After years of failed attempts, the Texas Senate passed Senate Bill 8, placing restrictions on which bathrooms transgender individuals can use. With an 86-45 split, the House approved SB 8, which is headed to Gov. Greg Abbott for signing.
SB 8 will place bathroom restrictions in government buildings, schools and universities based on sex at birth, while also limiting which bathrooms inmates can use. Institutions that violate SB 8 would be fined $25,000, and then $125,000 for subsequent violations.
SB 8, or the “Texas Women’s Privacy Act,” was passed with the rationale of upholding the safety and comfort of women’s spaces. As SB 8 sponsor Sen. Mayes Middleton stated, “We will not allow men into women’s private spaces.”
In an interview with The Paisano, a 21-year-old female UT San Antonio student, who asked to remain anonymous, explained, “[The rationale] is an inaccurate argument,” and “nothing has ever stopped a man [from entering a women’s bathroom],” when questioned about their interpretation of the Senator’s intention for the bill.
While conservative Texan legislators place the concern of women’s safety at the heart of the bill, opponents of the bill argue that it has no clear implementation mechanism and bad intentions.
The President of the Human Rights Campaign, Kelley Robinson, explained in an article that “[SB 8] represents a dangerous government overreach and is impossible to enforce without exposing people to humiliating inspections and questioning.”
Critics worry that the bill would incite harassment against trans individuals and cause people who identify with their sex at birth to be questioned about their gender. As the UT San Antonio Student explained, “[SB 8] is just hate towards trans people under the guise of women’s safety.”
The “Texas Women’s Privacy Act” bill was passed in the Senate, and the House’s increase of penalties makes SB 8 one of the strictest bathroom bills in the nation.
