by Caity Coyne, West Virginia Watch
March 26, 2025
The West Virginia Senate passed a bill Wednesday that, if adopted as law, will ban all diversity, equity and inclusion practices and policies in state government and schools.
Senate Bill 474 passed the Senate 32-2, with Sens. Mike Woelfel, D-Cabell, and Joey Garcia, D-Marion, as the only no votes. The bill now advances to the House.
The bill to prohibit DEI is a policy priority for Gov. Patrick Morrisey and is the legislative side of an executive order he issued earlier this year meant to do the same. It’s reflective of a trend spearheaded by Republicans nationwide meant to undermine and end DEI in all its forms.
On the Senate floor Wednesday, lawmakers in support of the bill said diversity, equity and inclusion policies are harmful since they can prioritize services for certain groups of people — mostly marginalized groups — over others who have systemic privileges.
Sen. Patricia Rucker, R-Jefferson, said the bill is “about ending discrimination” by “not being influenced by someone’s race, power, sex, ethnicity or national origin.”
Sen. Scott Fuller, R-Wayne, said he was “thankful to God” that diversity, equity and inclusion policies are on the path of ending in West Virginia. He said such policies were not needed anymore.
“I don’t know where this came from, this idea that we are a racist country, that we don’t give equality to women or to different religions or whatever the case may be,” Fuller said. “Does [racism] exist? I’m sure it does. This is not a perfect world, we don’t live in a perfect society, but to the point that it’s a problem? I really don’t believe it.”
In West Virginia and across the United States, wide disparities continue to exist that mean some people — due to their race, gender and identity, among other traits — are more statistically likely to succeed than others.
Women nationwide earn on average 85 cents to every dollar earned by men for the same work, according to the Pew Research Center.
In West Virginia, the gender pay gap is even wider as women here who work full time earn about 74 cents to every dollar made by a man in the state, according to research at West Virginia University. That gap is even larger for Black women.
According to the Bureau for Labor Statistics, Black people nationwide earn just 76 cents for every dollar made by white people. That pay gap, per the report, starts as early as 16 years old for Black workers.
And despite Black West Virginians making up less than 4% of the state’s population, they account for more than 13% of those incarcerated in the state’s prisons and jails, according to the Prison Policy Institute. In general, Black individuals are more likely to get arrested than white people for the same crimes while being significantly less likely to be offered alternative sentences or punishments for those crimes.
In West Virginia’s schools, Black children are suspended twice as often as white children despite representing less than 5% of all students.
“I look at this as a day that we can actually end DEI because we don’t need it anymore,” Fuller said.
SB 474, as currently written, only applies to DEI policies and initiatives in state and local governments and schools, including institutions of higher education. In response to Morrisey’s executive order, colleges and universities in West Virginia have already begun to review and dismantle services previously offered to students of different races, genders, sexual identities and more.
As a whole, SB 474 will ban any state agency from running an office or division to promote diversity, equity or inclusion practices or from directing an employee to do the same. All current offices that do so are to be shut down.
It would also prohibit expressing any preferences for employment based on any metrics of diversity, equity or inclusion. No person hired can be required under the law to participate in diversity, equity and inclusion trainings and state agencies generally will not be allowed to run such trainings.
The bill would restrict how certain race- and gender-related topics are approached by teachers in schools, who will not be able to teach any lessons suggesting that someone’s race, ethnicity or sex makes them morally “superior” to someone else, among other things. The bill will also prevent teachers and school staff from being required to use a student’s preferred pronouns if those pronouns do not match the child’s sex.
Del. Tom Willis, R-Berkeley, said the bill being passed signifies “freedom from tyranny in the classroom.” The lawyer alleged that “woke teachers” are responsible for that “tyranny” and urged people to report such teachers and anyone else who doesn’t follow the bill — which still has a way to go before becoming state law — to a website he created Wednesday, http://reportwoketeachers.com.
Garcia, one of only two Democrats in the Senate, warned his colleagues about the potential consequences of ending diversity, equity and inclusion policies and initiatives, which he said are actually positive and known to help ensure everyone — no matter their background — is offered services and support to help them succeed.
“I do not think that racism is over. I do not think that sexism is a thing of the past,” Garcia said. “I think these are things that we constantly need to remind ourselves, and there is still work to do. I think this puts us a step back.”
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West Virginia Watch is part of States Newsroom, a nonprofit news network supported by grants and a coalition of donors as a 501c(3) public charity. West Virginia Watch maintains editorial independence. Contact Editor Leann Ray for questions: info@westvirginiawatch.com.
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