West Virginia Court Debates Whether An Anti-Gay Hate Crime Is “Really” A Hate Crime

Justices are currently discussing whether or not LGBT people should be protected by the state's civil rights code
From: NewNowNext

 The question of whether or not a West Virginia man who committed an anti-LGBT hate crime technically committed said crime is currently up for debate in the state’s Supreme Court.

In April 2015, Zackary Johnson and Casey Williams kissed while walking down a street in Huntington, West Virginia. A man in a passing car saw them and began shouting homophobic slurs at them. When they didn’t respond, he exited the vehicle and proceeded to beat them up.

One of the victims recorded the attack on his phone, which allowed police to quickly identify and arrest Steward Butler as the assailant.

A grand jury later indicted Butler for battery and a hate crime, even though West Virginia doesn’t mention sexual orientation in its civil rights code. To ensure that the attack was defined as such, the prosecution argued that discrimination on the basis of sexual orientation is a form of sex discrimination, which is protected under current state law.

The defendant appealed the grand jury’s decision and the matter moved on to the state’s supreme court.

Cabell County Assistant Prosecutor Lauren Plymale argued in favor of the hate crime distinction in front of the court.

“It is impossible to discriminate on the basis of sexual orientation without discriminating on the basis of sex,” Plymale explained.

She argued that Butler was relying on sex stereotypes to justify his discrimination, namely that men should only kiss women and vice versa. Plymale reasoned that if either man had been a woman, Butler wouldn’t have attacked them, proving that his discriminatory act was based on the sex of the victims.

In turn, Cabell County Defense Attorney Ray Nolan and Solicitor General Elbert Lin disagreed with Plymale, arguing that the state Legislature had a clear avoidance to adding sexual orientation.

“The opportunity to amend the statute has been available for 30 years now,” Nolan said, according to The State Journal. “There have been 20-some opportunities for attempted amendment of the statute, all including sexual orientation, none of which have been incorporated.”

Plymale countered this assertion by saying that defining sex to include sexual orientation “is not a novel construction of the statute” and that any “person of ordinary intelligence” would know that attacking someone based on that bias would be prohibited.

Justice Robin Davis called Nolan’s defense a “compelling argument,” adding that the state’s civil rights code is clear on the matter of what constitutes a hate crime. She then accused Plymale of asking the court to “legislate from the bench,” a claim the prosecutor rejected.

Until the justices rule on the matter, Butler will remain released on bond. For his two misdemeanor battery charges, he faces up to 12 months in prison and upwards of $500 in fines.

Anti-LGBT Robocall Attacks West Virginia’s First Openly Gay Lawmaker

From: Towleroad

 A robocall has been released targeting openly gay West Virginia state Senator Stephen Skinner (D).

The call regurgitates the dangerous and false myth about transgender rights bills enabling predatory behavior in girls’ bathrooms and locker rooms.

The robocall seems to have been funded by Family Policy Council of West Virginia. In it, an allegedly 12-year-old girl accuses Skinner of putting “gay activism” ahead of the safety of young girls.

The robocall goes like this:

“Hi, my name’s Courtney and a man came into our changing room last night while I was getting dressed after swim practice. So the Family Policy Council of West Virginia paid so I could tell you why that scared me. I’m only 12. I’m not old enough to see a naked man. I know what a girl is, and it’s not that. My coach said Stephen Skinner pushed the city councils to let men into our showers. She says it’s because Mr. Skinner only cares about gay activism and not common-sense safety for girls. I’m not old enough to vote yet and no candidate or any candidate’s committee authorized me to call but please vote against Stephen Skinner. I want to feel safe.”

The call ends with the girl imploring voters to cast their ballots for Skinner’s Republican opponent, Patricia Rucker (right). “Patricia Rucker has a daughter. She understands. Vote for her.”

Skinner became the first openly gay lawmaker in West Virginia when he was elected to the state senate in 2012.

The Victory Fund writes of his record,

Stephen is the founder of Fairness West Virginia, a statewide LGBT advocacy group. In 2012, Stephen became the first-ever LGBT legislator in West Virginia when he was elected to the 67th District of the House of Delegates, and was re-elected in 2014. Since being elected to office, Stephen has championed LGBT rights in West Virginia and has become a leader within the Democratic Party, raising money and recruiting candidates. Stephen attended Victory’s Candidate & Campaign Training in 2005, and has been instrumental in directing potential West Virginia LGBT candidates to Victory Fund trainings ever since.

You can donate to Skinner’s campaign, here.

Listen to the robocall, below.

11 States Sue Obama Administration Over Transgender Bathroom Policy

“By forcing through his policies by executive action, President Obama excluded the voice of the people. We stand today to ensure those voices are heard.”

From: NewNowNext

Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton warned that he’d be filing a lawsuit against the federal government on Wednesday over the Obama administration’s recent directive on transgender students, and now 10 other states have joined him in the challenge.

The lawsuit stems from a federal directive sent to schools earlier this month to allow trans students to use the bathrooms and locker rooms that match their gender identity, and includes Oklahoma, Alabama, Wisconsin, West Virginia, Tennessee, Louisiana, Utah and Georgia, plus the Arizona Department of Education and the governor of Maine.

The states accuse the Obama administration of having “conspired to turn workplaces and educational settings across the country into laboratories for a massive social experiment, flouting the democratic process and running roughshod over common sense policies protecting children and basic privacy rights.”

Conservatives have been in an uproar ever since the government said that schools have an obligation “to provide transgender students equal access to educational programs and activities even in circumstances in which other students, parents or community members raise objections or concerns,” and that “the desire to accommodate others’ discomfort cannot justify a policy that singles out and disadvantages a particular class of students.”

The lawsuit is just part of the country’s escalating war over transgender rights, with the Justice Department and North Carolina having just sued each other over the state law that restrains public restroom access for transgender people.

In a statement explaining their disdain over the federal government’s interference, Attorney General Paxton said, “This represents just the latest example of the current administration’s attempts to accomplish by executive fiat what they couldn’t accomplish through the democratic process in Congress.”

“By forcing through his policies by executive action, President Obama excluded the voice of the people,” he added. “We stand today to ensure those voices are heard.”