Fairness West Virginia

Fairness has lobbied the West Virginia Legislature over the last decade on many LGBT related bills with a record of mixed success. In 2021, Fairness unsuccessfully lobbied to prevent the Legislature from passing House Bill 3292, which bans transgender athletes from competing in sports that match their gender identity.^[13] Fairness lobbied against the bill alongside other civil rights organizations, including WV FREE, Planned Parenthood South Atlantic, WV NOW, Women's March West Virginia, and the ACLU of West Virginia.^[13] Despite the lobbying, the bill passed the WV House overwhelmingly,^[14] and was narrowly approved in the WV Senate before being signed into law by Gov. Jim Justice.^[15]

Fairness has also struggled to pass the Fairness Act or Employment Non-Discrimination Act, which would add sexual orientation and gender identity to the state's housing and employment non-discrimination statutes. In 2020, Senate Bill 270—creating the Fairness Act — was introduced with bipartisan co-sponsors, including Senate Majority Leader Tom Takubo, R-Kanawha, Senate Majority Whip Ryan Weld, R-Brooke; Senate Minority Leader Stephen Baldwin, D-Greenbrier, and Senate Minority Whip Michael Woelfel, D-Cabell.^[16][17] However, then-Senate President Mitch Carmichael vowed the bill would not pass the Senate.^[16][17] The move was seen as an about-face, given that Carmichael had participated in a panel discussion hosted by Fairness just one month earlier presenting the bill.^[16]

A version of the Fairness Act has been introduced in the Legislature every year since at least 1993 and passed the then Democratic-controlled Senate in 2008 before being blocked in the then-Democratic controlled House of Delegates.^[16] Despite lobbying efforts, as recently as 2014, West Virginia was the only state where Democrats controlled both houses of the Legislature and the executive branch to fail to pass a law prohibiting employment discrimination on the basis of sexual orientation.^[18] The other 28 states had legislatures either partially or completely controlled by Republicans.^[18] Republicans took control of both chambers of the WV Legislature in 2015.

Fairness has also unsuccessfully lobbied West Virginia's congressional delegation to support federal legislation to extend protections in housing, employment and public accommodations to LGBT people.^[19] West Virginia's lone statewide elected Democrat, Senator Joe Manchin, was the only Democratic U.S. Senator not to sign on to the Equality Act in 2019.^[19][20] Republican Senator Shelley Moore Capito and WV's U.S. House delegation have also not signed on as cosponsors.^[19]

In 2015, Fairness successfully lobbied the Legislature to pass a bill making it easier for transgender people to change the gender marker on their driver's license.^[21]

Fairness WV has been led by Executive Director Andrew Schneider since 2014. Prior to joining Fairness, Schneider served as the Executive Director of the ACLU of Connecticut and ACLU of West Virginia.^[22]

The organization is also led by a Board, including Huntington Fire Chief Jan Rader, who was named to Time's 2018 100 Most Influential People List, former Kanawha County state senator Chris Walters, Chair of Beckley's Human Rights Commission Danielle Stewart, Eastern Panhandle Pride President Joseph Merceruio, and St. Thomas Episcopal Church Rev. Betsy Walker.^[22]