The WV Senate is expected to take up SB 238 on Friday, legislation that would end housing and employment discrimination based on sexual orientation. Take a few minutes to call your Senator today

Click here to find your Senator's phone number.

Once you call, send us an email at info@fairnesswv.org and let us know how it went!

Today, Fairness WV board member Stephen Skinner was featured on West Virginia Public Radio talking about the launch.

Listen to the story below:

According to Skinner:

“The rate that we are gathering supporters is unbelievable,” said Stephen Skinner, a lawyer from the state’s Eastern Panhandle. “And they’re from all over West Virginia and I don’t know whether they are gay or lesbian or straight or the parents or the brother or the sister, but they’re there. And they’re ready to be heard this year,” he said.

Click here to read the story.

We have to stories to share today from WVU and Marshall.

First up, a story in the WVU's Daily Athenaeum:

The group’s top priority is to enable all peoples, regardless of their sexual orientation, security at his or her job.

With current West Virginia law, people can be fired from their job based on their real or perceived orientation.

“This has a huge impact on gays and lesbians,” Turman said. “They live in fear of being fired or being out, and it has a tremendous psychological impact because they always have to be guarded about their lives.”

Turman added that this law is important not only to those unfairly discriminated against but also for those who fear being outed.

At Marshall, sophomore Josh Linton makes a strong case for for gay rights in the Mountain State and across the nation:

This isn't about freedom of speech being stifled, it is about humanity. We live in a world where maturity is expected and yet infantile minds stained with selfishness still tend to think that the world must cater to them. Well, it is time that our nation grows up and realizes that punishing people for being themselves is not acceptable.

By allowing fear to dissipate and acceptance to propagate, our nation will also grow. Let us not let Matthew and so many others die in vain. Let's allow equality not to be tethered any longer by the shackles of a violent stigma, and let us allow equality to rein over those who have lived so long in a drought of discrimination.