’t win as a man and I couldn’t win as a woman,” he said. “I got really ostracized, but I thought it was just my small town.”
So when “The Women’s Bill of Rights” was up for a public hearing in the West Virginia House of Delegates Thursday morning, Varney and some buddies skipped a couple classes at Marshall, loaded up in their car and braved the I-64 construction zones to speak out against it. Varney said he had to come out, had to fight the same bigotry he faced growing up in the holler.
The “Women’s Bill of Rights” does not create any actual rights for women; instead, it puts definitions for male, female, man and woman in state code. The bill is part of an onslaught of culture war bills moving through the West Virginia Legislature this session — and it’s part of a nationwide push to pass similar legislation in other states by the Independent Women’s Forum, a conservative think-tank founded in the wake of the Clarence Thomas confirmation controversy.
At Thursday’s hearing, those voicing their opposition greatly outnumbered those in favor, each sticking to a similar refrain: this bill does not address real issues faced by West Virginia women like the wage gap, affordable child care, and taxes on tampons and diapers.
Instead, they argued, it’s just an attempt to “punch down” on transgender people.
Isabella Cortez of Fairness West Virginia likened the bill to handing someone a chocolate chip cookie, but when they bite into it, it’s actually full of raisins.
“Raisins baked under the flaming hot sun of transphobia,” Cortez said, calling the bill a Trojan horse. “This so-called’ bill of rights’ is not about protecting women. It’s about codifying your transphobia into state law.”
For transgender people in West Virginia, the measure is just another hurdle in a state that does not recognize sexual orientation or gender identity as a protected class. Gay, trans, lesbian, bisexual and queer people can legally be fired or evicted based on their identity because they’re not covered under the state’s Human Rights Act.
Other speakers noted the willingness of lawmakers to strip abortion rights soon after Roe v. Wade was overturned in 2022. Mollie Kennedy, of the WV ACLU said members of the Legislature really don’t care about women at all.
“You strip our rights, you cut our benefits, you refuse to pass anything that might provide affordable child care, or close the pay gap or create an ounce of equity,” she said. “Even in this bill of rights, you’ve written that ‘equal does not mean same or identical with respect to equality of the sexes.’ You read the Bible and shame queer and trans folks every chance you get. You oust your colleagues when they get caught being disgusting to women, but the only difference between them and you is exactly that: they got caught.”
Though the speakers were predominantly against the bill, there were some who spoke in favor. Many argued the measure will protect women from alleged predators entering bathrooms and locker rooms, because it allows places to define “men” and “women” based purely on biological sex and maintain single-sex environments. Shanna Thompson, who said her daughter had to change in a locker room with someone who was not biologically female, asked lawmakers to pass the bill.
“It protects women of all ages and children of both sexes. It leaves no ambiguity about the definition of a woman and no room for reinterpretation later,” she told lawmakers. “Your courage to push back against these overreaching agendas and protect the sovereignty of our state is commendable.”
The hearing got a bit raucous when Rose Winland of the WV ACLU, spoke against the bill and recited the word “pussy” into the House record 11 times, breaking the previous record set earlier this session by two. A Capitol Police Officer walked down the aisle towards Winland, but did not remove her from the hearing.
Later on the hearing, Winland began coughing loudly to cut a speaker off.
Del. Tom Fast, R-Fayette, the chair of House Judiciary, admonished her.
“The lady will refrain from fake coughing,” he said.
“The light has been on for quite a while,” she replied, referring to the small red bulb that indicates when a speaker’s time is up.
“And I was getting ready to tell him ‘thank you,’” Fast said.
But politics and grandstanding aside, for Aaryn Bonyak, the bill is personal. It’s not soundbites, it’s not votes, it’s not an agenda. Bonyak, who rode up with Varney, is transgender and grew up in Huntington. He said he was at the Capitol Thursday morning because he doesn’t want to be erased.
“I’ve been told most of my life that I couldn’t be a man. I remember when the pieces clicked for me and I knew who I was, I didn’t want to accept it. I thought I was made in God’s image and being trans meant I was throwing that image away,” he said. “But now, I know God wants me to connect with people.”
The bill is scheduled to be up for second reading, the amendment stage, in the House on Friday.