This story was originally published in Them.
Texas Governor Greg Abbott signed a sweeping trans bathroom ban with fines up to $125,000 into law on Monday.
Abbott shared a video of himself signing the bill in a September 22 X post, writing, “I sign a law banning men in women’s restrooms. It is a common sense public safety issue.”
Senate Bill 8 (SB 8), alternatively known as the “Texas Women’s Privacy Act,” goes into effect on December 4. The bill restricts bathrooms and changing rooms in government-owned buildings, schools, and prisons according to a person’s “biological sex” assigned at birth. SB 8 does not make exceptions for trans inmates housed in women’s jails or prisons and also prohibits trans women and other people assigned male at birth from accessing women’s domestic violence shelters, unless they’re a minor child of a woman receiving services. Law enforcement are exempt from the law, as well as custodians, maintenance workers, and those providing medical assistance. The Texas House previously passed SB 8 in an 86-45 vote on August 28.
The legislation fines institutions, not individuals. A last-minute amendment introduced by Texas Republican Rep. Steve Toth raised the fine to $25,000 upon first violation and $125,000 for any subsequent violations. According to Chron, during a Senate committee hearing for SB 8, its author — Republican Sen. Mayes Middleton — said that he saw Odessa, Texas’ bathroom ban as a blueprint for how local governments could implement the law. In 2024, Odessa passed a law allowing residents to sue trans people using bathrooms aligning with their gender identity for $10,000.
SB 8 essentially deputizes Texas citizens by allowing them to make complaints to the attorney general’s office if they believe government facilities are violating the law. As previous incidents — such as a Minnesota Buffalo Wild Wings worker allegedly demanding that a cisgender teenager “prove” her gender by showing her chest in an on-sight bathroom — have demonstrated, this kind of deputization can be ineffective
The law’s passage follows years of Texas Republicans trying and failing to implement a trans bathroom ban. Since 2017, the Texas Senate has approved six bathroom bills, none of which became law until now. With the passage of SB 8, Texas is set to become the 20th U.S. state to pass such a bathroom ban.
House debates for SB 8 took a dark turn on August 22, when far-right agitator Jack Finger — a representative of the anti-LGBTQ+ and anti-abortion group the San Antonio Family Association — threatened to assault trans women during his testimony. Finger told the Texas House of Representatives that he was previously “tempted” to intentionally injure someone in a public bathroom facility to “help [them] save money” on bottom surgery.
Chron reports that during his own House debate comments, Democratic Rep. Rafael Anchía warned that the bill, which he dubbed a “zombie proposal,” could negatively impact Texas’ international reputation in years to come.
“[Texas is] going to be hosting World Cup events, championship tournaments, and international events,” Anchía said. “This bill, apart from being perverse, sends a perverse signal to the rest of the world. A bathroom bill puts a target on visitors’ backs.”
In an August 28 statement, Ash Hall, a policy advocacy strategist on LGBTQ+ rights at the ACLU of Texas, called SB 8’s passage “unconscionable and unconstitutional.”
“Texans, including the transgender community, should be able to safely use public facilities that align with our gender identities as a basic matter of respect, safety, and privacy,” Hall said. “Instead, S.B. 8 will encourage ‘gender policing’ by bad actors who seek to harass or harm transgender people — or anyone who may not conform to stereotypical gender roles… This bill is bad for trans and intersex people, bad for cisgender people, bad for business, bad for public health and safety, and bad for Texas.”
