West Virginia Gov. Patrick Morrisey gives his inaugural address following his swearing in at the state Capitol in Charleston, W.Va., on Monday, Jan. 13, 2025. (Chris Jackson for West Virginia Watch)
Gov. Patrick Morrisey used his inaugural speech to take a swing at transgender students.
It was amazing to hear actually. After going on for quite some time about being “committed to serving every single” West Virginian and how he wants to “restore our freedoms” he showed his true agenda.
“We’ll teach our kids civics and eliminate the woke virus from the schools,” Morrisey said. “And that means starting now no more DEI. No more radical agendas. No more brainwashing. No more confusion about the differences between boys and girls. Under my administration, West Virginia schools will be for learning, not social experiments.”
We shouldn’t be surprised. After all, as attorney general he filed lawsuits to keep a transgender child from running on her school track team.
Instead of fighting the fictional “woke virus,” Morrisey’s time could be better spent trying to keep our Legislature from loosening vaccination restrictions in schools, which could lead to the spread of actual viruses.
He followed those remarks with, “If there’s one thing I want you to remember from my remarks today, it’s this. We’re gonna get government out of your way.”
Unless you’re transgender. In that case, they’re going to try to pass more laws that interfere with you living your life and trying to get live-saving gender-affirming medications.
How can Morrisey promote a message of working with all West Virginians, and wanting to serve every single one of them, while scoffing at DEI efforts? Diversity, equity and inclusion programs are meant to eliminate discrimination in workplaces based on race. But Morrisey has apparently joined the critics who claim DEI is discriminatory against white Americans.
Morrisey also went after West Virginia’s “real” challenges — “the D.C. elites, the news media, Hollywood, they all look down on us.”
Say what now?
“They don’t think we can overcome our challenges,” he elaborated. “They don’t think we can succeed. They don’t want us to succeed. They stand in our way. I have a message for them. We’re gonna prove you wrong. We all know that our best days are ahead of us. No longer will we be content to watch other states pass us by. We’re gonna lead.”
I want West Virginia to succeed too. That’s why I do what I do — I want to inform West Virginians of what their elected officials are doing.
I am tired of my state being cited as having the highest overdose rate, the highest numbers of babies born with neonatal abstinence syndrome and the highest obesity rates in the U.S. I would love to see West Virginia go from being the least educated state in the country to having the highest graduation rate.
We can do that by focusing on education, specifically retaining teachers. Morrisey promised to pay West Virginia teachers competitively with those in neighboring states.
“We’ll cut through the bureaucracy that burdens our classrooms,” Morrisey said. “Our teachers will be able to spend more time teaching and less time tangled in red tape.”
I hope that means he won’t advocate for bills that want to plaster “In God We Trust” all over schools, force students to watch anti-abortion propaganda or jail school librarians for letting kids read children’s books. That would be fantastic. It also would be nice if they didn’t have to police girls’ bathrooms or sports teams.
The governor also promised to empower parents by expanding the Hope Scholarship, which is already the most broad school voucher program in the nation. Last school year, $22 million of Hope Scholarship funds went not only toward private school tuition, but for private music lessons, football, cheerleading, dance classes and other sports programs — things public school parents must pay for on their own, not with taxpayer money.
He promised that with the scholarship, families will be able to “meet their child’s unique needs, assuring every child has the chance to thrive. We will leave no one behind.”
Of course, those unique needs can not include special education. Private schools are not required to provide special education classes — but public schools must.
Morrisey said his mission for West Virginia is straightforward: “We will be the best place to live, work, and play in America.”
“And no matter where you’re from, Eastern Panhandle, the Northern Panhandle, right here in Charleston, southern coalfields or anywhere across our state, we are all on team West Virginia now. Today, I’m calling on all of us to put aside our differences and unite for the greater good. Every person here or every person watching, has a role to play in building the future that we in our entire state deserves. Together we’re gonna make West Virginia, a beacon of opportunity, of hope, and prosperity for all.”
That’s a nice sentiment, governor. But will you set aside your differences with the families of transgender kids — and the medical professionals who treat them and let them get the care they need and a chance to just be kids? Or how about the people who say using taxpayer money for private schools hurts our public schools? Or with those who see the value in bringing diversity and inclusion discussions to schools and workplaces? If you can set aside your differences on those issues, perhaps then you can focus on bringing us all together to work on West Virginia’s real needs.
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