Lawmakers didn't act in time on a pair of bills (SB226, HB2045) meant to protect West Virginians from discrimination based on their sexual orientation. The session ends Saturday.

"For this year, it's obviously dead," said acting Senate President Jeff Kessler, D-Marshall, a sponsor of the Senate measure and a candidate in the special election for governor.

Committees in the House of Delegates and the Senate never took up the legislation.

The state's existing civil rights laws include characteristics such as race, religion and disability. These laws are supposed to prevent discrimination in the workplace, in obtaining housing and at public places such as restaurants and hotels.

Previous legislation to add sexual orientation to the law has cleared the Senate twice before -- in 2009 and 2008 -- but the House has never passed such proposals.

This year, the Senate didn't take action on the issue because "we didn't think the House would pass it," Kessler said.

House Speaker Rick Thompson, a Wayne County Democrat who is running for governor, did not return a request for comment.

Last month, Kessler and Delegate Barbara Fleischauer, D-Monongalia, appeared at a Capitol news conference with Sam Hall, a former coal miner who is gay. In a lawsuit filed against Massey Energy Co. in December, Hall alleged co-workers harassed him on the job because of his sexual orientation.

Fairness West Virginia President Stephen Skinner blamed the legislation's demise on what he calls a lack of leadership on the issue in the House.

"The Senate has passed it twice," said Skinner, whose group advocates for gays and lesbians. "I know they would pass it in an instant. We needed some real leadership in the House, and we didn't see it."

Kessler said he now plans to try to amend an anti-bullying bill (HB3225) to protect students from bullying based on their sexual orientation -- or perceived sexual orientation.

"That's probably one of the typical types of taunts that kids throw at that adolescent age," he said.

That bill passed the House last week and it is now pending in the Senate. It is meant to prevent cyber-bullying and bullying at bus stops and on school buses.

The Family Policy Council of West Virginia and the West Virginia Family Foundation oppose adding sexual orientation to civil rights and anti-bullying laws.

Delegate Meshea Poore, D-Kanawha, had sponsored another bill (HB2704) to toughen anti-bullying policies. It would have made school bullies undergo at least two months of counseling.

The House Education Committee never took up Poore's bill, which would have defined bullying as that based on sexual orientation, race, religion, disability and other characteristics.

Poore said she included those groups as "guidance, but it's not an exhaustive list." She said current anti-bullying policies are "very vague."

"There's certain school administrators and teachers that really don't understand what falls under bullying," she said.

Poore emphasized that her bill wasn't intended to only help gay children. She said all kinds of bullying have led to suicides, emotional problems and absenteeism.

"The intent was to help children," she said. "That is all we're trying to do, to put more teeth into the bullying [law]."

Reach Alison Knezevich at alis...@wvgazette.com or 304-348-1240.