West Virginia has previously introduced legislation to stop the implementation of Critical Race Theory. Now, they are aiming to ban “DEI” bureaucracy along with the ills of requiring “diversity training”. HB 3505 bands “Offices of diversity, equity, and inclusion”:
“(A) Diversity, equity, and inclusion offices and officers often engage in differential attention to, treatment of, or provision of special benefits to individuals on the basis of race, color, or ethnicity, or of sex, thereby violating civil rights laws and putting their institutions at risk of losing federal funding; and
“(B) It is the policy of the state that the administrations of public institutions of higher education, and their administrative units, be officially neutral with regard to widely contested opinions in the state regarding unconscious or implicit bias, cultural appropriation, identity group allyship, transgender ideology, microaggressions, group marginalization, anti-racism, systemic oppression, social justice, intersectionality, neo-pronouns, heteronormativity, gender theory, racial or sexual privilege, critical race theory, and any related formulation of these concepts.”
It also stops the requirement of “diversity” statements:
“(2) No diversity statement shall ever be required or solicited as part of an admissions process, employment application process, hiring process, contract renewal process, or promotion process; or as a condition of participation in any administrative or decision-making function of any public institution of higher education.
“(3) No public institution of higher education shall give preferential consideration to an applicant, student, staff member, or faculty member due to any opinion expressed or action taken in support of another individual or a group of individuals on the basis of race, sex, color, ethnicity, gender identity, or sexual orientation.”
Requiring “diversity” training is also gone:
“(2) A public institution of higher education must not make diversity training mandatory.”
A little mood music:
The bill can be read here or below:
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