After years of failed attempts at passing and national controversy, Senate Bill 8, known as Texas’ most recent “bathroom bill,” went to Abbott’s desk Aug. 28 to get signed into law. The bill restricts which bathrooms people can use to the one aligning with their “biological sex” rather than their gender identity.
Lawmakers approved the bill, formally called the Texas Women’s Privacy Act, on a 86-45 vote after hours of heated debates. The bill restricts bathroom rights in government-owned buildings, public schools and universities based on sex assigned at birth and will not exempt transgender inmates’ housing in prisons. Single-occupancy and gender-neutral facilities are allowed under the bill, which also has exceptions for custodial staff, law enforcement, medical workers and children under 10 accompanied by an adult.
Supporters of the bill, including the bill’s House sponsor Rep. Angelia Orr, R-District 13, argue that the bill provides privacy and safety for women in intimate spaces. Opponents criticize the bill as encouraging harassment toward transgender and non-binary Texans and encouraging citizens to spread prejudice rather than the intended goal of safety. At UTD, many queer students oppose the measure; biology junior and PRIDE at UTD member Rory Taggart said the law doesn’t improve privacy like it purports to.
Opponents criticize the bill as encouraging harassment toward transgender and non-binary Texans and encouraging citizens to spread prejudice rather than the intended goal of safety.
“Framing it as a women’s rights safety issue ignores the fact that the people who are going to prey on women are going to do it regardless of whether or not there are bills passed about bathrooms,” Taggart said.
Students had been keeping up with the legislation that could harm the trans community since before the bill’s approval. Taggart said while there hasn’t been much discussion about it among other students and classmates on campus, those in the PRIDE at UTD Discord server have been following the legislation and expressing fear and discomfort over what’s to come. Students are afraid to use any public bathroom because of not knowing enough about the legislation nor knowing where their rights are, they said.
Taggart also said they wish both universities and student organizations could better support students during this time by clarifying what is and isn’t part of the bill and helping students find the gender-neutral bathrooms on campus. UTD freshman Stephanie Campbell said she also wished more was done to support LGBTQ+ students in the wake of so much hateful legislation.
“It hurts me greatly to think that a single human, let alone a group of people, could have so little empathy as to bar transgender people from using the bathroom corresponding to the gender they currently identify with,” Campbell said. “It especially stings knowing that people like me have fought so hard against this bill only for it to pass anyway.”
It hurts me greatly to think that a single human, let alone a group of people, could have so little empathy as to bar transgender people from using the bathroom corresponding to the gender they currently identify with.
— Stephanie Campbell, UTD student
The bill will not affect privately-owned businesses, and it does not directly penalize individuals for using a bathroom that does not align with their assigned sex. Public institutions that fail to comply will be fined $25,000 for the first offense and up to $125,000 for repeat violations, making it one of the most financially penalizing bathroom bills in the country.
This law will join the list of newly passed Texas laws that harm transgender residents. Just earlier this year, the Senate approved House Bill 229, which defines “male” and “female” for governmental information collection purposes. Lauren Gutterman, an American studies and LGBTQ+ studies professor at UT Austin, said the bill is designed to put trans women specifically at risk and bar trans women from accessing domestic violence services intended for women.
“It’s part of a history … about policing marginalized people’s access to public space,” Gutterman said. “The same arguments were once made about gay people in locker rooms, and before that, white people used fears around bathrooms to justify excluding Black people.”
The effort to restrict bathroom access in Texas began more than a decade ago with legislators proposing civil or criminal penalties for people using restrooms not matching their biological sex. A similar bill was attempted to be passed in 2017 but faced strong opposition. Since then, lawmakers have passed six bills on the subject, all of which have failed to become laws.
“Legislation like this doesn’t help people, it just harms them, and it just keeps us out of public spaces and from interacting with the community as a whole,” Taggart said.
Legislation like this doesn’t help people, it just harms them, and it just keeps us out of public spaces and from interacting with the community as a whole.
— Rory Taggart, biology junior and PRIDE at UTD member
The passage of SB 8 marks the most recent chapter in the long history of attempts to control access to public spaces based on “biological sex.”
“What [the bill] really does is invite ordinary people to police, to surveil people’s use of public bathrooms and to question or harass anyone who doesn’t match what they think a woman or a man should look like,” Gutterman said.