News

Mayors Ask WV Senate to Take Up Anti-Discrimination Bill

By: Associated Press
Posted on: Tuesday, February 19, 2019

< < Back to

CHARLESTON, W.Va. (AP) – Twelve West Virginia mayors have signed a letter asking the state Senate to take up a bill aimed at protecting LGBTQ people from housing discrimination.

News outlets report the mayors signed the letter to Republican Senate President Mitch Carmichael calling on the leadership to take up Senate Bill 391, which would add sexual orientation and gender identity to the list of protected classes in the state’s nondiscrimination law.

Charleston, Huntington, Morgantown and the nine other cities and towns have passed ordinances that bar such discrimination.

Fairness West Virginia Executive Director Andrew Schneider says in a statement that the mayors represent a total combined population of about 199,000 residents, or about 11 percent of West Virginia’s population.

The bill will die if not taken up by the Judiciary Committee by Wednesday.