West Virginia has that lowest rate in the country of female lawmakers – of the 134-member legislature, only 16 are women. Thirty-two women are running for a seat in the Legislature, joining a handful of incumbents in the upcoming election.
The Legislature can feel like a boys’ club, and I imagine more women don’t run because they don’t want to deal with the misogynistic atmosphere.
The things some male lawmakers say in session or on their social media are despicable. Unfortunately, former President Donald Trump’s rise in popularity has encouraged people to say offensive things without fear of embarrassment or punishment.
On Oct. 12, state Sen. Robert Karnes, R-Randolph, posted on Karnes adding, “Aside from sore knees and a strong gag reflex, she is a model of health.”
This is sexist and racist, and he certainly wasn’t raised to believe that this type of comment was okay.
What does he say about other women in private when he says something so offensive publicly?
This is disgusting post was still energetic on Monday evening.
Karnes has also published numerous posts referring to Democratic vice presidential candidate Tim Walz as “Tampon Tim.” Conservatives started the Nickname because Minnesota’s governor signed a law last year requiring public schools to provide pads and tampons to students in grades 4-12. Menstrual products can be exorbitant, some people can be unprepared – why is that so bad? Periods should be talked about and understood – not treated as taboo or the subject of jokes.
Karnes lost in the May primary against Robbie Morris. Morris, of Randolph County, is executive director of the Randolph County Development Authority and the West Virginia Wood Technology Center. On the Morris for Senate Facebook page, he wished his two daughters a content National Daughters Day and praised his wife for her strenuous work at the forest festival – his tone was respectful towards women.
Unfortunately, many male legislators in West Virginia consistently show no respect for women.
During the regular session earlier this year Black women told the Senate Judiciary Committee their own stories of being discriminated against because of their hair to persuade lawmakers to pass the law Crown Actthat would prohibit racial discrimination based on certain hair textures and hairstyles.
The bill failed due to concerns about potential costs to the state – some thought it would lead to further litigation. So you seem to think that people are being discriminated against, but it’s not worth it cost to Senate Finance Chairman Sen. Eric Tarr, R-Putnam, who did not move the committee to accept the bill for consideration.
In 2022, Del. Brandon Steele, R-Raleigh, argued against it Exemptions for rape abortions as this would lead to more false rape allegations when women are pregnant “out of wedlock”.
First of all, we shouldn’t shame people for getting pregnant out of wedlock, especially when there is a lack of sex education in our schools. West Virginia received one C class for his general sex education policy. All schools must offer abstinence classes, but there is no requirement for informed consent and no regulation for medically correct sex education. Parents or legal guardians can also refuse to allow their children to take part in the course.
We’ve all heard stories of people who believe aged wives’ tales like Mountain Dew will make us infertile. (For the record: This is not the case.)
Second, according to the federal Bureau for Justice Statistics, more than 63% of rapes go unreported. Only about 2-10% of reported rapes turn out to be false, which is in line with most other violent crimes National Sexual Violence Resource Center.
Steele also said that rape could be a “brilliant, shining example of God’s love for the woman who gives birth to her.”
Giving birth is not an effortless task. From birth, healing can take six to eight weeks and may require an entire body up to a year to recover completely. Forcing someone to go through this is just another punishment on top of the trauma of rape.
Our lawmakers aren’t doing much to assist women either. There are more than 6,000 children in foster care in West Virginia. daycare centers were Close all year round because they are missing out on pandemic aid, there is uncertainty about government funding, there are staff shortages and much more. The country needs more than 20,000 childcare places.
If a family doesn’t have the money for child care or can’t find a free place, who is the stay-at-home parent? So, 79% of stay-at-home parents are mothers.
And what did West Virginia lawmakers do to assist with child care during this month’s special session? They passed a tax credit of about $227 a month for a working family, but not without first offending women.
Del. Henry Dillon, R-Wayne, worried the bill would embolden women to leave their homes and get jobs. But who cooks dinner and does the laundry when the women are at work? (Note: It will still be the women. Working women do more than twice as much housework as a worker.)
The other one child care bill, that would have provided $5 million to start a pilot program to open five fresh day care centers died in the House.
During the regular legislative session, Republican lawmakers tried to act as if they supported women with the Women’s Caucus Bill of Rightswhich was just an anti-trans bill that did nothing to assist cisgender women and attacked transgender women. It didn’t pass.
Republican male representatives also take Democrat Del. Targeting Kayla Young, the only mother of school-age children in the 100-member West Virginia House of Representatives.
Young, D-Kanawha, posted one TikTok She says she is the GOP’s No. 1 target. She says not only do they want her seat, but they want her gone because they say she’s “too smart” and they don’t like her making videos on TikTok explaining how the state government functions. Young has 34.2K followers on the app and uses the platform to explain current issues in the legislature and how processes work.
Keep in mind that the things I wrote about are just some of the things that are on the record. You don’t hear about the talks at the Capitol or… Text messages the wives receive from legislators who are inappropriate.
Light more than half of West Virginia residents are women. It might be in these lawmakers’ best interest to keep this in mind and log off of their social media, bite their tongue, or just grow up.
