WV House Judiciary passes bill banning DEI which now heads to full House for consideration

by Caity Coyne, West Virginia Watch
April 8, 2025

The West Virginia House Judiciary Committee on Tuesday advanced a bill to prohibit nearly all diversity, equity and inclusion initiatives in the state, bringing a policy priority for Gov. Patrick Morrisey closer to the finish line before the session is set to end on Saturday night.

Senate Bill 474 — which passed the state Senate on March 26 and was advanced by the House Committee on Education last week — bans the offering of specific services or opportunities to people based on their race, color, ethnicity, country of origin and, in some instances, sex.

The bill, 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.

In Tuesday’s House Judiciary meeting, lawmakers voted down an amendment from the House Education committee that added “sex” in multiple places throughout the proposed code where the other identifiers (race, ethnicity, etc.) were already listed. Without that amendment, the bill does allow for certain services and “special benefits” to be offered to people based on their sex.

The bill also explicitly allows colleges applying for grants to issue statements in those applications that “highlight the institution’s work in supporting” first-generation college students, low-income students and “underserved” student populations. None of those terms are defined in the proposed code section. 

Diversity, equity and inclusion initiatives are often offered to ensure all people — no matter their background or systemic factors that are known to exist and are proven to oppress them — are granted the same opportunities as other, often more privileged people.

The bill to prohibit DEI is a policy priority for 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. 

During discussion in committee on Tuesday, Del. Bill Flanigan, R-Ohio, joined Democratic Dels. Shawn Fluharty, D-Ohio, and Evan Hansen, D-Monongalia, in speaking against the passage of the bill. 

Flanigan said he thought SB 474 was “horrible” and worried that its mandate for teachers and professors to instruct contentious issues — like systemic racism, sexism and more — in a “neutral” and “colorblind” manner would do more harm than good.

People, often unconsciously, are operating under implicit biases that can hurt others who are afforded less privilege than them, Flanigan said. That behavior, he continued, leads to real harm and holds down  individuals by not allowing them to benefit from the same systems and opportunities others can.

“What we do to people without realizing it hurts and can harm. To say that we are ‘colorblind’ I think is incorrect; It’s not a proper way to be. You have to look at people’s color — it’s there. I think what we’re trying to do as a state is to say that we don’t need to accept these types of things, but it does happen. It’s there,” Flanigan said. “We can’t just randomly say we’re going to eliminate diversity, equity and inclusion because somebody somewhere said, ‘Oh shoot, man, white people are losing right now.’  

“I know some of you are having a hard time even looking me in the eyes right now,” Flanigan continued. “… I don’t like this type of idea. It’s not bringing us forward in the country. I really think it’s holding us up.”

None of the individuals who voted in support for SB 474 in the committee spoke in favor of the bill before it passed via voice vote on Tuesday.

SB 474, if made law, 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 training and state agencies generally will not be allowed to run such training.

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.

The bill now advances to the full House for consideration and passage.

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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.