Reporter Eric Eyre wrote in Wednesday morning's Charleston Gazette-Mail:

A Republican state senator is urging West Virginia lawmakers to take up a transgender “bathroom bill” as the No. 1 item on a special session agenda that places flood relief as the fourth — and last — measure on the same list.

Senator Robert Karnes (R - Upshur) claims that President Obama's executive order allowing for bathroom use according to gender identity is putting the state's children at risk. Along those same lines, Attorney General Morrisey has joined an 11-state lawsuit against the president's administrative order. Karnes hopes to get the legislation passed before the start of the new school year. (Note - Karnes claims that his suggestions are not ranked in any order although the Gazette-Mail notes that he used the same order in a previous letter.)

And in this morning's G-M, Daniel Desrochers reports that:

Republicans have doubled down on the bathroom issue, along with other so-called religious freedom bills, despite the backlash North Carolina and other states that have passed similar laws have faced.

The platform passed by delegates to the West Virginia Republican Party's convention earlier this summer stresses that marriage is between "one genetic man and one genetic woman," opposes policies that would give same-sex marriage equal footing with traditional marriage, opposes any policies that would "promote the homosexual agenda," affirmed support of the Religious Freedom Restoration Act and supported individuals using the locker room or bathroom corresponding to their genetic sex.

The article notes that the West Virginia Chamber of Commerce and Senate Majority Leader Mitch Carmichael worked to kill the bill in the last legislative session but that has not kept some Republicans from making a new push:

"I hope RFRA comes back," said Melody Potter, the national committeewoman for the West Virginia Republican Party. "Because RFRA was hijacked by the gay lobby and, unfortunately, some of our legislators were intimidated."

Note -- out for a couple of days - no posting until mid-week.