(Reporter's Notebook by Steven Allen Adams - Photo Illustration - MetroCreativeConnection)

Last week, we had the first of Gov. Patrick Morrisey’s bills be signed into law. Senate Bill 456, the Riley Gaines Act that defines “male” and “female” in State Code, is now the law of the land.

We in the media are sometimes criticized by lawmakers for focusing on the social conservative bills over the other work that lawmakers are doing during the legislative session. And no doubt, some in the media do focus on bills with no chance of being taken up that are easy clickbait for people who wish to be outraged.

But it is very hard to say that the press are unfairly shining a spotlight on a bill, such as the Riley Gaines Act, when it is a bill Morrisey campaigned on, a bill he announced during his very first State of the State Address, a bill that was vetted by the Legislature and became one of the first five bills to complete the legislative process, and a bill that was sent to the Governor’s Office less than 24 hours later for a bill signing.

Not an economic development bill. Not a bill to address the state child welfare and foster care system. Not a bill to improve public education. A bill to make certain in state law that there are only two sexes and to preserve single-sex spaces, such as locker rooms.

Now sure, there are bills moving to do the things I list above and we in the media are writing about those bills. But in many cases, those bills haven’t even crossed over to the opposite legislative body yet. The Riley Gaines Act is complete.

I got annoyed with an interview that House Judiciary Committee Chairman JB Akers, R-Kanawha, did last week with my friend Dave Allen on the WCHS Network accusing media of focusing on the Riley Gaines Act for clickbait.

Akers had offered a poorly constructed amendment to the Riley Gaines Act on March 7 to only allow a treating health care provider to visually or physically examine a child for purposes of verifying the biological sex with parental consent. The amendment was meant to be a response to an failed amendment offered by Del. Kayla Young, D-Kanawha, that would have prohibited the inspection of genitalia of adults and children without parental consent.

Nevermind that the bill itself doesn’t contemplate someone inspecting someone’s privates to determine their sex. In fact, it states that sex is based on “being either male or female as observed or clinically verified at birth.” That would always be done by a birth certificate, not by looking down someone’s pants.

But Akers’ amendment resulted in outrage over the weekend and much criticism by the Democratic Party in the state. Apparently, behind-the-scenes his fellow Republicans were not happy with the amendment. Neither was the Governor’s Office. On Monday, the state Senate amended the bill to prohibit the examination of minors to determine biological sex and spell out that only the sex of the child determined at the time of birth can be used to verify the sex of a child. In other words: a birth certificate.

On The Dave Allen Show, Akers said it was never his attempt to open the door to allow inspections of children by health care providers to verify their sex. He said his amendment was meant to address specific circumstances, such as a child in the juvenile corrections system that required medical care and had no access to the child’s parents and/or guardians.

That might have been the intent, but that’s not what the clear wording of the Akers amendment stated. And since the House concurred Tuesday with the Senate’s effort to strip the Akers amendment out of the Riley Gaines Act, he has been blaming everyone — the Democratic House caucus, House “leadership,” and even the press — instead of just taking responsibility for an amendment that did the opposite of what he intended.

Trust me, the last thing I ever wanted to do is write last week about the issue of whether or not we were checking children to determine their sex as if we’re checking rabbits. But this was not a controversy generated by the press. It’s the natural focus of a media writing about the first big public policy win of the Morrisey administration. It would have been journalistic malpractice to ignore the controversy.

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I want to give a shoutout to David Beard at The Dominion Post, who is helping to monitor some of the bills that I’m unable to cover.

David is an experienced statehouse reporter whom I’ve known for 15 years. He was one of the first reporters to treat me kindly when I arrived in Charleston all those years ago to cover the session.

David no longer makes the trip to Charleston, but he still keeps any eye on what is going on here. Plus, he is way more knowledgeable than I when it comes to energy public policy. I greatly appreciate his expertise and work.

Steven Allen Adams can be reached at sadams@newsandsentinel.com