CHARLESTON, W.Va. — The House Judiciary Committee of the Republican-controlled West Virginia state House of Delegates 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 who is aligned with the MAGA movement and whose X profile photo shows him with meme-style red laser eyes under the inscription “GOD WINS.”
Chiarelli — whose background before entering politics in 2022 is as a substance addiction counselor — ran on an openly faith-focused platform and his political material features crosses and images of Jesus and the Virgin Mary.
Chiarelli posed for his official portrait with a lapel pin signaling membership in the New Columbia Movement, an theocratic Catholic fraternity, which 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.”
Chiarelli candidly admitted that his requirement that “offensive” materials “harmful to minors” should make up at least 33% of a website’s offerings to fall under his AV mandate, was a way to shield the Elon Musk-owned platform from being liable for hosting adult content.
Chiarelli told West Virginia’s WTRF that he intends that ration to “act as a buffer” for X because adult material is not “the intent of the website.”
“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 admitted.
West Virginians “would be able to file civil lawsuits against companies that violate the proposed law,” 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 moved forward.