West Virginia senators passed a bill that would define “man” and “woman.”

SB456 passed the Senate 32-1 with one absence. It now goes to the House of Delegates, which has been advancing its own version of the same policies.

The bill literally carries the short title “Defining Men and Women.” In it, “A ‘woman’ is an adult human of the female sex, and a ‘man’ is an adult human of the male sex.”

It also aims to define and preserve single-sex spaces, particularly in bathrooms and dormitories — and also domestic violence shelters.

After the Senate vote, the LGBTQ advocacy organization Fairness West Virginia said the bill is intrusive.

“Our state is facing so many challenges, and yet our lawmakers spend hours debating bills to police where a transgender woman can use the bathroom. Transgender people have already been using the correct bathrooms for years, bathrooms that align with their gender identity. And guess what? There is no evidence that this makes anyone unsafe.

“West Virginians are tired of the culture war, and we expect our lawmakers to fix the real problems facing our state. We don’t want our lawmakers to invent fake problems that don’t exist,” said Andrew Schneider, executive director of Fairness West Virginia.

The bill was introduced on behalf of Gov. Patrick Morrisey, a Republican who made an emphasis of it during his State of the State address. Morrisey called the legislation the “ Riley Gaines Act,” after the former collegiate swimmer who is now an influencer in politics surrounding transgender issues.

Transgender issues were a hot topic during the competitive West Virginia primary election that Morrisey won last year. Morrisey also spent significant attention during his tenure as attorney general on the issue of transgender athletes competing in sports.

Senator Joey Garcia, D-Marion, was the only one to vote against the bill. Garcia, in a floor speech, talked about the biblical story of the Good Samaritan , now commonly described as someone who acts selflessly to help others in need, often without expecting payment or reward.

Garcia said the policies in the bill would hurt some of his vulnerable neighbors, and he made reference to the most recent election cycle.

“What I have heard, especially this last year, in May and again in October, November, was I think one of the most disgusting campaigns where this issue of of biological sex divisiveness, just sort of attacking people, painting this picture of this monster in the room,” Garcia said.

“And that’s apparently the number one issue that we’ve seen in the state of West Virginia in our political campaigns. But what I’ve seen when people have approached me about this, about how they have felt singled out, attacked by pieces of legislation like this, just normal people — not the monster you might see, but people who are struggling.”

He concluded, “Those people are our neighbors, and I may not understand what they’re going through, but I’d like to think that we were called to have some compassion for them.”

Senator Rollan Roberts, senior pastor at Victory Baptist Church, cited a different passage from the Bible.

Roberts read from Genesis chapter 1, verse 27 : “So God created man in His own image, in the image of God He created him; male and female He created them.”

Roberts, R-Raleigh, continued by saying “stating the facts, as we see in the foundational book of the Bible, does not mean that there is a lack of love or compassion for anyone else on this earth. And I support the bill wholeheartedly.”