AUSTIN, Texas—A new law, erroneously titled the “Texas Women’s Privacy Act,” bans trans people from their preferred multiple occupancy spaces—restrooms, locker rooms, and changing rooms—when they’re in state-owned buildings. Trans people now must only enter facilities matching their gender assigned at birth.
The statute, which went into effect on Dec. 3, 2025, orders state agencies and political subdivisions to take “every reasonable step” to ensure that people only go to the restroom of their “biological sex.”
Fines of $25,000 for a first offense and $125,000 for each subsequent offense will be levied on any organization, agency, or building failing to enforce the segregation policy. The law encourages Texas citizens to call a snitch hotline and report any location not following the law.
Anybody hoping to find multiple occupancy gender neutral restrooms—i.e. restrooms with more than one stall—will be distraught to find that the law bans those, too, mandating that each multiple occupancy space be designated “for use only by individuals of one sex.” It requires signage indicating usage is only for “men” or “women.”
The anti-trans law applies to public universities, city and state properties, public schools, open enrollment charter schools, and state agencies. It does not apply to private businesses.
“Biological sex” is a term the anti-trans movement uses to dress up transphobic ideas about the objectivity and immutability of sex as being scientific, even though there are multiple characteristics that contribute to an individual’s sex.
The bill’s fixation on biological sex ignores the fact that some sex characteristics, like hormones and reproductive organs, can be modified by medical procedures. Other traits focused on include chromosomes and, in the case of the new Texas law, the production of certain gametes at any point in a person’s life. All of these things are invisible without specialized equipment and medical records.
The Texas Women’s Privacy Act avoids specifying how institutions will verify the gender of a restroom goer. Authorities may use anything from physical appearance to invasive inspections of body parts in investigating the genders of people looking for a place to answer nature’s call.
The law further enflames a political atmosphere in which transphobes already target any restroom user they suspect to be trans, even harassing cisgender restroom goers in the process. Making matters even more dystopian, Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton launched a tip line where users can report sightings of transpeople in their preferred restrooms, practically letting the state government spy on restrooms to kick trans people out.
The Texas government’s assault on restroom freedom follows a tidal wave of nationwide escalations in the MAGA movement’s assaults on queer people. Trans people’s access to their preferred family violence shelters and prison assignments are also affected by the Women’s Privacy Act. More broadly, the Texas Supreme Court has legalized judicial refusal of marrying same-sex couples, the state government has banned drag performances from college campuses, and the federal government is starting to remove Medicare and Medicaid funding from hospitals offering gender affirming hormones and surgeries.
Organizations like AFL-CIO, ACLU, and UAW have all condemned the far right’s attack on the LGBTQ community. In a note to local outlet The Texas Newsroom, ACLU confirmed it is considering a lawsuit. Texas ACLU policy and advocacy strategist Ash Hall described the privacy act as a “discriminatory bill.”
When it was signed into law in Aug. 22 last year, the advocacy group Trans Texas staged a sit-in at a women’s restroom in the Texas State Capitol building to protest.
The Texas Republican Party has been able to push through laws like the Women’s Privacy Act thanks to its solid majority control of the legislature, but the 2026 midterm elections may opportunities for a fight back. Multiple Republican state senators are dropping their seats to run for state attorney general, after incumbent Paxton announced he will run for a U.S. Senate seat against incumbent John Cornyn.
Election Day will provide voters a chance to let the GOP know they don’t like being spied on when they go to the restroom.
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