CHARELSTON, W.Va. – The West Virginia Senate passed Senate Bill 474 today, if made into law it would prohibit any state department, division, agency or board from establishing or maintaining “an office or division or other unit by any name whose purpose, in whole or in part, is the promotion of diversity, equity, and inclusion.”
DEI is partly defined as the promotion of “policies or procedures designed or implemented in reference to race, color, ethnicity, or national origin.”
The bill, introduced in behalf of Governor Patrick Morrisey, says state bodies would be barred from hiring any employees who promote DEI, give any “preferential consideration” to people based on the provision of DEI or require employees to attend DEI trainings.
The bill also includes the “Equal Treatment in Primary and Secondary Education Act of 2025” which would not allow “affirmations” of certain instructions including, among many list items, the idea that “meritocracy” was “racist or sexist or were created by members of a particular race, ethnic group, or sex to oppress members of another race, ethnic group, or sex.”
The legislation offers a list of concepts to be banned including “Unconscious or implicit bias, cultural appropriation, microaggressions, systemic oppression, structural racism, structural inequity and racial privilege.”
The act also says that teachers will not be required to use any student’s preferred pronouns and school boards cannot make it policy to respect preferred pronouns.
The bill also addresses higher education, offering some exclusions to the ending of DEI practices. If made law the bill would still allow places of higher education to “highlight” their work in supporting first generation college students, low-income students and underserved student populations.
You can read the full bill here.
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