There are a lot of beautiful places in West Virginia. I used to catch my train into DC at Harpers Ferry, which marks the confluence of the Shenandoah and Potomac Rivers, which is the cover photo.

There’s a new national park (New River Gorge National Park):

There are dramatic views and rock climbing at Seneca Rocks:

I’ve been to a few of these places, and to others, and they are indeed beautiful places to visit.

But since WV has willingly turned itself into Dollar Store Gilead, you should not spend your tourism money here. There are plenty of beautiful places to visit in neighboring Maryland and Virginia.

Why shouldn’t you spend your tourism money here? Here’s the latest reason, brought to you by the hate group masquerading as the WV GOP:

SB 456 will, for the first time, define “men” and “women” in state code by tying the terms to a person’s sex; it does not recognize the existence of nonbinary people or those who do not identify as “male” or “female,” though it does require that accommodations be made for people who are intersex or who are born with similar conditions.

Through the definitions added to code, the bill bans transgender people from accessing bathrooms, locker rooms and other facilities that align with their gender identity. Those bans apply to all state-owned buildings, including public schools, higher education institutions, state corrections facilities and domestic violence shelters that receive state funding.

Oh, don’t worry, there’s more:

On Thursday, lawmakers in the House voted down an amendment from Del. Kayla Young, D-Kanawha, that would have stopped the proposed bill from allowing individuals to “inspect” someone’s genitals — adults or children — to prove their sex. 

The body did, via voice vote, approve an alternate amendment from Del. J.B. Akers, R-Kanawha, that will only allow a “treating health care provider” to “visually or physically examine a minor child” for the purpose of verifying their “biological sex” without the “consent of the child’s parent, guardian, or custodian.” There are no protections against such exams for adults.

Let’s stop for some facts. First, you’re probably wondering how many trans people there are in WV. Well there are approximately 700 trans kids here, and approximately 6100 trans adults. Yep. So this is a huge tempest in a teapot.

Second, this bill has no enforcement penalties. So in the end, the WV GOP was truthful about what this is all about—making trans people feel unwelcome and unsafe in public. And it also will put cis women who don’t fit gender stereotypes in danger at well:

A Black 19-year-old cisgender lesbian from Phoenix is demanding accountability after she was confronted by two male sheriff’s deputies in a Tucson Walmart women’s restroom last week.

Arizona resident Kalaya Morton, who describes herself as a stud, or masculine-presenting woman, says the deputies were called by a store employee who allegedly assumed she was a transgender woman.

In an exclusive interview with The Advocate, Morton detailed the humiliating and distressing encounter. She said that she had entered the restroom with her ex-girlfriend, who handed her a tampon, when two male deputies stormed in, shining flashlights into the stall and demanding she exit. Morton, still using the toilet, was stunned.

“They were flashing lights on our feet and saying, ‘You have to get out of here. You have to come out. We need to talk to you,’” Morton said. “I’m telling them, ‘I’m still using the restroom. I’m sitting down, I’m peeing. What is the issue?’”

When she finally exited the stall, she said she lifted her shirt to prove she was not a man, expecting the ordeal to end. Instead, she said one deputy continued to question her appearance, insisting she “looked like a man.” Morton started recording, later posting a 9-second clip to TikTok, where it has since been viewed more than 3.7 million times. “They came in here in the girls’ restroom because I’m a girl and they didn’t think I was a girl, so they tried to come take me away,” she says in the video.

And don’t worry, our useless governor is all hot to sign this bill. He said it was a priority during his first address to the WV legislature.

The WV GOP is a cowardly hate group. Don’t spend your money here this summer.

This seems right: