CHARLESTON, W.Va. — The House Judiciary Committee of the Republican-controlled West Virginia state House of Delegates has passed, with little discussion, the state’s copycat version of the age verification legislation being sponsored around the country by anti-porn religious conservative activists.
The West Virginia bill, HB 4867, was introduced by freshman Delegate Geno Chiarelli, a hard-right 29-year-old conservative Catholic aligned with the MAGA movement, whose X profile photo shows him with meme-style red laser eyes under the slogan “GOD WINS.”
Chiarelli, who was a substance addiction counselor before entering politics in 2022, emphasized faith in her election campaign, with materials featuring crosses and images of Jesus and the Virgin Mary.
Chiarelli posed for his official government portrait with a lapel pin signaling membership in the New Columbia Movement, a theocratic Catholic fraternity that believes that “Postmodern society is rife with assorted degeneracies that not only threaten the stability of the nation and the wellbeing of the people, but they offend God,” and that “homosexuality, sexual ‘liberation,’ pornography and widespread drug use are severe threats that must be dealt with if we are to even begin to rein in our collapsing civilization.”
For a website to fall under the AV mandate, “offensive” materials “harmful to minors” would have to make up at least 33% of its offerings. Chiarelli told West Virginia’s WTRF that this provision is intended to “act as a buffer,” shielding social media sites like X from being liable for hosting adult content, as that is not “the intent” of such sites.
“That protects us from having to go after, you know, requiring social media companies to require the same type of verification that you would of Pornhub or something like that,” Chiarelli explained.
Should the bill become law, West Virginians would be able to sue companies that violate it, WTRF reported.
A year ago, Chiarelli introduced another bill, HB 2919, which he called the “Sexually Oriented Businesses Regulation Act.” The bill aimed to ban all adult businesses in West Virginia, including those that sell adult content, “instruments, devices or paraphernalia,” and also “adult cabaret, or clubs, nightclubs, restaurants or other businesses that show performers nude or seminude, and adult arcade businesses.”
HB 2919 was returned to the Judiciary committee by the House and failed to move forward.
