Gov. Patrick Morrisey, the new Republican governor of West Virginia, used his first full day in office this week to issue a barrage of executive orders, including one eradicating diversity, equity and inclusion (DEI) initiatives from state-run institutions and another granting students exemptions from school vaccination programs on religious grounds.
Speaking at the State Capitol in Charleston on Tuesday, Governor Morrissey – who succeed Jim Justice in the role after serving as West Virginia’s attorney general for more than a decade – said of his assault on DEI that he was actually working to shield citizens from racial and gender discrimination, declaring that it was “inappropriate” for preferential treatment to be handed down to certain groups over others, whatever the intention.
